If you’re thinking of selling a residential property in Scotland, whether it’s your home or a rental property the starting point for most people is to get an indication of what the property is likely to sell for.
Most people will opt to invite a local expert solicitor estate agent to visit their property and provide them with a ‘valuation’ or ‘pre-sale appraisal’. Larger firms will have a team of professional ‘Valuers’ or ‘Surveyors’ who will carry-out the required research and visit your property to perform the valuation.
If you’ve ever wondered what happens during the valuation appointment and how to prepare for a professional valuation, here is your guide.
It is possible to invite a chartered surveyor to carry-out a more detailed valuation of your property. However, if your intention is only to find out the market value of your house rather than get a full report including the condition of the guttering and downpipes, you can save yourself a few hundreds of pounds.
So, what is a ‘valuation’ appointment? The valuation involves a Valuer visiting your property, getting an accurate impression of the condition, layout and any unique features of your property, and then providing you with a researched estimate of how much your property is likely to sell for in the current market conditions.
Some estate agents will offer you the option of a ‘desktop’ valuation. They will not visit the property and, based on your description, they will email you an estimate of the property’s expected market value. However, this estimate will not be as accurate as if a Valuer has visited your property in person.
A valuation of your property by a Valuer who has physically visited your property is the most accurate option and involves one of MOV8’s Valuers coming to your home and having a walk round resulting in a much truer figure for the ultimate selling price.
If you want to get the most from your valuation appointment, a little bit of preparation will be helpful. A spring clean can make a world of difference and will allow the Valuer to see the full extent of the property without any distractions. Don’t forget the exterior either: this is often overlooked and you only get one chance to make a good first impression! If you have any questions about the selling process, the costs of selling or if you have any questions about buying your next property, make a wee note of these and your Valuer should be able to help with this at the valuation appointment or go away and find out for you.
During the walk around it is worthwhile to let the valuer know of any improvements and alterations that you have made to the property since you bought it.
The valuation is usually calculated by reference to similar properties that have sold or that are available for sale in a similar geographic area. For slightly more unusual or remote properties, different techniques are used. The valuer will take into consideration local property market conditions, the selling history of the area, local amenities and will take a look at what other similar properties might be on the market at that time.
The valuation appointment will usually take just less than an hour, although it can be considerably faster if required.
Sellers will typically get valuations or pre-sale appraisals from more than one local expert estate agent. It can be tempting to go with the highest valuation. However, it is important to beware of agents who are competing for business purely based on providing the highest valuation. Sellers should make sure that the valuation provided is fully backed-up by research and comparable sales data.
It is important to note that, in Scotland, the Home Report will have a significant impact on the selling price of the property. Most buyers will want to use the Home Report for the purposes of their mortgage valuation and their borrowing will be based on the Home Report valuation and not the asking price or eventual purchase price. Because the Home Report costs money, it is typically produced after the estate agent’s valuation and after sellers have selected their estate agent. It is therefore worth discussing the Home Report process with the Valuer and getting an estimate of what the Valuer believes the Home Report valuation will be.
After the valuation appointments, most sellers will then instruct one of the companies that provided a valuation to market their property for sale and to act as their solicitor estate agent throughout the sale. How to go about that is a topic for another article!
We’re Here to Help
If you are thinking of selling your home or investment property, get in touch with us by calling 0345 646 0208 (Option 1) or by emailing [email protected] to organise a free valuation of your home or to get a full, transparent breakdown of the costs of selling your home.
You can also instantly book a free valuation appointment online by following this link.
If you are looking to buy a property as a home or investment, please call 0345 646 0208 (Option 2) or email [email protected] and we will be happy to help.
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