The UK property market has slowed down recently and people are finding it tougher to sell their homes. Also the summer period is always a tougher time for property sales so you need to do everything that you can to stack the deck in your favour.
The independent UK estate agent, Andrews, has published new figures that indicate having your property valued correctly will provide you with a major advantage when it comes to selling.
Why an Accurate Valuation of your Property is so important
If you value your property too high then you will face the likelihood of potential buyers dismissing it altogether as a possible purchase, which will mean that you will have to reduce the asking price.
When you drop the price you are likely to receive offers for far less than what you actually wanted and some sellers will take an offer like this out of desperation. This is not a good place to be in and you will be in a much stronger position if your asking price is close to the accurate valuation.
Andrews took a close look at property sales data from January 2018 to June 2018. They discovered a distinct pattern that 70% of the property sales made in this period were close to the asking price and in some cases exceeded it a little.
From this data Andrews concludes that the most accurate valuation of a property is crucial. If the asking price is not realistic then properties will be on the market too long and the owners will be forced into a position where they have to drastically reduce their asking price to see any movement.
The chief executive of the Andrews Group, David Westgate, stated that there had been many reports where sellers had to reduce their asking price, and most of these cases were due to an inaccurate valuation made in the first place. Westgate’s view was that if owners price their properties accurately they will sell a lot faster.
Accurate Valuations lead to faster sales
The Andrews research supports the view that accurate valuations lead to faster sales. In the six months of property sales data that they scrutinized they found that accurately priced properties were on the market for an average of 49 days which is a lot better than the average for the UK property market which is 96 days.
The data also revealed a linear pattern which showed that the difference in pricing has a link with the amount of time it takes to secure a sale. If the difference between the asking price is small (less than or equal to 5%) then the average sale time was 69 days. Properties with an up to 10% difference stayed on the market an average 49 days longer.
What can you Learn from this?
Unfortunately there are a number of estate agents that will value a property higher than it should be so that they can secure a listing. When this happens the seller has unrealistic expectations about how much their property will sell for.
It is better to go to a number of different agents and get comparative valuations. If your property is valued too high the chances are that it will stay on the market too long and you will end up selling it for much less than you wanted, or taking it off the market all together.
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