How to value your own home

Every home is different, but usually taking down a customers property details upfront, and doing our own backend research in terms of what has already sold and what is already on the market can give us (as agents) a good indication of how much a house is worth.

However, in some circumstances, when your property is really bespoke or off the beaten track in a more rural area, it can be challenging even for the experts. Then, a test and measure approach to the market is best.

1. Look at the Property Portals

The first place you should be looking is the property portals, my favourite is Rightmove because I am used to it. Put your postcode into the search bar as if you are looking for a property for sale and start your search. Search within a ¼ mile radius, enter your bedroom numbers and make sure you click Under Offer, SSTC so you can also see what has been sold.

2. Third Eye View

This is hard to do but imagine that you do not own your home and you are just looking at your property from a very impartial standpoint. You have Rightmove open and browse the properties that are in a similar criterion to your property. For example, if your property is Semi Detached, then you need to look at the Semi Detached and End of Terraced houses to obtain an accurate view, if your property is a 2-bedroom flat with parking, then you need to try to see the same or similar. Do not get emotional here and assume your property is better than the others, try to keep it impartial and see where your property fits and gauge its price within a £50,000 bracket.

3. Sold Subject to Contract and Under Offer

It is very well worth checking these properties out, provided they are within the last 6 months. The reason for this is that the market could have changed within 6 months. The economy could have gone from good to bad and vice versa, so it is important to take a pragmatic approach here. Are there properties like your property that have been sold, this should give you a good indication of what your home is worth because any buyers looking at these properties will be looking at a similar value to yours.

4. But there is nothing like my home

If there are no comparables, that is fine. Try going further out such as ½ of a mile. Imagine yourself in a buyer’s shoes, within the town that I live in – what would a buyer be looking for? Am I close to the station? Is my property of a certain style or similar style to others in the area? Is it a certain road that is close to schools? You can still scroll up and down the Rightmove listings and gauge to yourself how much a potential buyer could pay for your home.

5. Sold Prices

There is a tab on Rightmove called ‘House Prices’ with another few tabs underneath which can give you a wealth of information such as ‘market trends’ and ‘comparison reports’ giving you what is currently listed on the open market, what is no longer on the market and what has already sold dictated by your number of bedrooms. Again, a good tool to use to value your own home.

Sold House Prices | See UK House Prices Online | Rightmove

6. Use Zoopla with Care

I know that I am coming across anti-Zoopla and Pro-Rightmove but trust me I am not. But the most annoying thing that a lot of our owners have done in the past when we come to value homes is they produce a Zoopla Price Report to value their home. But it is so inaccurate.

Zoopla will take an average of the road, so there may be 1-2 bedroom flats, and in the same road 3-5 Bedroom houses where some homeowners have built into the loft or extended and there are a mixed bag of houses and flats. What the Zoopla spider will do is take an average of the road and then display your valuation off the back of this, so for a mixed road it doesn’t work well and is not accurate.

It is a great piece of kit if you are living along a road with only one style of house or blocks of flats (because they are very similar and usually purpose built). Then it will give you a good indication along with the market trend too.

7. Call the Agents

Most estate agents will be able to give you a rough idea over the phone. Before valuing a client’s house, we will have a ballpark usually of what we are going to value their home for anyway. Once we get to the client’s home, then you are looking at information that you may not have been told over the phone, the décor, or things that may surprise us that could push the price up or down. However, preforming into a property, we have a figure in mind within a £50,000 wiggle room window for a property between £300,000-£600,000 anyway.

However, an agent should be able to give you a gauge over the telephone too.

8. Still unsure

If you are still unsure, get the experts around to help you. No agent should be charging for the valuation. Here is a link to my blog on how to choose an estate agent.

Instant 60 Second Valuation

Click here - What is your home worth?