We’re looking for an edge, to offer a better service, than that currently provided by estate agents. That is why we have developed this web site.
Our stance is to embrace ‘valuation techniques’ to a greater extent than estate agents do and thus help people to price houses more accurately in the marketplace.
The purpose of using valuations and the main purpose of anyone doing them should be to act between parties (i.e. any vendors and purchasers), in determining the right price for any particular house to be sold at.
In comparison, the mandate for estate agents (as is generally stated) is to try and get the ‘best’ price that they can for their client, an individual vendor, in the current market conditions (but usually without settling upon a specific time by which this needs to be achieved). The difficulty is, this does
not involve the need to do a proper valuation of the house to be sold at all.
Instead it works by the agent simply gauging the level of vendor desperation and than fixing the asking price as high as possible whilst loosely taking into account both the market conditions and the extent to which the client might take a lower offer in order to get the house sold!
Those clients who have no wish to take below market offers at all, are often taken on by the agent anyway, at whatever price the owner thinks they ought to get – irrespective of true current value. This is because in the present circumstances, no-one actually does a proper valuation to find out what that is! The result is that large numbers of houses on estate agents’ books are frequently over priced. The effect of this is to cause unwanted confusion in the marketplace about what market values are actually running at. Unfortunately this tends to drive buyers away, which in turn is the primary cause of the next price slump, or to be more precise the next correction in prices (because the prices being asked were never achievable in the first place).
Instead of this, IF everyone placing houses up for sale in the market used proper valuations to determine asking prices, the market would flow, continually, in all economic conditions. This achievement would be of immense benefit to the wider economy as well as to individuals wishing to move house at any particular time.
One of the main benefits of being a house owner in the first place is to be able to be mobile enough to sell and buy elsewhere simultaneously. If that opportunity should no longer be available as a result of a de-stabilised private housing market, in exactly the way we are currently seeing, fewer people are likely to be interested in becoming home owners. This itself could become a threat to the whole idea of (and indeed the intrinsic value of) home ownership.
WE, at property-match, are aiming to help the market by offering a better way in which to buy and sell houses by trying to ensure that houses placed online with us, have been properly valued beforehand.
We are taking the lead on this because we know that estate agents are failing to carry out proper house valuations, as is clearly shown by the Land Registry statistics on completed house sales and their differentials with average house asking prices. The whole housing market has suffered as a direct result of this failure.
Vendors: – if you would like to join us in improving the way houses are bought and sold here in the UK, we welcome your business on this basis. We look forward to not only advertising your property online for you, but also to liaising with you in person about anything which you may be unsure about when you are in the process of selling your house.
Obviously we would first encourage you to obtain a valuation of your house, based on Land Registry data. We can help you to order one of these before you actually start the whole marketing process. Estate agents generally do not offer their clients this at all and our research indicates that many of them are actually opposed to considering doing so.
Intervention by Government, whilst deciding and implementing ‘public policy’, is always a prerequisite to bringing any necessary improvements to the way in which the housing market (or any other market for that matter) functions; especially when a market is hijacked by the poorly considered actions of its main players and negotiators.
Posted by: Peter Hendry, Consultant in Housing Valuation Property Match (UK)/Asking_Prices
“IF everyone placing houses up for sale in the market used proper valuations to determine asking prices, the market would flow, continually, in all economic conditions.”
“WE, at property-match, are aiming to help the market by offering a better way in which to buy and sell houses by trying to ensure that houses placed online with us, have been properly valued beforehand.”
“Obviously we would first encourage you to obtain a valuation of your house, based on Land Registry data. We can help you to order one of these before you actually start the whole marketing process.”
A few questions, if I may:
What will the cost of this “valuation” be?
Who will attend the property in order to “VALUE” it?
What guarantee will the “valuation” carry in terms of
a) accuracy?
b) effecting a sale at the “valuation” price?
What comeback will the vendor have if the “valuation” still results in the property achieving a lower sale price?
Is the “valuation” accredited by any housing industry professional body ie. Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors?
How does the “valuation” actually determine the “value” of MY property when it is based upon Land Registry historic information of OTHER properties?
What if a vendor does not want this “valuation”? Will you still market their property? At what price? THEIR required price?
Can the “valuation” you recommend be used for mortgage purposes? If not, why not?
You use the phrase “proper valuation” several times in the above blog. How does the “valuation” you are recommending comply as a “proper valuation” as per RICS definitions?
I am sure that I will think of other questions – however in the meantime I look forward to your response to those above…
Most of these questions can be answered by reading the information on the web site itself Please see: Property Match (UK) web site.
The remaining ones rather suggest that you need to have a session explaining the basics of valuation. Then all will become clear. We are trying to be helpful by responding, as we imagine you are hoping for a response.