This article from Lawpack's Sell your own Home Kit explores how to set a selling price for a house or flat.
Valuing a property is as much an art as it is a science, but that is no excuse for not taking advantage of all the sources of hard factual information that are now available. It can be hard to explain why a property in one street sells for much more than a similar property in a different street. Before putting a value on your property it is important to get a feel for the market by doing your research.
Visit all your local estate agents and gather up any property details of properties similar to your own
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Estate agents can tell you if your type of property is selling quickly, at what price and to what type of buyer. They can also tell you how many viewings on average it is taking before properties are selling, and what percentage of the asking price sellers are achieving. This is all vital market information which will help you set the price.
Ask three estate agents to value your property
As you may end up using an estate agent if you can't sell your property privately, it is not wasting estate agents' time to ask them to value your property. Most estate agents provide free valuations and you are under no obligation to instruct them to sell your property. Also, good estate agents keep an eye on the properties they have valued, and, even if they are not instructed, may approach you if they have a buyer who might be interested. In these circumstances, you can negotiate a lower fee, say, 0.5 per cent, or a flat fee of say, £1,000, if this results in a sale.
If your property has potential, it is useful for buyers to know how much the property would be worth if, say, the loft is converted or the kitchen extended. Estate agents can tell you how much your property would be worth if certain improvements were made. Get them to put their valuations in writing.
View as many similar properties as possible
While you are property hunting for your next home, you could slip in a few viewings of properties similar to the one you are selling. Use the opportunity to ask the seller what their viewers have liked about their property.
Use local statistics
The Land Registry now publishes the selling price of every property sold in England and Wales, and since 2003 this information is available for a fee of (currently) £2 over the internet. If a similar property, or several similar properties, to yours have sold recently, it's worth checking the sale price with the Land Registry. For this all you need is the address and the postcode. If you have the address but no postcode, the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com has a postcode search facility.
To find the selling price of a particular property, log on to the Land Registry website www.landregisteronline.gov.uk. Click on 'Property Enquiry'. Enter the address and postcode of the property you are researching and the site will then search the Land Registry data base. At this point, when the entry on the register is found, you are asked to pay the current fee of £2 by entering your credit or debit card details. If you don't have internet access you can make an application by post.
The Land Registry also publishes detailed information on average property prices for different types of property in every postcode minus the last two letters. Go on to the Land Registry website www.landregistry.gov.uk, click on 'Property prices', then 'On-Line data', followed by 'Postcode'. Entering your full postcode will produce the number of property sales in your postal district (for example, SW12 0BN, will produce all the sales in the SW12 0 area; BS6 5RR will produce all the sales in the BS6 5 area) in the last published three-month period. It shows the average price for detached, semi-detached and terraced houses, flats/maisonettes, and the average overall price. You can also try the website upmystreet.com which gives details of the latest prices in your area.
For Scottish property, the Registers of Scotland agency website provides similar services and information at www.ros.gov.uk/citizen/shp.html. A number of internet-based services exist to monitor local property prices and trends nationwide and there are now two sites offering price information direct from the Land Registry. Some information is available free but you may have to pay for more detailed reports.