Assessing what your home is worth can often appear to be daunting task. It doesn’t have to be and believe it or not, it is not an exact science that only estate agents know!
Here are Five Tips to Find out The True Value of Your Home
1) Compare your Property to Similar Properties in the Local Area
There are two categories that these properties fall into:
- those that have sold recently where the purchase price is available to view on the land registry
- those on the market in the same price bracket which are attracting interest from the same buyers
When looking at these properties, try to find those that are most similar to yours. Ideally if you can find one on the same road or neighboring road this will prove to be a great indication of what your property is worth. Similar properties with sold prices available will give you very accurate figure of what you can expect to sells yours for. Remember though, the property market can change very quickly so if current properties on the market are considerably higher or lower than sold prices six months ago, this is a good indication that the market has moved.
2) Use Adjustment Figures
If there are no direct comparable properties on the market, you will need to apply adjustment figures to try to bring your property in line with those that are on the market. One way to put a numerical value is to look at the cost recovery for improvements or extensions that have been made to the properties you are comparing against. The cost recovery is the increase in value of the property as percentage of the money spent to undertake the improvement or work.
What will achieve 100% cost recovery:
- an extra bedroom that is in keeping with the style of the property
- an extended kitchen to create an open plan kitchen diner
What will achieve 50% cost recovery:
- a modern fitted kitchen
- a loft conversion
- a ground floor flat-roofed extension
What will achieve 25% cost recovery:
- a landscaped garden
You should also be aware that some ‘improvements’ actually reduce the value of a property. For instance, an ugly or poorly built extension can substantially reduce the value of a property. Similarly, double glazing added to a period property isn’t necessarily going to add any value.
3) Location
Location is crucial when valuing your property. For instance, a house on a quiet tree lined street will be worth considerably more than the same house on a busy road. Key points to factor in when looking at location are:
- How close is your property to transport links? Commuters who work in city will pay a premium for a property close to a commuter train line than one which is a couple of miles away.
- What are the schools like in the local area? Parents are becoming more and more demanding about getting their children into ‘the right’ schools. A house located in the catchment area for one of the highest achieving schools in the borough, compared to a similar house just outside the catchment area could be worth considerably more.
4) Do Not Compare your Home to a New Development
It is very important not to compare your property to a new development. There is evidence to show that many people relish the idea of living in a new property and are quite happy to pay a premium for this.
5) Don’t be Afraid to justify your Property Price
You will find some buyers that will question or ask you to justify the asking price of your property, particularly if they are thinking about making an offer. Try to preempt these questions and have the answers ready so you can easily real off the supporting evidence, such as location, extensions, comparable properties in the same area. Make sure your argument is convincing.
This article was written by Andrew Potter who runs a UK based 
The last point is very important. You’ve got to convince the skeptical tendencies of the buyers.
Another important point when assessing your home’s value is to conduct a pre-listing inspection to determine if there are is major repair work needed. Home inspections often reveal unpleasant surprises that greatly diminishes the sale value of your home.