We had 2 estate agents around today to value the house:
– 1st bloke said we’ll market it at Y and expect to achieve X; so a fairly normal approach
– 2nd bloke did something which I thought was bizarre
He took the original purchase price, then applied the average national price rise per annum for every year since we bought it (so some good years & some bad years) and then gave me a number. Then he added the amount of money we’ve spent on the property since we bought it and arrived at a final price.

Have you ever seen this before? I thought it was really weird.

I hope he showed his working and left you a copy so you could explain scientifically to prospective buyers why you weren’t shifting on price despite any recent trends in the local market!

So yeah, it’s weird… if for no other reason than you’ll almost never add what you spent on the house back in the asking price these days.

How did the 2 valuations compare? Did his formula work relative to the first guys ‘finger in the air approach’. I’m sure it was a bit more qualified than that mind.

were the resulting valuations particularly different from each other?

I’ve spoken to lots of agents over the last 3/4 years but this was just weird, or an innovative refreshing approach if you’re so inclined

“Normal” valuation was £10k more than the “interesting” approach and agreed with other agents we’ve had round (they probably look on rightmove then +/-5% to suit the property)
I just thought I’d ask as I think it’s a bonkers way of doing it.

Id be interested to see the difference.

At the end of the day its only worth what someones willing to pay, nice weird guide by that second dude though.

When you decide how much to pay him, work out a basic hourly rate, add on the ‘professional’ qualifications he’s got, a percentage of the cost of his cheap suit, then deduct a reasonable fee for having to listen to his BS, take off the ‘All estate agents are ****s’ tax and pay him accordingly.

Estate agents; just do your job and shut up.

The three that valued ours stuck their finger in the air. In the end we went with the highest and sold it for more than the other 2 valued it at.

His maths was actually a bit off (I’m almost Rain Man myself) but he seemed utterly convinced it was the only way to do it

Piss poor jokes:
How can you spot the Maths* student in the NUS bar? He’s staring at his own shoes
How can you spot the extroverted Maths* student in the NUS bar? He’s staring at someone else’s shoes
* equally effective with engineering/accountancy/chemistry etc