How an honest valuation actually works

Every seller has heard the story, because it happens constantly: three valuations, the highest number wins the instruction, the property sits, the reductions begin, and four months later it sells. Near the figure the honest agent quoted on day one, but now with a 'reduced' label attached.

Why overvaluation costs you

• Your best buyers see the property in week one or two. At the wrong price, they scroll past and rarely come back.
• Reductions are public. Buyers read them as information about the property, not about the agent.
• Time costs compound: mortgage offers expire, onward purchases fall through, chains collapse.

What evidence-based looks like

A real valuation is built from sold prices. Not asking prices. For genuinely comparable homes, adjusted for condition, aspect, lease details and street-level factors an algorithm can't see. It's explained to you line by line, in person, with the evidence on the table. You should leave able to argue the number yourself.

If an agent's number is dramatically higher than everyone else's, you haven't found a better agent. You've found a better salesperson.

We put this in writing in our standards: we will never inflate a valuation to win an instruction. Book one and hold us to it.

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