Estate Agent London News

Property Valuation Tools

Are Online Property Valuation Tools Any Good?

The internet is definitely something that has made our lives easier, and it has various tools and functions available that we can use for many different things, including figuring out how much a property might be worth.

When it comes to working out the average value of your home, there are lots of factors that need to be taken into account, which can make it difficult to determine an accurate estimated value. Often, the price that you paid when you purchased your property is not going to be an accurate representation of how much it might be worth now since property prices change all the time and there are lots of factors that can impact this. This is especially true if you own a property that you bought several years ago, as the property market will have changed significantly since then.

Why Use House Valuation Websites?

House valuation websites, apps, calculators, and other tools can be an ideal option if you are looking to get a rough idea of how much your property could sell for but are not yet at the stage of bringing in an estate agent or a chartered surveyor to provide you with a more accurate figure. As long as you use a reputable and accurate online house valuation tool, you can get an idea of how much your property might fetch if you were to put it on the market today.

This can be a great way to figure out whether or not you should sell your house right now or figure out how much it is worth to help you determine if remortgaging the property is a good idea.

The Best House Valuation Site UK – How They Work

A good house valuation website, calculator, app, or other tools will work by looking at the average price of properties similar to yours in your area. Whether you are looking to sell or want to remortgage your home, you can use these tools to easily figure out what your property is worth by comparing it with others. Because of this, you might find that an actual valuation of your property including having an estate agent or surveyor visit the property to inspect its condition will bring back a slightly different result. This is because house valuation websites tend to focus mainly on comparing your property with others using online data, while a valuation professional can take the individual house into account including the potential, condition, and more.

What Do You Need to Use the Best Online House Valuation Site?

Before you use an online site or tool to get a valuation of your property, it’s good to have a few different things to hand. You will need your postcode, of course, and more information about your property. Ideally, you should choose a valuation tool that requires you to enter as much information as possible about your property to get a more accurate figure. For example, information such as whether or not you have private parking and if you have made any major improvements to the property such as an extension or loft conversion can make a huge difference when it comes to how much it is estimated to be worth.

What to Do with Results from a House Price Valuation Website

While there are several good websites and apps out there today that can provide you with fairly accurate figures when it comes to the value of your property, it’s best to only use these tools as a guide. This is because no matter how good an online DIY tool is, it cannot beat a professional valuation conducted by an estate agent or a chartered surveyor.

It is a good idea to use several different online tools or apps to get the value of your home. It’s highly likely that they will provide you with different figures, which you can then use to determine the average, to get an accurate idea of how much your home might be valued to be worth professionally.

If you are happy with the results that you get from using online valuation tools and want to proceed with selling, remortgaging, or buying a property, then it is worth contacting a chartered surveyor or estate agent to arrange a more in-depth valuation survey.

Using Property Valuation Websites to Appeal a Valuation

If you are buying a property and have had a valuation survey conducted by the lender, then there are some situations where you may not agree with the result of the survey. If the lender has downvalued the home, for example, then you may not be able to purchase it if the seller is unwilling to drop the asking price, especially if they do not believe that the valuation you have been given is accurate. In this case, you might find that online house valuation websites are an ideal option to help gather evidence to support your appeal of the valuation.

You can use several different tools and websites that gather and analyse data from reputable sources such as the Land Registry to provide the lender with evidence to suggest that their surveyor might have got it wrong. Or, on the other hand, if you believe that your lender is right and the seller has overpriced the property, you can use online tools to prove to the seller that it is going to be difficult for them to get the asking price and negotiate a lower price with them.

The Main Reasons to Use a House Price Valuation Website

There are several situations where using a house price valuation website or app can come in handy. Some of the main reasons why people make use of these tools include:

1 – Selling a Property

If you are considering selling your property, learning how much you might get for it could be the deciding factor when it comes to whether or not you will eventually put it on the market. Before you pay a chartered surveyor or estate agent to value your property, you can use house price valuation tools online to get a general idea of what your property is worth and decide whether or not it is worthwhile going ahead.

2 – Buying a Property

When you buy a house, there is always the risk that the seller is asking for more than the property is worth. Using online valuation tools can provide you with more information about the property you are interested in and could even inform the offer that you put in, or whether or not you actually make an offer at all. It can be useful to use online valuation tools before your mortgage lender has a valuation survey carried out on the property. This will help you be more prepared for what to expect from the results and give you a better idea of whether or not there is likely to be a down valuation.

3 – Remortgaging

People choose to remortgage their properties for a range of different reasons. Perhaps you need access to cash quickly or are planning to make major renovation work on your property and need the money to cover the costs. However, chances are that your property has increased in value since you purchased it, and you will need to figure out what it is worth before you can apply to remortgage it.

Using online tools can be a great way to get an average figure of how much you should be applying for if you are looking to remortgage your property. While you may be required to have a valuation survey carried out before the lender agrees, it can provide you with a good place to start when it comes to the figure you put on your application.

4 – Renovation and Improvements

Understanding how much your property is worth before making big improvements or renovating the property is important if you want to figure out how much value your investment has added. Online valuation tools are often used by property investors, landlords, and property sellers to figure out how much value they can add to a property by making improvements, informing the improvements that they make and how much they are willing to spend on them.

5 – Other Situations

Last but not least, if you own a property, it’s always a good idea to take an interest in how much it is worth and how much the value has changed over time. There are lots of situations where it comes in handy to have this information available, including changing your home insurance policy, taking out a loan or other form of credit that is secured against your property, applying for a mortgage for a second home, leaving your property to somebody in your will, and much more.

Online house valuation tools might not provide you with the same accuracy as an RICS surveyor or an estate agent, but they can come in handy in lots of situations for those who are selling, buying, or remortgaging properties. Choose a reputable tool that uses good sources of data to get an accurate idea of how much a property is worth.

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