Zoopla House Valuations
Understanding Zoopla House Valuations and How to Use Them
If you are thinking about selling your home, one of the first things you need to do is determine how much it is worth. Getting a real estate agent to do the valuation can be time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately, various online tools can help you get a valuation that will inform you of the best price to list your home. One such tool is the instant valuation tool from Zoopla. In this article, we will explore what Zoopla home valuations are and how you can leverage them when selling your home.
Table of Contents
What is Zoopla?
Zoopla is an online platform that makes it easy to find homes to buy, sell or rent. Zoopla’s instant valuation tool is incredibly useful for homeowners who would like to get a quick and free online home valuation. In addition to the time saving benefits you get from using the tool, you also save money because their valuation tool is free to use.
What is a Zoopla House Valuation?
This valuation is an estimate of what Zoopla thinks your house would be worth if you listed it on the market at the time of checking. Their valuation estimates are given as a range, with a high and low end, so you can see roughly what to expect if you were to list the home.
You also get a confidence rating alongside the estimate, which can be high or low. A high confidence rating means similar homes have sold in your area recently, the market is steady, and the data is up to date. This means there is a high possibility that you will get offers if you list your home at the given estimate.
Low confidence means the opposite; a changeable market, few properties near you and less recent data. Things might have changed so much depending on numerous factors that there is no realistic expectation of getting the estimated price if you listed the home with the estimate as the asking price.
How Zoopla House Valuations Work
Zoopla uses industry-leading algorithms and reliable data sources to determine the estimated value of a home. Some of their data sources include the registers of Scotland, Ordnance Survey, Royal Mail, and the HM Land Registry.
While each of these sources alone cannot be reliable for estimating the value of a home, when used in combination with Zoopla’s algorithm, it can lead to very accurate estimates. The more data the algorithm can get from these sources, the better the estimate will be.
Getting Real Estate Agent Valuations
It is important to remember that although the algorithm considers numerous factors when determining a home’s estimated value, it is not a replacement for real estate agents. These agents might be able to notice things that the algorithm could never do. These include home modifications, renovations, and upgrades.
To this end, Zoopla also makes it easy to arrange for real estate agents to visit their homes. All you need to do is visit the platform and arrange for a real estate agent to provide a home or property estimate.
Using Zoopla home valuations can give you an idea of what to expect when agents visit your home. Remember that the valuation is an estimation as it is the best guess Zoopla has after considering factors like market conditions, what the property sold for previously, and the values of homes sold recently in your area.
How to Find the Value of Your Property Using Zoopla
Zoopla lets you find out the value of your home relatively easily. The first thing to do is get your postcode. This is what you will use to get started. Visit their “Home Values” page and enter your postcode. Once you have submitted it, you will be given a list of addresses from which you can select your property.
Zoopla is also very good at letting you know the value of homes that have sold recently in your area. This information is especially important when you have a valuation, but still need to know what to expect when a real estate agent does their appraisal.
Real estate appraisers use the values of homes close to you as one of the metrics and sources of information when appraising your home. This means that if there are similar properties in your area that have sold frequently, that data will be useful to you and them. For you, it means you will have grounds for appealing an appraisal if you think your home has been undervalued.
Knowing the Value of Your Home in the Future
Zoopla is an excellent tool for telling you the estimated value of your home in the present. But what about if you would like to sell your home in the future? While nobody can give you a definite answer, you can get an estimate. Zoopla helps with this by allowing you to keep an eye on the housing market, trends and predictions.
They do this through their house price index. This is a monthly report with a detailed analysis of the UK’s housing market. It covers the whole of the UK, including areas with a high demand for property and good property price growth like London. Use this report to gauge how the market is moving to know whether to wait or to sell right away.
Setting an Asking Price When Selling a Home in London
Technically, you could sell your home at whatever price as long as someone is willing to buy it. However, there are two main problems with this. First, setting the price too high could mean few offers and the home sitting on the market for much longer than anticipated.
The worst-case scenario is the home not selling at all and having to relist it. Relisting is an excellent option for homes that have been on the market for longer than 60 days without getting an offer. If this happens, you can use Zoopla home valuations to find out the best price to relist your home so that you get offers.
The second issue is selling the house at a much lower value. If you sell a house only to discover you could have sold it for more, you will regret that decision. There is also the possibility of people thinking there is something wrong with the house or that you are desperate to sell.
Once you have your valuation estimate from Zoopla, ask an appraiser to look over the home and give you a suitable asking price. Doing this and listing the house at the right price will help you avoid the issues discussed above.
What If You Disagree with a Valuation?
Most people are emotionally attached to their homes, so the first thing to do if you disagree with a valuation is to take a few days to think it over. Think about what would have made a real estate agent appraise your property so low. Working with a good real estate agent helps because they will tell sellers why they appraised a home the way they did.
The second thing to do is to appeal the valuation. You can appeal the valuation by telling the real estate agent why you think the home should be valued higher. You can point out things they have missed.
Homeowners can also get a valuation from a different appraiser to see whether their home is really worth what the first one said.
Other Uses of Zoopla Valuations
Knowing how much your neighbours paid or sold their home for is important data for homeowners wishing to sell. Zoopla allows you to see estimates of these properties’ value, which is invaluable to you and real estate agents as discussed above.
Zoopla home valuations are also incredibly useful for investors. As with agents and homeowners, investors can see the estimated value of different biomes in London to determine if they are good investments. Zoopla also has numerous other tools that can be incredibly useful for investors.
Their location and price range filters can help investors find properties within their investment budgets in London. Other powerful filters include New Homes, Most Reduced, Retirement Homes and Shared Ownership. Having the ability to narrow down the results using such powerful filters can make it easier for investors to find the properties they are looking for.
Another use of Zoopla is helping homeowners find new homes to move into once they sell the homes they already have. Many people move from their homes for various reasons and end up renting or buying a home.
If you prefer to buy, then the amount you get from your current home minus any applicable fees should put you on the path to buying a new home. If not, you can use Zoopla’s filters to find homes in your price range and ask a real estate appraiser to check them out for you. They might be able to find additional data that lets you know what offer to put forward as well as what amount to borrow from a lender.
Zoopla helps you buy and sell homes by providing a valuation tool that makes both processes much easier. Buyers can quickly check if the listed price is reasonable, and sellers can gauge whether their asking price is within the right range. Zoopla home valuations have many other uses, especially for investors looking for property to buy.
