Can you improve your property valuation?
Professional
respect
Of course, one of the simplest ways to do
this is to undertake a cosmetic renovation to ensure the property is looking
modern and clean.
Also, decluttering the property will
never hurt either.
That’s because many investors wrongly believe they can influence a valuation by
being a valuer’s best friend when they arrive at the property.
Sure, they have made the property look
its best, which is always a good thing, but it’s what they do next that is
usually not-so-good.
You see, they will often follow a valuer
around the house – but not in a helpful way.
Instead, they’ll point out every single
"attribute” of the property, regardless of whether that was a standard fixture
when they bought it five years ago.
"Look, here is the bathroom,” they
exclaim!
To which the valuer smiles awkwardly and
says, "Well, yes”.
Helpful
input
The truth of the matter is there is not
much you can do to influence a valuer but being annoying is something that
won’t do you any favours.
However, that’s not to say that you can’t
be helpful, especially if you have undertaken renovations on the property.
One of the best strategies to adopt,
then, is to greet the valuer warmly, while not being over-friendly.
Then you should spend no more than a few
minutes telling them about the renovations you have completed.
You don’t have to physically show them
because they do have eyes to do that themselves.
They will likely also have checked out the condition of the property online from when you bought it so they know what it
looked like before.
That said, leaving some before and after
photos with them can’t hurt.
Another strategy, especially if your
property is unique, is to perhaps supply a couple of recent sales that you
believe are comparable in quality, location, and size.
Now, they must be truly comparable, so if
you’d struggle to do this then leave it alone.
At the end of the day, a valuer is a
professional who will assess your property’s value on the market as it is at
the present time.
They will be determining what price your
property would likely sell for if it sold that day – not yesterday or six
months before or in six months time.
So, the best piece of advice I can give
on whether you can improve your valuation on the day the valuer comes around is to be polite, provide any additional information that they may
find helpful, and then let them get on with doing their job.
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RealRenta also has a free vision, so why not check it
out
Jason Gwerder
Thursday, 7 April 2022
