Five questions to ask at your valuation
A valuation isn't just the agent telling you a number. It's your best chance to find out whether they actually understand your property, your area, and what it will take to sell it well. Here are five questions worth asking while they're stood in your kitchen.
1. How did you arrive at this figure?
Any agent can name a price. What matters is what's behind it: recent sales on your street or the ones nearby, current buyer demand, and how your home compares to what else is on the market right now. If the answer is vague, or leans heavily on what you'd like to hear rather than what the evidence shows, that's worth noting.
2. What's your average time to sell, and how does that compare locally?
This tells you how realistic their pricing tends to be. An agent who consistently sells quickly at close to asking price is doing something right. One who regularly needs price reductions to shift homes is a sign the initial valuation may have been more about winning your instruction than reflecting the market.
3. How will you actually market my home?
Ask what happens beyond the photos and the portal listing: who sees it first, how it's promoted to buyers already registered with them, and what happens if it doesn't get much interest in the first fortnight. A good agent should have a clear plan, not just a description of the basic package.
4. What are the costs, and what's included?
Get this in writing before you commit to anything. Ask whether the fee is fixed or a percentage, what happens if you switch agents partway through, and whether there are any extras, such as EPCs or photography, that aren't covered in the headline price.
5. Who will actually be handling my sale?
The person doing the valuation isn't always the person who'll manage your sale day to day. Ask who your main point of contact will be, how often you can expect updates, and what happens if that person is away or leaves the business partway through.
A good agent won't mind being asked any of this. If anything, straight answers are usually a sign you're dealing with someone who has nothing to hide about how they work.
