Your property’s value assessment

One of the first questions in a pending sale is: How much is my property worth? 

To get a successful sale, you need to know the current value of any house or property of yours. To get the best value assessment, there are a few steps you can take:

• Do research on comparative values
  • through a thorough search of similar property’s on renown real estate portals;
  • a time consuming strategy;
  • just a an approximation of the house’s true value, not an exact science, due to numerous factors that play a role in the assessment;
• Hire an expert to prepare a fee-based valuation report
  • when paying an appraiser, you must ensure that the appraiser knows exactly the local circumstances.

Tip 1: don’t set a price prematurely

With a property is under appraisal, prices can suffer fluctuations, so it’s key that a price is not settled prematurely. If a price is too low, you can suffer tremendous losses, around thousands of euros. If the price is too high, too unreachable, you may loose potential leads previously interested in acquiring the property. 

What does the value of a property depend on?

The value of a property depends on its location, quality and features.

• Location
  • It’s the most important criterion, since it’s not changeable, wether a house is completely demolished or rebuilt;
  • Refers to the city, the district and the street;
  • Includes details such as proximity to green areas, water, noise pollution and available infrastructure (public transport, shopping and nightlife, highway access, parking).
• Quality
  • The time of the property’s construction;
  • The state of the house: wether it’s an old building or renovated;
  • The quality of the equipment (kitchen, eletrical, gas, etc.).
• Features
  
  • The house’s features define its value;
  • Construction features: year it was built and type of construction;
  • Dimensions: gross and usable area:;
  • Facilities: such as number or bedrooms, common rooms, bathrooms, balconies, terraces, pool, storage, parking spaces, ect;
  • Amenities: if it’s fully furnished, if it has air conditioning, if it has a full equipped kitchen, etc.

All these factors can contribute to a change in the property evaluation or a potential price negotiation at the time of a sale. 

The price can also change, depending on the goal of the potential buyer. A potential owner looking to buy a house with the goal of living in it, will most probably be looking for an empty house. A potential investor might be more interested in a rental property. All in all, a price can increase up to 30% depending on the buyer’s goal.

Renovations take a big role in influencing the definition of a property’s price. To define the price of a property, you must consider all the renovation costs you have had, as well those the buyer will have:

• If you have to renovate older structures such as heating systems or plumbing, the renovation cost for the buyer can go up to several thousand euros;
• Renovation costs to increase energy efficiency (such as roof and facade insulation), doors and windows replacement, should not be underestimated;
• Other costs such as bathroom or kitchen appliances can be very costly, depending on the type of finishes or the appliances / equipment brand preferences.

A potential buyer will consider these costs in their price assessment. So, when performing a property appraisal, we should also take those into consideration.

To achieve that goal, we don’t rely on intuition, instead using established software tools to set the price. This type of software tool is only available for commercial use. When it comes to our clients, we use the software as a service included in the context of real estate research.

A professional evaluation of your property includes, in addition to establishing the appropriate price:

• The market price evolution for the property, in recent years;
• An overview of the most important infrastructure points (traffic, restaurants, stores, etc.);
• Important reference objects.