House news

Some good, some bad.


Lets call the figure we felt our house was worth X, which is about 117% of the price we initially paid for it. (In 2007 at the peak of the housing bubble our house was valued at 126% of X, so on paper we have lost £loads in 5 years – but never mind that was never real money)

This is based at looking at houses for sale in the local newspaper that are similar to those that were at the same price as ours when we bought it in 2003.

This is also very close to the value predicted by Nationwide House Price Calculator, which comes out at 98.6% of X

On Friday, three valuers came round.

1. 97% of X

2. 91% of X

3. 103% of X  but we didn’t really believe this one because he was just looking at prices other houses in the street sold for in the last XX years on the computer, and ours is a totally unique house. In the end the 103% was just a case of him not denying a value we suggested to him.

Valuers 1 and 2 were both very full of praise for our house - the layout, the size and the way in which we present it. They just lamented the market conditions. ) Valuer 3 didn’t really have any comments to make.

On Saturday a fourth valuer came. He was also full of enthusiastic praise for the house, recognised its uniqueness, and said that he would go away and think about it carefully and let us know on Monday (still waiting).

Also on Saturday, we had the first visit for the church we hope to part-exchange with.

This was a bit demoralising – like Valuer 3, they didn’t smile or make positive comments as they went around.

Now obviously, they don’t have the commercial reasons for making us feel good about the house, in fact quite the opposite. But whether you are an agent or a potential buyer, you still can’t hide your real emotions about the property. So we were disappointed.

Also I put my foot in it by letting slip things that I should have kept quiet about.

However – its not all doom and gloom. They didn’t say ‘no’ – they said they have to go back to the church committee on Thursday, and would talk numbers with us after that. And they may not have been emotional about the house because they are not looking at the aesthetics for living in themselves: they will be either selling it or renting it out to students.

So lets still smile, and pray for a positive outcome.