Studio Flats London

Trying to sell a house in a down market can be difficult and stressful, but there are several things you can do to improve its marketability. By putting some time, effort, and money into it before it goes on the market, you can ensure that your home presents well, stands out from the crowd and doesn’t turn off potential buyers so that you can sell quickly…and at the best price.

Everyone likes to put their own personal touches and knick-knacks in a house when they own it, but to home buyers, it may prevent them from picturing their furniture and pictures in the house, and distract them from truly seeing your home’s unique architectural features and spacious rooms. Also consider the fact that the more cluttered the rooms look, the smaller they look. You may be holding back the true potential of your house by displaying pictures of your friends and family

Since you hope to move soon anyway, go ahead and box them up and put them in storage in advance of the open house or showing.

Neutral colors are better. Consider painting walls a neutral color such as beige or taupe. While you may enjoy vibrant colors, potential buyers may be turned off by the choice of colors. A neutral color allows them to add their visualize their own tastes.

Don’t leave the little issues unresolved. A potential homeowner is always going to over estimate the cost of repairs by atleast 30%. If there are problem areas in your home, get them fixed before the showing. When prospective buyers tour the house and see leak stains on the ceiling or peeling paint, they will also see future work and assume that bigger maintenance and repair issues are lurking behind those small problems.

This is particularly true in kitchens and bathrooms, which are often the two rooms that make or break a sale. An investment in either of these rooms will yield the biggest return. The expenses you incur on the front end sprucing up your home will be cheaper than the profits you could lose by having to lower the price to meet buyer demand.

The internet is a great marketing tool when trying to sell your house, so take advantage of the unique ways to market your house. Use YouTube.com, a video sharing Web site, to introduce yourself and your house for free. Take home shoppers on a virtual tour and tell them about its uniqueness and strengths from a first-person point of view.

Once your house is listed, e-mail the link to your friends and ask them to forward it on to their network of contacts. By simply having your friends pass along information about your house, you may be able to sell it without having to get a real estate agent involved which will save you thousands.

Be sure that you are using traditional marketing techniques to your best advantage. When photographing your home for promotional purposes, invest in a wide-angle lens for your camera so that rooms appear bigger and in proportion when they are displayed on Internet home listing sites or in marketing flyers. If you decide to create a virtual tour, look for professionals who will be able to film and upload your video using the best techniques and technology.

Come up with creative ways to draw people to your house by having a wine and cheese gathering as an open house, or if there are other homes for sale in your neighbor create a parade of homes to draw more people in. The more people that you can get through the door, the better your odds of getting the price you want.

If you are in a tough real estate market and are looking to sell your home quickly, you might want to consider doing a For Sale By Owner. My wife and I recently bought a new house and after trying unsuccessfully to sell our existing house through a real estate agent for several months decided to try For Sale by Owner. We found a buyer within four days and closed on the house three weeks later. However, through our experience we discovered a few things. Here are a few tips if you are considering a FSBO in a less than ideal real estate market.

1. Consider paying to have your home placed in the MLS. There are several companies out there that will do this for a few hundred dollars. With sales down, real estate agents are desperate to earn a commission. By putting the house in the MLS you are agreeing that if an agent brings a buyer to you that you will pay the agent their part of the commission (you still save the listing agents commission). If you can sell the house on your own with no agent then you won’t have to pay an agent. However, in a tough market you want as many possible eyes on your property as possible.

2. Get the word out to as many places as possible about your house. One of the best places to do this is on the internet. There are dozens of free websites that will allow you to post your house for free. Consider starting with craigslist since it has so much traffic and then spread out to the other sites on the net. It will probably take you an entire evening to get the house posted on all the sites and you will want to keep a spreadsheet with your usernames and passwords so that you can go back later and remove the listing once the house sells.

3. Design a professional looking flyer and put out for sale by owner signs and a flyer box. If you aren’t the artistic type and don’t know that much about designing things like flyers consider a site like vflyer which will give you templates for designing a flyer. Take some good pictures of the house with your digital camera and put them on the flyer. If you use Vflyer or a program like it you can probably use the same template to post the house to craigslist and ebay (if you decide to pay for a listing).

4. Be creative. When we put our house on the market we ordered an eight foot full color printed banner to put on our fence. Our house backed to a major street and we were able to get some major exposure from the banner. I have heard of people offering free vacations, big screen tvs, cash bonus’ to the listing agent and even a free car. I have also heard of people giving away a cool prize at their open house. These things can help get your house noticed which is the first step to getting it sold.

5. Make sure that your price is competitive. Consider using the money that you are saving on real estate commissions to cut the price of your house so that it is more competitive. In tough markets it is going to be very important that your house isn’t priced too high or people will find another option. In our area there were a ton of houses on the market and most of the houses that were selling were 5% or more undervalued. If that is what it takes you might need to swallow hard and cut the price of your house.

Of course all of these things are just suggestions. Still, when things get tough and you need to sell your house these could be an option for you. They worked for us.

Perhaps you were thinking of selling your house and just as you were going to go for it the credit crunch took hold and now you’ve been watching the housing market crash. Should you sell now before it gets worse or should you wait until things pick up?

It’s a tricky one. How long do you want to wait? How much do you want to move? According to Nationwide, house prices rose in June 2009 by 0.9% as demand outstripped supply. Buyers who can obtain a mortgage want to make the most of the low interest rates and fallen house prices. The economy and housing market are no longer in freefall so if you put your house on the market now, then you may have a better prospect of finding a buyer than you would have done six months ago.

If you are tempted to move house, look at the reasons why you want to move house and prioritise them. Take tentative steps to research your options: ask an estate agent to value your house, get their opinion on what you could realistically sell for and whether there are interested buyers on their books. Speak to a mortgage broker to check what mortgage options are open to you. Check how much properties are in the new location. Gather as much information as you can to help you make an informed decision.

If you were thinking of waiting until house prices pick up then let’s look at the factors that effect house prices. The credit crunch and subsequent recession has had a major impact on our economy. So far we have seen job losses mainly in manufacturing and banking and unemployment is expected to rise to over 3 million by the end of this year. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) believe that unemployment will reach 10% in 2010. Based on the recessions from the 1980s and 90s it takes nearly five years after a recession begins for employment to be back at the pre-recession levels, and with employment comes more spending power.

If you are waiting for house prices to rise significantly to get a better price for your home then you need to expect to wait a number of years as it will take this long for the economy to recover and for employment to return. Some economists believe that there could be a v-shape recovery, however others believe there could be a double-dip, or “W” recession, and thirdly that the recovery will be steady but very gradual. The latter two recovery types would have a particularly long lasting effect on employment and therefore spending, and therefore the housing market would also only slowly recover.

So you might want to try to sell before things get any worse! If you can sell quickly, that is in the summer months (avoid the run up to Christmas as this is traditionally the quietest period for estate agents) then you would need to prepare your house to sell and prepare a Home Information Pack at a cost of £250-450. Do you want to pay this much to try and sell your property?

If you are wanting to sell to buy another property in the same area then the fall in prices should be proportionate. If you wish to relocate to another area then you will need to research into the price falls of that area. You could be paying more for the same property or significantly less depending on the location.

There is unlikely to be a sustained recovery in house prices this year. There is a chance that prices could continue to rise in small degrees if demand continues to outstrip supply. Alternatively there will be a levelling out of small gains followed by small falls or most pessimistically, there could be more major price falls as unemployment rises. Next year house prices are likely to increase slightly as the economy begins to slowly recover.

There is very unlikely to be a return to the boom years of double-digit growth in the next few years so if you are waiting for major price growth then prepare to stay put for the medium term and make the most of where you are.

World Residential Countertops  Global demand to rise 3.3% per annum through 2013 Worldwide demand for countertops is projected to increase 3.3 percent annually to 341 million square meters in 2013. Advances will be aided by the recovery of new housing construction in the US and much of Western Europe from low 2008 bases. Additionally, countries such as Brazil, China and India have been building large volumes of modern housing units each year to accommodate the needs of their growing populations. The types of materials used in countertops vary on a local and regional basis, generally depending on factors such as the relative wealth of local consumers and their style preferences, as well as the availability of local materials. In 2008, laminates accounted for more than onequarter of global countertop sales, followed by solid surface and natural stone, each with roughly one-fifth of demand. Engineered stone is expected to achieve the most rapid gains, albeit from a very small base. ( http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=129886&rt=World-Residential-Countertops.html )  Growth in China, India to fuel gains in Asia/Pacific region The Asia/Pacific region, the largest market, accounted for 43 percent of global countertop sales in 2008. Advances in this region are primarily driven by China, which itself accounted for nearly half of the region’s countertop sales in 2008. Gains stem from the country’s ongoing shift toward urbanization and the development of a more modern housing stock. The expanding size of the Chinese housing stock, the ongoing privatization of home ownership, better living standards and rising income levels will boost remodeling sales. India is expected to post somewhat stronger gains through the forecast period as it develops additional and more modern housing to accommodate its population’s needs. However, gains, particularly in many of the least developed countries of the world, will be limited by the small size of homes, and the high cost of countertops relative to alternatives such as pedestal sinks and free-standing tables.  North America was the second largest market in 2008, accounting for 19 percent of global sales. Advances in this market are expected to be aided by the recovery of the US new housing market from a depressed 2008 base. Continuing consumer preferences for spacious kitchens and multiple bathrooms will also boost countertop sales. Canada’s countertop market is much smaller than that of the US, but is similar in terms of housing styles and preferences of countertop materials.  Similar to the US, growth in Western Europe will benefit from the projected recovery in new housing units built over the forecast period, from a low 2008 base. Countertop demand in Western Europe will be aided by the relative affluence of these countries, allowing residents to build more spacious homes that accommodate larger countertops and to remodel the countertops more often.  Remodeling, new home markets to exhibit similar growth In 2008, the remodeling market accounted for the largest share of countertop sales, benefitting from the much larger size of the global housing stock and the ongoing trend of upgrading from freestanding kitchen furniture to conventional countertops and cabinetry. Although it is smaller, the new construction market is expected to post similar gains over the forecast period. Advances will be aided by the increasing average size of new homes in much of the world, coupled with a rising inclination toward the installation of at least basic kitchen countertops in new housing units.   To know more and to buy a copy of your report feel free to visit : http://www.bharatbook.com/detail.asp?id=129886&rt=World-Residential-Countertops.html   Or  Contact us at :  Bharat Book Bureau Tel: +91 22 27578668 Fax: +91 22 27579131 Email: info@bharatbook.com  Website: www.bharatbook.com  Blog: http://bharatbookresearch.blogspot.com  Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/3bbharatbook

On average buyers visit 19 homes before putting in an offer to buy. What does this finding mean for sellers? There is more competition on the market than there was even 5 years ago. If you want to sell your house, you need to make it look its best in order to compete in the housing market (especially in Charleston, South Carolina’s market). I have 7 rules that I follow to help sellers give their homes a competitive edge on the real estate market.1. Give potential buyers curb appeal. A buyer’s first impression is extremely important. When a buyer visits your house, the first thing he or she sees is the front of the house. So, make your yard, front door stoop, and walkway inviting. Keep your lawn mowed, plant flowers, spread pine straw on any beds you have, and trim the bushes.2. Make any needed repairs. Don’t worry about minor repairs like a cracked tile. Instead, focus on more obvious problems, like torn screening on a porch or walls in need of a fresh coat of paint. Even though the buyer will make a repair list before closing, it is better to go ahead and fix problems in your house that could put off potential buyers. Buyers want a house that looks like it has been taken care of.3. Clean your home inside and out! Steam clean carpet stains, clean the inside and outside of windows, and dust even those hard-to-reach areas. Believe me when I say that potential buyers like to inspect the homes they visit!4. Organize clutter. People love pictures and collectibles, but these things can make a house appear small and cluttered. Having some accessories is good—the right decorations can make a house feel like a home. Just remember, you want to make your house look spacious, clean, and organized.5. Make colors and styles neutral. Even though some colors are cute, neutral colors are the safest. I have seen so many buyers get turned off by hot pink rooms or excessive decorative themes. Buyers want to picture the houses they visit as their own. When you choose neutral colors and styles, they are more likely to imagine themselves in your house (and more likely to buy your house). 6. Check your lighting. This rule may seem trivial, but buyers do not like dark houses. So, open curtains to let in natural light, and check all the bulbs in your light fixtures.7. Clean up after pets. Try to keep your pets outside while your house is on the market, especially if you know that there will be a showing on a certain day. If your pets are inside-only, try to keep them out of the way and to keep loose fur to a minimum. Also, if you think your home has even a faint pet smell, get the floors and furniture cleaned before you put your home on the market.Following these 7 rules can dramatically help sellers make their homes more marketable. Before you put your home on the market, be sure you can check all of these tasks off your list. If your home is already on the market, it is not too late to implement these rules!

Tampa, Florida – 2009

When it comes to selling a house fast in Tampa, Florida you must use methods to sell fast that aren’t being used as often.  This article will go into the basics of selling your Tampa house faster than you could with these methods than you could by listing with a real estate agent.

First you have to determine what would be the best price to set your home in this competitive market.  One free and easy to way to judge your homes value without spending the initial $300 of an appraisal is to look for comparable home sales in your area.  There is a free website that can get you these useful comparables.  Zillow.com offers a free valuation system that is generated on-site.  The site uses comparables from recently sold homes.  Any time you use comparables in this Tampa housing market you want to use houses that sold within 1 mile and the last year.

Once you determine what other homes are selling for in your area you want to set your price 10% below those houses.  This will ensure you will receive more buzz on your house than the ones down the street.  You can avoid to set your price cheaper because you aren’t using the services of an agent.  Selling a house through an agent will normally run you 15-18% which is contrary to popular belief.

Now that you have your house priced right for a quick sell, you want to get the potential home buyers to take a look on the inside of your house.  The best way to make home buyers to want to take a look at your house you need to get some curb appeal.  Curb appeal is what makes a buyer want to make the house theirs.

Whenever you take a look at your house from the street see if there is anything that is blocking the beauty of your home.  Cut back any trees that have low hanging branches.  Also prune any over grown bushes, home buyers want to simply purchase a house without having to do a makeover.  If your house requires an outside makeover buyers will want a deeper discount. 

Second you want to add some colorful flowers to the front of your house and preferably the back yard as well.  Don’t waste your time buying flats of flowers that you can buy 12 for $14.  Those flowers are cheap and you don’t want your potential buyer thinking your are a cheapskate.  Everyone knows a cheapskate cuts corners and you don’t want to draw that picture.  Instead spend $14 on one flower and mix up the colors and the type of flower.  Home buyers go window shopping before they buy a house because they want to get an idea of what’s out there.  Believe they will notice you went the extra mile to make your house stand out from the others in the neighborhood.

Make sure you water your flower regularly because you don’t want your hard work and money to go to waste.  If you don’t want to maintain a bunch of flowers you can buy shrubs or nice bushes.  Roses aren’t what they used to be so don’t waste your time or money on roses.

There is a lot more to making your house more appealing but if you incorporate these little strategies to your selling your house whether it’s in Tampa or other areas you will make a tremendous improvement that will draw buyers to your house over other homes for sale on your street. 

Charlotte, NC

Homeowners of Charlotte, North Carolina the foreclosure trend has affected neighborhoods.  Banks are taking homes back through foreclosure and bank owned properties lower the current market value.  Homeowners that need to sell their house fast face stiff competition from banks that are sellinng repo homes for less than market value.

There is little a real estate agent can do since the housing market is flooded with homes that are listed by real estate agents.  In December the Charlotte market had over 30,000 homes on the market and only about 2,200 houses sold.  The numbers suggest that less than 10% of the homes on the market are selling.  Sellers that need fast solutions must take matters into their own hands in order to sell their house quickly as possible, especially when they are facing foreclosure.

The only problem is the decline in home values in Charlotte, homes that once had plenty of equity now only have little equity and in most cases they have no equity at all or even negative equity.  Before the current market shift homeowners would have been stuck with a home that is upside down.  Now those homeowners have a solution and that solution to their tough house problem is a method that is becoming well known, the short sale process.

A short sale is when a the sellers mortgage lender agrees to reduce the amount owed on their mortgage balance to allow the homeowners to sell their house quicker for a better price.  Short sales are becoming more popular due to the foreclosure crisis that has been affecting house sales across the country. 

Short sales benefit lenders because they can get their money now and save all the hassle of taking back a house that might or might now sell in the next 6 months plus.  Agreeing to a short sale also saves lenders thousands of dollars in lost mortgage payments and paying for foreclosure fees and closing cost. 

Homeowners benefit from short sales also by being able to walk away from a home they no longer want or can afford.  In most cases lenders will agree to allow the seller to walk without coming after them for the balance left from the mortgage reduction and the sales price.  Plus a short sale relieves homeowners from coming to the closing with cash.  These benefits are perfect since the housing market in Charlotte, North Carolina has been going down since February 2008.

Price pressures continue to strengthen the bargaining positions of buyers, while homeowners are feeling more desperate to sell, regardless of how many concessions they might have to make to close their deals. With more than half a million brand new homes languishing on the market unsold and a glut of existing homes that will take an estimated 8-9 months to sell, buyers have plenty of reasons to rejoice.
Some buyers are waiting for even lower prices, but they may lose out to tighter regulations in the mortgage lending market. If you’re thinking of buying a home, it may be easier to get the mortgage you want now than it is in the near future. Government officials at every level are pushing for more stringent regulation of lenders, and the banking and mortgage industries themselves are already taking proactive steps to tighten purse strings because of so many losses suffered due to defaults and foreclosures. Meanwhile the economy is sending mixed signals and the stock markets are jittery, which could signal bumpy roads ahead. If interest rates go higher or if the values of investment portfolios shrink, those who are waiting to buy a home may find themselves paying more for their loans or they may even be completely disqualified.
Another factor to consider if you are sitting on the fence about buying is that the real estate market in the USA is normally a seasonal and cyclical affair. The busy season is in the springtime, and that is when homes generally sell for the best prices. As summer wears on, sellers often lower their expectations of a sale, along with their asking prices. Especially in regions of the country where heating bills are significant – in colder climates the cost of fuel to heat a home over the winter can easily range in the thousands of dollars – sellers can save money by selling before the first frost. That means that those who are shopping for a home have added leverage if they buy at the end of the summer season. Just as buying a winter coat in the springtime can guarantee deep discounts, buying a home at the end of the best selling season can mean serious price breaks at the closing table.
When negotiating the sale, here are some places to ask for wiggle room from sellers:
The Price:
To be taken seriously, don’t lowball the seller but offer a price that is within five percent of the asking price. If you’re pre-approved for your mortgage or are buying with cash, this can also significantly improve your position.
Closing Costs:
If your seller assists with these it helps you qualify for better mortgage terms while saving you some serious out-of-pocket money.
Repairs:
If sellers are eager, you can ask them to do necessary repairs before you buy. Or have them give you a cash allowance based on contractor bids, and then do the work yourself.
Leave-Behinds:
Moving appliances and furniture is expensive for home sellers, and sometimes they will throw those items in for free, so why not ask?
There are also other ways to save money or get extras when you sit down to negotiate. In bearish real estate markets, homeowners became rather creative with off-the-wall miscellaneous perks. During the past year, buyers in the USA have gotten free trips to Europe, cases of vintage wine, automobiles, boats, and other incentives. If you can think of a commodity to help close the transaction, mention it to the seller and they might go for it. For example, if you are buying your home from a member of the city symphony orchestra or the local basketball team, you might get free season tickets. Need a riding lawn mower and see one in the garage? Maybe your seller is moving to a condo where they don’t need to cut the grass and they will be happy to toss it in to clinch the sale. Buying from a chef? Maybe he or she will give you free meals at your new favorite restaurant in order to put the icing on the cake of the sales contract.
Have your Realtor provide you with updated market info because prices, inventories, and values can change quickly. The median price of American homes edged up slightly this summer, for the first time in a year. The up-tick may have been caused by people pulling their unsold houses off the market, but that adds another incentive to buy now while the inventory is large and the prices are cheap.
Don’t expect to see writing on the wall when the tide turns. By the time it becomes obvious to everyone that the buyer’s market is over, it will be too late to find the outstanding bargains. If you want a home, don’t deny yourself the pleasure just to save a few bucks.

Here’s a simple enough question. Suppose I bought a house, two years ago. I paid one hundred thousand for it. Now, two years later, the house has been valued at three hundred thousand. Great. Good news. So, how much money have I made? ‘Ah’, most people would say, ‘that really is an easy one. You’ve made two hundred thousand’. Wrong. That’s not correct. The right answer is that I’ve made NOTHING. All that’s happened is that I acquired an asset and it has gone up in value. I’ve made no money. That’s the catch, you see. I may have seen an increase in value but I’ve got no extra cash and won’t have, until I sell the asset. That’s a problem, if I happen to be living in it, but that’s another issue which most home owners don’t seem to appreciate. But the first dilemma is the big one: house buyers all over Britain have been panicking recently, at the news that the housing market is in decline. ‘I’ve made so much money in the last few years’, they say to themselves, ‘and now I’m about to lose it’. Nonsense. If you’re still in the same house, then you never actually made any MONEY when prices went up and you won’t lose any, now that they’re going down. That’s simple economics. Unfortunately, people who dabble in the housing market and assume that they know what they’re doing, actually know nothing about economics. That’s why they’re doomed to disappointment.
There’s a saying that ‘In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is King’. In terms of business and economics, it would mean that anyone who has studied economics at High School would know about, oh, I don’t know, shall we say a HUNDRED times more than the average householder. They would know that stuff above about the difference between value and cash in hand, for instance, and be quietly laughing at all the home owners who greedily boasted about their ‘profits’ over the last few years. Let’s get this straight, you only make a profit on a trade. You buy your house cheaply and sell it at a higher price? Well done, you’ve made a profit. You buy your house and it doubles in value? You’ve made no ‘profit’ at all. If you don’t believe me, check your bank account. It won’t have any extra money in it. You won’t have more cash to see you through until payday. Any Estate Agent or Realtor will encourage you, and say proudly that you’ve made ‘paper profits’. Well, they aren’t worth a dime, quite frankly. They aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. The only profit that’s anywhere near real is the increase in your bank balance, and that doesn’t come about until you’ve been both a buyer and a seller. That’s a tip: you want to know how much money you’ve made from the housing market? Ask yourself: how many houses have I SOLD recently? You make money when you sell a house, not when you buy one, but sadly, that’s a lesson less learned, just as the world of business is the road less travelled. The business person will look at many things in making up their minds where to invest their assets. They will look at the market from all angles. For instance, they might see that the price of housing is generally going up. Then comes the most important question: ‘How can I make money in this situation?’ The answer, or one of them, would be to buy and sell houses. The business people might do that, and yes, some of the ‘amateurs’ might do that as well. The worrying thing is the number of ordinary people who dive into the housing market, bouyed up by what they read in the papers or what they’ve seen on television. A recent programme showed investors at an auction. The interviewer asked one of them, a new convert to the housing game, and he said that he’d seen a show on television and thought he could do what they were doing. ONE show? Would you base a business career on ONE telly show? The frightening thing is that the person seemed bouyant with confidence, full of assurances that he would soon be making profits. Unfortunately, he had taken a second mortgage on the house he lived in, in order to finance his new venture. That’s not good. If something goes wrong, he’ll lose his assets, all of them, including the place where he now lives.
There’s another business lesson that might be worth learning. That is, ‘Stay ahead of the game’. If house prices are going down, then it’s not a good time to buy. Wait until they bottom out, invest them and cheer as your asset value goes up. Meanwhile, look around for something else to put your hard-earned cash into. What is coming? What is doing well? Where are the profits of the future going to be made? One tip might be to look at the world of alternative energy. There’s genuine fear that oil is going to run out. What could replace it? However, remember that tip up there. First, look at what is happening in the market. What’s going up, what’s coming down? Who’s dabbling and who’s getting involved? Then, ask the vital question, ‘How can I make money?’ It might not be as obvious as you think. The big boys are getting into wind farms right now, so maybe that’s something to steer clear of. What other technologies are being developed? Not sure? Go and ask at your local University. Try and find out what’s on the lab bench at the moment, that in a few years’ time could be the new norm. Hmm, not interested? Well, yes, I know, it all sounds like a lot of work, and maybe that’s why real ‘business’ has never caught on to these new opportunities. The housing market has always had an appeal because it seems so easy. Buy a house, sell a house. Hey, ‘We can all do that’, they say. Can’t we? Not successfully. The collapse of house prices and the winding up of banks and financial institutions proves one thing: there’s a lot of uncertainty out there. And in uncertain times, one thing is certain: the amateur gets screwed while the professional has cut and run, saving their energies for future business and other opportunities. If you can’t be bothered to read a book and find out more about the business world, maybe you shouldn’t dabble your toe in the water. There’s sharks out there.

If you are a home owner in the UK then there are a number of reasons why you might want to get your property valued.  You may be planning to sell your home, be looking to remortgage or you may simply be curious to find out how much your property is worth.  Whatever the reason there are a number of ways that you can find out the value your home.

The simplest way to gain an idea of the likely selling price of your property is to compare it with other homes that have been sold recently in the same area.  Look for similar sized properties on your street or in your town that are listed for sale and find what price they are being advertised at.  Although prices will vary a certain amount according to factors such as the age of the property and how well it has been maintained you should be able to gain a reasonable estimate of how much you would get for your home if you decided to sell it. 

For an estimate of how much your home is likely to be worth in the future a good idea is to look at current market trends.  If property prices are growing by for example 5% each year then you can calculate how much the value of your home is likely to increase over the next few years.  Although looking at market trends can be useful you should remember that trends are likely to change and so any estimate may eventually prove to be inaccurate.

In the UK there are many websites that will provide you with an estimated value of your property online for free using a collection of property market data.  These websites require you to enter certain details about your property such as its postcode, the year it was built and the number of bedrooms. Although these sites can be useful they are unable to account for factors such as the condition of the property and so the estimated worth of your home may be set too high or too low.

If you are planning to sell your home then it is advisable to have your property valued professionally.   In the UK professional property valuations are performed by qualified chartered surveyors who often work for or are associated with estate agency firms.  Most people requiring a property valuation will use estate agents.  Using estate agents is beneficial for a number of reasons.  Estate agents are experienced in valuing properties, have local knowledge and in many cases offer their services for free.