I spent years as an estate agent. Here's a thing we all knew and rarely admitted. The valuation isn't always about your house. Sometimes it's about winning the instruction. You want three agents through the door, so the one who tells you the biggest number gets the board up. Everyone in the office knows the price is optimistic. The vendor hears the number they wanted. Twelve weeks later it's a reduction, and somehow that's framed as the market softening rather than the valuation being a pitch. I'm not saying every agent does it. Plenty are straight as a die and I worked with some of the best. But the incentive is baked in. You get paid to list, and the easiest way to list is to be the most flattering person in the room. The good agents win the honest way. They tell you the number that sells, back it with comparables, and take the awkward conversation on day one instead of week twelve. If you're picking an agent, don't pick the highest valuation. Pick the one who can defend their number without flinching. The frontline experience is exactly why I wanted property people talking to each other in a space of their own, not being sold to by outsiders who've never done the job. Did you pick your agent on the valuation figure?

Posted by Chris at 2026-07-09 07:25:22 UTC