First Principles Beat First Impressions

A comparative market analysis is a plain list of what similar properties nearby have actually sold for, drawn from registered transfers, and its only job is to tie the asking price to what buyers have really paid. It is the first principle of pricing a house. Everything else, the lovely kitchen and the big garden included, is impression.

Impressions are pleasant to hear in a lounge, and an owner meeting several agents will often lean toward the one who names the highest figure, as if that agent believes in the house more. But most buyers can only pay what a bank will lend them plus whatever deposit they have saved, and the bank sends its own valuer, who looks at the same kind of sales evidence. A price far above it leaves the house waiting while the listing ages. When the price finally comes down, it often lands below where it would have sold at the start, because buyers have begun asking what is wrong with the place.

The agent who measured the rooms, asked about the roof and came back with a list of sales was not being gloomy. That agent was answering the question the bank will ask anyway. The bank's question is the one that decides.