Evaluation reports remove “smoke and mirrors” from home valuations

The Rawson Property Group have recently launched an evaluation system designed to help agents provide clients with a deeper understanding of their properties’ positioning in the market. Far more than a simple statistics compiler, the new tool ties closely into the Rawson brand’s mission to demystify the property industry, and aims to remove the “smoke and mirrors” from the valuation process.

“Accurately valuing a property involves much more than just crunching numbers,” says the Rawson Property Group’s Brand and Communications Manager, Debbie Reabow. “Market behaviour and statistics are important, but agents also need to be able to put a value to the style, condition and ambiance of a home. That’s fairly easy to do as a professional with a good understanding of what buyers in an area are looking for – and finding – but it can be difficult to explain to homeowners who don’t have that kind of market exposure.”

Because of this, Reabow says many homeowners never fully understand how agents arrive at their final value estimations, leaving them less able to make informed decisions when setting a listing price for their home.

“What we’re trying to do with our new-style evaluation reports is explain all the factors that contribute to a property’s market value in a more transparent way that’s easy for homeowners to understand,” she says. “That includes listing all the necessary statistics, but also goes into detail on subjective aspects like ambiance and style, and how those are likely to affect buyers’ perceptions.”

On the statistics side, the Rawson valuation system enables agents to draw data from several of the most reliable industry information centres and collate it into a cohesive overview of market activity, ownership and price trends in an area.

“We also provide information on how a property compares to the average in terms of location, features and amenities,” says Reabow, “but the most eye-opening part for a lot of our clients is when we get to our visual property comparisons.”

This section of the report allows agents to include details of currently listed or recently sold properties with similar features, and of a similar size, to the home being valued. It includes their original listing price, actual selling price, and key details like erf size, bedrooms, bathrooms and parkings, as well as multiple, high-quality photographs showing fittings, finishes and flow. Agents can then add comments to draw attention to specific similarities or differences that impact their assessment of the property under valuation.

“It’s a lot easier to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your home when you can see the properties it’s competing with,” says Reabow. “It’s no longer a matter of taking an agent’s word for it – owners have visual evidence of how their homes compare.”

This kind of transparency, Reabow says, is a vital step towards building trust between agent and owner, and enabling owners to make more confident property decisions.

“There is nothing more powerful than an experienced agent’s instincts when it comes to valuations,” she says, “but when you’re contemplating selling a huge asset like a home, it’s understandable that you’d want to back that up with some cold, hard facts. Our valuation reports allow our agents to present those facts alongside their professional opinions in an easy-to-digest way, giving homeowners a far more complete picture of their properties’ market potential.”

To schedule a valuation for your home, click on the button above and fill in the request form on the valuations page. Alternatively, get in touch with your nearest Rawson franchise, and ask your neighbourhood experts to pay you a call.