Estimating the price of a home does not mean walking into the flat, looking around and naming a figure after a few minutes.
Nor does it mean taking the floor area, multiplying it by an average price per square metre and hoping the result is correct.
A serious valuation requires real data, objective comparisons, market knowledge and a check of the documentation. Anything else risks being just an opinion and, when you have to sell one of the most important assets of your life, you cannot afford to base your strategy on an opinion.
A wrong price can cause two opposite kinds of damage.
If you start too low, you risk losing money from the outset. If you start too high, you drive away genuinely interested buyers, leave the property sitting on the market for months and may be forced to cut the price when the market has already begun to perceive the home as hard to sell.
Before going any further, however, it is important to distinguish between three concepts that are often confused: market value, asking price and final sale price.
Market value is the estimate of the most likely price the property could achieve at a given time and under normal market conditions.
The asking price, on the other hand, is a strategic choice: it is the figure at which the property is presented to buyers.
The final price will be the result of the interaction between demand, supply, the characteristics of the home and the ability to manage the negotiation.
To arrive at a reliable valuation and then set the right asking price, four precise analyses are needed.
1. SALES THAT HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN COMPLETED
The first reference point is not the properties currently advertised online, but those that have actually been sold.
The difference is crucial.
The price you find in a listing represents what an owner would like to get. The price stated in a notarial deed, on the other hand, represents what a buyer actually agreed to pay.
A flat may be advertised at €400,000, stay on the market for months and then be sold for €350,000. If you use the listing price as your reference, your valuation already starts from a figure that may not reflect reality.
That is why I analyse recently completed sales, looking for properties in the same building, on the same street or in a genuinely comparable area, with characteristics that are as similar as possible.
In my valuations I attach at least three notarial deeds for genuinely relevant sales, because owners must be able to understand where the stated value comes from.
A professional valuation should not simply state a figure, but should prove it with verifiable data.
Of course, the deeds must also be interpreted correctly.
Two homes in the same building may have been sold at very different prices because one is renovated, bright and has a terrace, while the other is on a low floor and needs major work.
Likewise, the date of the sale must be taken into account, because a deed signed several years earlier may not accurately reflect current market conditions.
The price stated in the deed is therefore a fundamental starting point, but it must be interpreted in relation to the date of the sale and the specific characteristics of the property.
2. SUPPLY AND DEMAND AT THAT MOMENT
The property market does not stand still.
The same home can have a different value at different times, even if its characteristics have not changed.
What can change is the number of buyers, the availability of similar properties, access to mortgages, interest rates and the appeal of a particular area.
Valuing a home while ignoring what is happening at that precise moment is a very serious mistake.
Imagine you have to sell a one-bedroom flat in an area where many similar flats are available.
Buyers will have plenty of choice and will compare every detail, from the price to the interior condition, looking for the best deal.
If, on the other hand, there are no other one-bedroom flats for sale in the same area and demand is strong, the scarcity of the product may allow the property to be positioned more ambitiously.
It is not only the home that determines the price.
The ratio between how many people are looking for that type of property and how many alternatives they can find also matters.
A good estate agent must be able to read this balance and identify the positioning that makes it possible to defend the value of the home without pricing it out of the market.
Because starting with a higher figure does not necessarily mean earning more.
If that price does not generate viewings and interest, it is not a strategy: it is just a number written in the listing.
3. THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HOME
Comparing two properties just because they have the same floor area is not enough.
A bright, quiet, renovated one-hundred-square-metre flat on the fifth floor with a lift cannot be valued in the same way as a flat of the same size on the ground floor, in need of renovation and with little light.
Every detail can increase or reduce the value.
The floor, orientation, brightness, view, quietness, presence of a lift, state of repair, layout, quality of the renovation, energy efficiency, terrace, balcony, parking space, garage, cellar and the condition of the condominium all matter.
So does the way these characteristics are perceived by buyers.
An extra room can be decisive for a family. An outdoor space can greatly increase interest. A high floor without a lift, on the other hand, can narrow the pool of buyers and make the sale more difficult, even if the flat is in good condition.
An impractical internal layout can also affect how the home is perceived.
A property may have a good overall floor area, but have very long corridors, rooms that are difficult to furnish or spaces that are hard to use.
The valuation must therefore analyse the home as a whole and not be limited to the land registry or commercial floor area.
Two properties with the same square metres can have completely different values and completely different abilities to attract buyers.
4. THE PROPERTY’S TECHNICAL AND DOCUMENTARY STATUS
A valuation carried out without checking the documents is incomplete and risky.
You may have a beautiful, well-located and apparently highly sought-after property, but if there are planning irregularities, land registry errors, unauthorised alterations or unresolved building applications, the property’s saleability, the timing of the transaction and the price that can actually be achieved may change significantly.
Valuing only what you see during the inspection means valuing walls and square metres without knowing whether what you are looking at actually matches what has been authorised and shown in the documents.
An enclosed veranda, a different internal layout, a room created where another space used to be, or an outdated floor plan may seem like details to the owner, but they can become major problems during the negotiation.
Some irregularities can be resolved with limited time and cost.
Others may require a retrospective regularisation, restoration to the original state or much more complex checks.
In certain cases they can slow down the sale, affect the price or jeopardise the mortgage application, even making financing impossible when the issue cannot be regularised.
That is why the documentation must be checked before the value is finally set and, above all, before a buyer is found.
The price of a home depends not only on what you can see, but also on what can actually and lawfully be transferred.
A VALUATION IS NOT A PROMISE
The highest valuation is not necessarily the best one.
Sometimes owners choose the professional who gives them the figure they most want to hear, without asking what data it was based on.
But promising a high price is easy.
Actually selling at that price is another matter.
A valuation should not be designed to win the owner over: it should help them make the right decision.
A professional valuation must be realistic, documented and consistent with the market.
It must explain which properties were used for comparison, what has actually been sold, how much demand there is, which characteristics make the home more or less competitive and whether there are any documentation issues to be resolved.
It must also make clear what the estimated value of the property is and what positioning strategy is recommended.
Only after this analysis is it possible to set the price at which to go to market.
Because the value of a home does not come from the owner’s hopes, from an estimate made by eye or from the prices asked in nearby listings.
It comes from the meeting point between what the property offers and what the market is actually willing to pay at that moment.
THE CHECK-UP IMMOBILIARE AVANZATO™ (ADVANCED PROPERTY CHECK-UP)
And it is precisely from this need that our Check-Up Immobiliare Avanzato™ was born: a complete analysis of the property before it is even put on the market.
Because setting a price without having checked the documents, studied the market and defined a strategy means starting out with a margin of risk.
The report includes a preliminary property due diligence, coordinated with the relevant professionals when necessary, to identify in advance any planning, land registry, mortgage or documentation issues.
It also includes a market analysis based on sales that have actually been completed and not just on the prices asked in listings, together with a strategic sales plan developed around the specific characteristics of the home and the owner’s objective.
All with a single goal: to present the property on the market in the best possible condition, defend its value and aim for the best price the market can realistically sustain, avoiding surprises that could slow down or jeopardise the negotiation.
Because a home should not simply be put up for sale.
First, it must be truly ready to be sold.