Starting the search again
A valuer is preparing a valuation of a semi-detached house on an estate your practice has valued many times. They open the sold price data, filter the street and the surrounding roads, and start picking out sales. Then they look for details: floor area, condition, extensions, parking. Some of that comes from listing archives, some from memory, some from a colleague who inspected next door last year.
That colleague's notes, measurements and photos are in their own valuation file. Nobody can search them. So the valuer rebuilds knowledge the practice already had.
Why your own evidence is invisible
- Past valuations are stored as reports, not as searchable data.
- Details that make a comparable useful, such as floor area and condition, are inside reports and notes.
- Each valuer keeps personal spreadsheets of evidence.
- Public sold price data lacks the property detail a valuer needs.
- There is no record of how a comparable was adjusted and why.
What rebuilding evidence costs
Valuer time on research that repeats earlier work. Inconsistency, where two valuers pick different evidence for similar properties. Weaker files, where the reasoning behind a figure is harder to follow if questioned. And knowledge that leaves when a valuer does.
| Evidence detail | Where it is now | In the comparables store |
|---|---|---|
| Sale price and date | Public data, searched each time | Loaded and searchable by area |
| Floor area | Inside past reports | Extracted and held against the property |
| Condition and extensions | Valuer's notes and photos | Recorded from your inspections |
| Adjustments made | In the valuer's head | Recorded with the reason |
| Who inspected | Buried in files | Linked to the valuer and report |
The comparables store we build
- Public sold price data your practice is licensed or entitled to use is loaded and refreshed on a schedule.
- Your past valuations and survey reports are read, with a language model extracting property details such as floor area, type, age, construction and notable features, and a person checking a sample.
- Each new valuation adds its property to the store as it is completed.
- A search screen lets a valuer find evidence by distance, type, size and date, showing public data and your own records side by side.
- Valuers record which comparables they relied on and any adjustments, with a note of the reason, which is saved with the valuation file.
- Access follows your data protection policy, so personal data from past reports is limited to what the purpose needs.
Selecting and weighting evidence, and forming the valuation, are the valuer's professional judgement under the standards they work to. The store makes the evidence easier to find and the reasoning easier to record.
What valuers get
A search that returns the practice's own knowledge of a street, alongside sold prices, in the time it used to take to open one portal. A clearer file, with evidence and adjustments recorded as part of the work. Consistency across valuers. And a store that grows more useful with every job.
For partners, the store also shows where the practice has deep local knowledge and where it is thin, which can inform decisions about panel coverage.
It helps with private work as well. When a buyer asks during a Level 3 survey whether the agreed price looks sensible, or a probate client needs a figure, the valuer can see how the practice has seen that street before. Any view they give is still theirs, but they reach it with the practice's full knowledge rather than their own memory alone.
Is this your valuation research?
- Valuers start comparable research from scratch each time.
- Your past reports hold details nobody can search.
- Valuers keep personal evidence spreadsheets.
- Adjustments to comparables are not recorded consistently.
- Local knowledge leaves when a valuer does.