Research squeezed in before the car park
The valuer has three market appraisals tomorrow. For each one they check recent sales nearby, look for the property's last listing and photos, check the EPC, find out whether your branch has sold on that street, and count how many registered buyers are looking for something similar. Each lookup is on a different website or screen. It takes most of an hour per appointment, and on busy days it gets done in the car outside the house.
The vendor notices the difference between a valuer who has done the homework and one who has not.
Why preparation is so slow
The information exists, but it is spread across public records, data subscriptions, the portals and your own CRM, and none of them talk to each other. Every appraisal needs the same set of lookups, done by hand, in the same order, by a senior person whose time is expensive.
Some useful facts are easy to miss when rushing, such as a previous listing of the same property that failed to sell, or a recent sale by your own branch two doors down.
| Preparation item | Where the valuer looks |
|---|---|
| Recent nearby sold prices | Public records or a data subscription |
| Property's past listings and photos | Portal history or data provider |
| EPC rating and floor area | Public EPC register |
| Your own nearby sales | Your CRM |
| Matching registered buyers | Your CRM, run as a search |
| Local listings now competing | The portals |
What rushed preparation costs
A market appraisal is a competition. Vendors often see several agents, and the one who walks in knowing the house's history, the street's recent sales and how many ready buyers are registered stands out. A rushed valuer relies on generalities.
Preparation also affects consistency. When one valuer researches thoroughly and another does not, the branch gives vendors different quality of advice depending on who turns up. And the hour spent on lookups is an hour not spent on another appraisal or on following up the last one.
The pre-appraisal pack we build
- Trigger: when a market appraisal is booked in your CRM, the pack is prepared automatically for the valuer, ready before the appointment.
- Sold evidence: recent recorded sales nearby are pulled from the sources you are entitled to use, filtered by property type and distance, and shown with dates and sources.
- Property history: past listings, recorded sales and the public EPC details for the address, where available.
- Your branch's evidence: your own recent sales nearby and the number of registered applicants whose criteria fit this type of property.
- Competition: similar properties currently listed nearby.
- One page on the phone: the pack is laid out as a single readable page on the valuer's phone or tablet, with space for their own notes that feed back into the CRM.
The pack gathers facts. The valuation itself, and any advice on price and strategy, is the valuer's professional judgement.
What your valuers get
Every appraisal starts with the same thorough preparation, done without the valuer lifting a finger. They arrive knowing the house's history and the local evidence, and they can show the vendor your branch's own nearby sales and how many buyers you already have. The time saved goes into the conversation with the vendor.
Because notes taken during the visit go back into the CRM, the follow-up after the appraisal starts with a complete record.
Is this your valuers' routine?
- Valuers do their own research before every appraisal.
- Preparation takes a long time and gets rushed on busy days.
- Useful facts like a failed previous listing are sometimes missed.
- Quality of preparation depends on which valuer attends.