Putting a value on a property is difficult. Get three estate agents through your door to put a figure on the worth of your home and they may all come back with variations on a theme. The figures they present can differ widely.
On Monday, property portal MyHome.ie - which is owned by The Irish Times - released a new tool to help agents understand recent transactions and make comparisons that go way beyond the selling price listed on the Property Price Register.
The user keys in the address and eircode and it puts a pin on the property on its map and shows 20 of the most recently-sold properties in the immediate area. It then shows what those properties sold for, their size in square metres, how many bedrooms and bathrooms they have, their BER rating and, helpfully, images of their interiors and exteriors so the agent can see the condition of each and make a better call as to where the unit they’ve been asked to value sits. It will also show when the residence was first listed and when it sold, explains John Callan, head of product at MyHome.ie.The user can also adjust the search to show 20 comparable properties
While MYVALU is a business-to-business tool, Callan says it could also be a really strong consumer tool for the homehunter and also for those in home ownership and considering bringing their property to market. They could also make use of such a tool to get an idea of the worth of their property, especially if divorcing or separating. It could also help homeowners to figure out what their property tax liability might be.
For now, the service is being offered to estate agents with subscriptions to the platform as part of their standard package.
“We want to create more tools and services to help them run their businesses more efficiently,” Callan says.
While the new tool works really well in towns and cities where there are plenty of similar stock styles to make comparisons, some rural properties may prove more difficult to value using the service. Myhome.ie has road-tested the tool with agents across the nation however, and is confident that it will deliver good results.
