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Perhaps the most important issue in the whole process of selling a property is determining the price at which it should be listed. While a seller expects to get the highest possible price for his property, a buyer will always try to buy that same asset for the lowest possible price. It will, therefore, be somewhere in the middle of these two extremes that these conflicting positions will be reconciled and a sale will actually take place.

Regardless of type, state of repair or location, each property has a value, which can be expressed in euros or any other currency. We would like to shine a light on the task of finding a value and a price for a property.

First of all, a property does not exist in a vacuum. A house, a plot of land or an apartment will always be compared with other similar objects, either by the seller or the buyer(!). For objects with very similar characteristics, the comparison process may be easier than for very different objects. Two apartments with the same layout, on the same floor, with the same number of bedrooms and identical areas, in the same building and with the same solar orientation, must surely be considered to have an almost identical value. Once you know the price of one, it will be a relatively simple task to find the price for the other.

On the other hand, two rural properties in Portugal will almost never have similar characteristics; one may have a larger plot of land, the other has a house in better state of repair, the locations and views will certainly not be identical, and then there are also issues related to the existence of water, the quality of the soil, the number, distance and type of neighbours, etc.

In any case, you always have to set a price to put a property on the market, no matter how unique the property may be. And this is what happens in reality, every day and in every region of Portugal.

One of the first steps for a potential seller is often to search online for similar properties in their region or locality. However, in addition to the comparison obstacles mentioned above, there is another difficulty with this method: the prices at which the properties are presented are always the prices that have been determined by the owners of the property. . A real estate agency can – and should – give an indication of the market price for a property, but the owner will always have the final say in the matter.

So these sets of prices, which are accessible both online and from real estate agencies, can represent very different things. If we look at property prices on idealista, imovirtual or any other website, for example, there is no way of determining whether the prices we see are purely the result of the owner’s expectations or whether a more neutral and objective analysis has been used to determine the price.

This neutral and objective analysis can be provided by real estate agents. . One of the reasons for this is that, unlike most home-owners, real estate agents don’t usually have an emotional relationship with the property for which they have to determine a value and price. The real estate agent’s view is also more objective because the agent’s perspective has only one purpose: to sell the property at the best possible price given the current market situation.

To a certain extent, the real estate agent shares with the owner the expectation of selling the property at the highest possible price, because the real estate commission – as a general rule – works as a percentage. The higher the selling price of the property, the higher the commission. However, the agent knows that they will only be entitled to the commission if the property is actually sold. And in this respect, the rationality of the real estate agent will dictate that the closer a property is placed on the market to its real value, the greater the chance of finding a buyer willing to pay that price.

Determining a market price for a given property is not an exact science and different agents may arrive at different price indications. While we don’t want to go into any more detail about the fact that some agents inflate their prices in order to get a listing, the simple truth is that real estate agents are also fallible. However, real estate agents have a great advantage: in addition to working with a considerable number of properties in their area on a daily basis, they accompany the sales process from start to finish and are present at all the deeds. Real estate agencies therefore have access to real, up-to-date information on the final price at which a property was sold and are ideal interlocutors for determining the most appropriate price for a property.

If you would like to receive a professional and objective price quote for your property, please do not hesitate to contact us.