My first ever valuation

My first ever valuation.

 

My first ever valuation on my own still haunts me to this day. I find myself telling this story to people all the time. So here goes. I hope you enjoy it as at the time I certainly didn't.

I was 19 years old and had been working for a local estate agent for about 4-5 months when they decided time was right for me to go on my first valuation. I had been shadowing the senior valuer for about 3 weeks, watching him perform various valuations and in all honesty as a cock sure young lad I thought I could do it better so armed with some newspaper cut outs (yes newspaper cut outs as the birth of rightmove plus had yet to happen) and my marketing literature I set off to a 3 bedroom semi detached which was situated on a street which was known by the others in the office to be ex-council 3 bed semis all very similar.

I pull up a few doors away from my target house and as the guys in the office had informed me I was in and amongst a street of ex council houses until I look up and realise that the property I'm going to value number 79 was infact 1 of a pair of semis that were not your standard 3 bed semi, it was f*****g huge! Straight away the fear of the unknown struck me and I was bricking it. I thought I knew what I was coming to value, all my comps were completely useless and I'm panicking like the time I was 3 years old and my dad put me in a tree and pretended to walk off.

I knock on the door and I'm greeted by an elderly couple and immediately I'm made to feel at ease. They were such a lovely couple. We sat Down and had a brief chat about the local neighbourhood. I quickly found out that the couple had been living in the house for 40 years and they were thinking of downsizing.

We started the' grand tour' of the house with Mr S, whilst Mrs S shouts out "would you like a coffee?". Not wanting to offend I agree to a coffee and she sets about making it in the kitchen. Mr S shows me the lounge, dining room, 'parlour room' (you know the room where nobody is allowed to sit but it has the best sofa,  the best ornaments and the family portraits hanging everywhere). As we walked into the kitchen I can see Mrs S making the coffee, she's warming the milk up on the hob! I'm in for a treat when I drink this coffee!! 

Mr S finishes showing me the rest of the property which is nothing like my comps but I'm happy because I'm getting on well with the owners and things are going smoothly.

We sit down in the lounge, coffee at the side of me, comps on my lap. We talk about the house and how large it was in comparison with the others on the street. 

I'm feeling good because I have built up the relationship so I gave my price, then ..silence followed by Mrs S squealing "your joking arnt you??" Mrs S has a very angry face and all the hard work of building the relationship is destroyed in an instant. I've clearly offended them. I try and take a few moments so I grab my coffee.(biggest mistake I have ever made) 

I take a sip when I feel a tremendous pain on my top lip. The hob warmed milk was so hot it had formed a skin on the top of the coffee and as my lip touched the coffee, the skin had wrapped around my top lip and wouldn't let go. The only thing I could do was put the coffee down and proceed to try to get the skin off of my lips as quickly as possible before it gave me a 3rd degree burn. I was pulling at my lips, eyes streaming and in incredible pain when Mrs S shouts out "what's wrong with my coffee?" Great I've now offended her with the valuation and now I've offended her coffee making skills. I wanted the ground to eat me up. Mrs S was absolutely seething, me on the other hand was panicking and in pain.  Mrs S asked me to leave and to be honest I was glad, I didn't even leave my business card.

I couldn't get out of the valuation quick enough. The pain on my lips was immense.

For some strange reason this wasn't enough to put me off of this industry.