The offer price is a decision with which you go to the market. To justify this decision you need a comprehensible property basis, suitable market indications and a separate view of your personal conditions. The following procedure is an editorial recommendation for a German residential property. It does not provide an automated valuation or a guaranteed sale price.
Define the property before you compare prices
Write down what your price is supposed to refer to: plot or flat, parking spaces sold with it, ancillary areas, inventory and the actual use. State the reliably known basis of area and the condition. Also note rights, lettings or other special features whose significance for the sale still needs to be clarified.
If a let unit and a free-to-use unit are mixed, the initial question can already be wrongly posed. Nor does an exact price per square metre help if its reference area is unclear. Have essential factual questions professionally assessed before releasing the price. An attractive calculation figure does not improve its underlying data.
Separate three levels of the price decision
The legal concept of market value (Verkehrswert) refers to the ordinary course of business at the respective point in time and to the characteristics and legal circumstances of the property; unusual or personal circumstances are disregarded. [BBAUG-194] Your financing needs can therefore determine your personal sale decision, but they do not thereby become a proven market characteristic.
Keep three results separate internally:
- Value orientation: What order of magnitude results from which professionally classified bases and under which assumptions?
- Offer price: With what amount and what actually described scope do you want to start?
- Personal decision threshold: Under which economic and temporal conditions is a sale sensible for you?
The last entry remains part of your internal planning. It does not have to become public, but it should be calculated realistically. A mere wish number does not support later negotiation.
Check comparative material before using it
Collect indications with date, source, property type, location, area, occupancy status, condition and discernible scope of the offer. Indicate whether an amount is a listing offer or a documented purchase price. Remove recognisable duplicate listings of the same property. Preserve the state at that time, instead of unnoticed counting a later changed listing as a new independent observation.
Our recommendation: Assign a short suitability justification to each comparable. A similar postcode is not enough if, for example, plot, letting status or condition are substantially different. Unknown features remain unknown. Do not invent percentage mark-ups or discounts to make an unsuitable comparison computationally fit.
The ImmoWertV requires sufficient feature conformity, temporal proximity as well as suitability testing and, where necessary, adjustment for comparable prices. The comparative value method uses sufficiently suitable comparables or corresponding adjusted factors. [IMMOWERTV_2022-24] [IMMOWERTV_2022-25] These requirements serve here as guidance for commissioning a valuation; your private comparison list does not thereby become an expert report.
At the local appraisal committee (Gutachterausschuss) you can clarify which market reports and information are available for your project. The statutory purchase price register is based on transmitted contracts; information from it is governed by legitimate interest and regional legal provisions. [BBAUG-195] A public portal does not automatically provide you with access to every individual purchase price.
Turn uncertainty into a decision
When obtaining a professional assessment, have explained which assumptions underpin the order of magnitude and what would change them. With significant open points, the clarification of the assumption is initially the result. An ever-widening price range only conceals the problem.
Also calculate your likely available proceeds: assumed sale price minus property-related clarified redemptions, costs and possible taxes. Use personal amounts and separately labelled reserves; the article does not state typical percentages. If the viable market range does not reach your necessary personal threshold, a new financial or sales decision is required. Simply setting the public price to the needed sum does not close the gap.
A completely invented price decision
For a fictitious flat there is a justified professional estimate of €430.000 to €450.000. All figures are invented, not current market data. The flat is to be offered together with the parking space described therein. The owner decides on €445.000 as the starting price and records why this lies within her assessed basis.
She excluded a higher comparison listing: it concerns a larger, differently equipped unit. Her internal revenue calculation also works with a lower sale within the examined range. She thus has a reasoned starting decision; neither the starting price nor the estimate guarantee the later sale.
It would be different if her necessary personal threshold were €470.000. Then she would have to clarify before the start whether and how her conditions can be changed. The lack of coverage would not be a justification for claiming an unsubstantiated market value of €470.000.
Set the review before the start
Write a short price note: scope of the property, status of documents, value orientation used, excluded comparisons, approved starting price and assumptions still open. Also determine a sensible review point for your specific marketing, without making it a general sales deadline.
In the review, qualified follow-up questions, viewings and concrete full offers together with the market and property status count. Clicks alone do not explain an appropriate price; a single critical piece of feedback does not justify a particular discount. Decide afterwards which assumption has changed and which new basis supports a price change. That way a reasoned follow-up decision is created instead of a series of random price movements.