Why a sales valuation should be ambitious – but not too high

A sales valuation answers one specific question: what is this home likely to sell for within the next 3-6 months? Not what you hope to get, and not what your neighbour got three years ago. That is the test you can hold any valuation up against, whoever has made it.

An ambitious valuation hits the realistic sale level within that window. An overvalued home, on the other hand, promises a price the market will not pay, and the difference between the two is considerable.

Estate agents’ valuations typically land within ±5-7 % of the actual sale price. That is a narrow band, and in areas with few sales the deviations grow larger, because there are fewer comparable sales to work from.

The cost of pricing too high can be measured in time. A home priced 10 % above market value sells on average 60-100 days more slowly than a correctly priced home, and condition alone can make two homes with identical key figures differ by ±15-25 % in sale price. That is why a valuation cannot be done from behind a desk. The home has to be inspected.

Four ways to value your home

There are several ways to value a home, and they are far from equally accurate. Some take a minute and are based on register data; others require a visit and genuine knowledge of the market on your street. The difference in uncertainty is so great that the figure you end up with only makes sense if you know which method lies behind it.

The difference between ±20-30 % and ±5-7 % is big. It decides whether you have a sound basis for a decision or a guess with lots of digits. That is why the choice of method matters more than the figure itself when you are using a valuation to set your price.

Why some estate agents’ valuations end up too high

When a valuation comes out too high, it is rarely a sign of bad faith. It typically happens where your expectations of the home meet the agent’s wish to win the listing. That is why it is worth knowing the patterns that make a valuation drift upwards.

Three pitfalls come up again and again when an agent values a home too high. The first is comparing it with what the neighbour got, even though his home’s condition, his negotiating skills, his agent and the timing of his sale may have been completely different from yours. The second is including investments that the market does not reward in the sale price. The third is clinging to 2022 prices, even though the market corrected in 2022-2023.

It is worth separating the two kinds of investment, because they behave very differently in a valuation. A new kitchen for 150.000 kr. and a new bathroom for 100.000 kr. can add 8-15 % to the sale price, and kitchens and bathrooms are the renovations with the highest percentage return. A pool for 300.000 kr. or a fully fitted sound system, on the other hand, is often not reflected in the market price. Buyers see them as a bonus, not as something they will pay extra for.

A valuation that is too high has consequences you can measure. The home stays on the market too long, and its status turns into the question no seller wants hanging over them: “why isn’t it selling?” In the end the price has to be cut, and it often lands below the level that would have been realistic from the start.

Figures for Københavns Kommune (the City of Copenhagen) show that this is no rare phenomenon. The number of price reductions on flats rose from 87 in December 2025 to 381 in June 2026, and the share of homes for sale with a price reduction went from 12,4 % to 20,7 % over the same period. That is a lot of sellers who have had to come down from a price the market would not pay.

Some agents tie sellers in or have an incentive to pitch the price too high to win the listing, after which the price has to be cut if the sale does not get going. Brikk has no tie-in and therefore no incentive to overvalue your home, so the figure you get is ambitious and realistic at the same time.

What time on the market and price reductions tell you about the valuation

Time on the market and price reductions are the two most concrete signs of whether a valuation holds up. A price that is never met, and a reduction that grows month by month, say more about the market than any agent’s presentation. You can look up both yourself before you decide who should sell your home.

Boligsiden (a Danish property portal) shows two figures, and it is worth knowing the difference. One is the current time on the market, i.e. how many days the home has been listed with the agent who has it now. The other is the total time on the market, which counts every day with every agent within the last 3 years, including periods when the home has been withdrawn from sale. Switching agents does not reset the total time on the market, so a home with 400 days behind it still appears as a 400-day home, however fresh the advert looks. It is the total time on the market that reveals whether the home has really been hard to sell.

A long time on the market comes at a clear cost. A home with a total time on the market of 200+ days typically sells for 8-15 % below market price, because the long time on the market creates a stigma in itself. Buyers read all those days as a sign that something must be wrong, and they bid accordingly.

So the discount grows over time, and that is why you should price correctly from day 1. By comparison, the normal total time on the market for an owner-occupied flat is 30-70 days in an active city area but 200-400 days in a weak market, while the average for detached houses is about 334 days. A realistic valuation is one that places your home in the range the market actually delivers, not the one you are hoping for.

How to get an independent, honest valuation

The best way to protect yourself against a valuation that is too high is to get several valuations and compare them. With the figures side by side, it becomes clear who has done the maths on your street and who has done the maths on winning a sale.

So you should compare valuations from at least two or three different estate agents rather than taking the highest and running with it. The highest is often the one that costs you the most in the end. An independent estate agent with no chain affiliation finds it easier to give you an honest valuation, because the figure does not have to fit a particular chain’s sales statistics or a particular price level. Boligvurdering.dk matches you with up to three local agents who know the local market, regardless of chain affiliation, so you can compare the figures yourself and see where they differ.

The visit typically takes 1-2 hours in total and has three parts:

• 30-60 minutes go on preparation, with the agent going through BBR (the Danish building register), previous sales and comparable sales in the area.

• 30-60 minutes are spent on inspecting the home itself.

• 30-90 minutes afterwards go on the written valuation and a sales budget.

At the same time, local price differences are so large that a valuation is only as good as the knowledge of the specific street. In Hedehusene (2640), prices per square metre range from 13.750 kr. to over 42.000 kr. within the same postcode. Vallensbæk Strand (2665) is at 26.000-31.000 kr./m², against 17.000-24.000 kr./m² in Hedehusene five kilometres away. An agent who works at postcode level rather than street level can be off by tens of millions.

If the valuation is to be used for a division of assets after a divorce, an inheritance or a court case, a free estate agent valuation is not enough. A paid surveyor’s valuation costs 3.500-8.000 kr. and carries legal weight that the agent’s free figure does not have.

Brikk: An ambitious valuation with no tie-in

An agent who ties you in may be tempted to set the price too high to win the listing, and then the price has to come down afterwards if the sale does not happen. Brikk has no tie-in and therefore no incentive to overvalue your home. At Brikk you get an ambitious but realistic valuation, and the figure has to hold all the way to a sale.

Brikk says “Fair price – sell from just 22.500 kr. with no tie-in”, and the most popular package, in which a local Brikk agent handles the viewings, costs 34.500 kr. The only difference between the two is who shows the home. The low price comes down to how the business is built. There are no bank owners or shop owners who need a share of the fee, and no expensive middlemen. The model is built around the local agent, online marketing and specialists who handle the administration of the sale.

If you want a Brikk valuation, it takes place at your home. You book your free sales valuation online, choosing a date and time, and a local valuation specialist then comes to see you. It is the same person who later values the home, handles the viewings, follows up on interested buyers and guides you through the whole sale if you decide to go ahead.

Owner Sebastian Kirchhoff sums up the approach like this: “You should meet an agent who listens, gives you an honest valuation and advises you throughout the sale.”

The heart of the matter is that an ambitious and realistic valuation is the only one that can hold all the way to a sale. It should not impress you at the meeting, but match what the market will actually pay once the home is up for sale, and it is independence that makes the figure credible, because there is no incentive to push it up. You can book a visit for your free sales valuation online and get a figure you can count on.

Also read: How estate agents value a home