Should I list with the agent who gives the highest appraisal?

Not on the number alone. An appraisal is an opinion produced while competing for your listing, and it binds nobody. The industry term for winning an appointment with an inflated figure and working the price down later is buying the listing. Ask each agent for the recent comparable sales behind their number, and compare the evidence rather than the figures.

What is the difference between an appraisal and a registered valuation?

An appraisal is a licensed agent's opinion of likely selling price, usually free and usually given while seeking your listing. A registered valuation is an independent assessment by a registered valuer, produced for a fee and often commissioned by a lender. They serve different purposes and can give quite different numbers.

Is the rateable value a good guide to what my house is worth?

No. Rateable values are mass-assessed on a revaluation cycle to apportion council rates across a district. They are not produced to price an individual property on a particular day, and the gap between a rateable value and a market price can be large in either direction.

How long should I wait before reducing the price?

The market usually tells you within about three weeks, through behaviour rather than feedback. Plenty of online views but few viewings suggests presentation or price; no views at all suggests the price has put you in the wrong search bracket. Waiting costs you carrying costs every week, so early correction is generally cheaper than a long hold.

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Pricing Your Home to Sell

Step 6 of 14 in the pathway Selling your home

Previous: The agency agreement, before you sign · Next: The paperwork a buyer will check

General information, not legal advice. Selling a property in New Zealand turns on the exact wording of the documents you sign, and this guide describes how the process generally works rather than what your agreement says. Have a property lawyer read any agency agreement and any sale and purchase agreement before you sign it, not after. That review costs far less than either document going wrong. If you have a problem with a licensed agent, the Real Estate Authority runs a free complaints process, and settled.govt.nz is its independent consumer guidance.

🏷 Price Is the Decision Everything Else Reacts To

For a buyer, price is an outcome. For a seller it is an input, and almost every other choice in the sale is downstream of it. It sets which buyers see the listing, how the first two weeks go, and whether you end up negotiating from strength or from a property that has been sitting.

                Key point: An appraisal is an opinion of likely selling price, produced by someone who wants your listing. A registered valuation is an independent professional assessment produced for a fee. They are different documents with different purposes, and confusing the two costs sellers money.
            

The three numbers people mix up

Number	What it is	Who produces it
Appraisal	An agent's opinion of likely sale price	A licensed agent, free, when competing for your listing
Registered valuation	An independent assessment for a defined purpose	A registered valuer, paid, and usually commissioned by a lender
Rateable value	A mass-assessed figure for setting rates	The council, on a cycle, not for sale pricing

The rateable value is the one most often quoted in conversation and the least useful of the three. It is produced in bulk on a revaluation cycle to apportion rates, not to price an individual house on a given day.

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📈 The Appraisal Gap

If you invite three agencies to appraise your house you will usually get three different numbers, and the temptation is to list with the highest. That is the decision this section exists to slow down.

An appraisal is produced in a competitive situation. The agent giving it knows the other two are coming, and knows that the number is the thing you will remember. A high appraisal wins the listing. It does not bind the agent, it does not commit a buyer, and it is not what the property will sell for.

                Buying the listing: The industry term for winning an appointment with an inflated appraisal, then working the price down once the campaign has started and the vendor is committed. It is not universal and it is not always deliberate, but it is common enough to have a name, and the defence is simple: ask for the evidence rather than the number.
            

What to ask for instead of a number

The three to five recent sales the appraisal is based on, with addresses and dates.
Why each one is comparable to yours, and what adjustments were made.
What is currently listed and unsold in the same bracket, which is your real competition.
The agent's own recent sales: how many, and how the final prices compared with their appraisals.

Test an appraisal against the evidence with the agent appraisal reality check calculator.

🔍 Reading Comparable Sales Yourself

You do not need a licence to do this and it is the single most useful hour a seller can spend. The logic is simple: find properties that a buyer would consider genuinely interchangeable with yours, look at what they actually sold for, then adjust.

Same suburb, or a street a buyer would treat as equivalent

Sold within the last three to six months, not listed, sold

Similar land area, floor area and bedroom count

Similar condition and era, or adjust honestly for the difference

Adjusting without flattering yourself

Every seller believes their renovation is worth more than the market will pay for it, and most are wrong, because a buyer prices a finished kitchen against their own taste rather than against your invoice. Adjust for things a buyer can measure: an extra bedroom, a second bathroom, a garage, land area, sun. Adjust cautiously for things they cannot: your choice of tiles.

                Listed is not sold: Asking prices tell you what other sellers hope for. Sold prices tell you what buyers did. Only the second is evidence, and a street full of optimistic listings that have not moved is evidence of the opposite of what it looks like.
            

🎯 Price and Method Interact

How you price depends on how you are selling, and the two decisions should be made together rather than in sequence.

Method	What price does
Advertised price	Sets a ceiling; buyers rarely offer above it
Price by negotiation	Removes the ceiling but also removes the filter
Auction	No price; the market sets it, and your reserve protects you
Deadline sale	May or may not carry a price; creates a date rather than a number

An advertised price that is too high does not simply get negotiated down. It filters out the buyers who would have paid your real price, because they never open the listing. That is why an overpriced campaign often ends below where a correctly priced one would have finished.

                The first two weeks are the ones that count: New listings get the most attention in New Zealand's search-driven market. A property priced correctly gets its best buyers early. A property priced optimistically spends that attention proving it is expensive, and by the time the price comes down the buyers who mattered have moved on.
            

If you go to auction, the reserve is your protection. Work it out beforehand with the auction reserve calculator and see the auction vs deadline sale guide.

⏳ When the Price Is Wrong

The market tells you within about three weeks, and it speaks in behaviour rather than words. Read it early, because the cost of being wrong compounds while you wait.

Plenty of views online but few viewings: the price is wrong for the presentation.
Viewings but no second visits: the price is wrong for the property.
No views at all: the price has put you in the wrong search bracket entirely.
Offers clustered well below asking: that cluster is the market, not an insult.

                A cluster of low offers is data: If three unrelated buyers independently arrive at a similar number, that number is closer to the truth than your asking price. The expensive mistake is treating the first correction as a failure and waiting six weeks to accept the same figure.
            

Every extra week on the market costs you carrying costs. Put a weekly figure on it with the holding cost while unsold calculator, because it changes how a reduction feels.

🎯 Test Your Knowledge

Quiz on Pricing Your Home to Sell in NZ (10 Questions)

1. An appraisal is:

An independent valuation

An agent's opinion of likely sale price

A council assessment

A binding offer

2. A registered valuation differs from an appraisal because it is:

Free

Produced by an independent valuer for a fee

Always higher

Set by the council

3. The rateable value is designed to:

Price your house for sale

Apportion council rates

Set your insurance

Guide your mortgage

4. Buying the listing means:

An agent purchasing your home

Winning a listing with an inflated appraisal

Paying for advertising

Buying at auction

5. The best defence against an inflated appraisal is to ask for:

A higher number

The comparable sales it is based on

A discount on commission

A longer agency term

6. When reading comparable sales you should use:

Asking prices

Sold prices

Rateable values

Insurance valuations

7. Adjusting for your renovation should be done:

At full invoice cost

Cautiously, on what a buyer can measure

By doubling it

Not at all

8. An advertised price that is too high tends to:

Attract more buyers

Filter out the buyers who would have paid your real price

Guarantee a higher sale

Shorten the campaign

9. The first two weeks of a campaign matter because:

Commission is lower then

New listings get the most attention

Auctions must be held then

Councils inspect early

10. Three unrelated buyers offering a similar low number is:

A coincidence

An insult

Evidence of the market price

A negotiating trick

Related guides

Auction or deadline sale, how method and price interact.
Agency agreements, the contract signed at the same meeting.
The cost of selling, what price has to cover.

Official New Zealand sources

The rules described on this page come from these bodies. Each link goes to the page used, and each was checked on 15 August 2026.

Settled.govt.nz, getting your property appraised, what an appraisal is and how it differs from a valuation.
Real Estate Authority, the regulator for licensed real estate professionals in New Zealand.

This guide explains how the rules work. It is not legal advice about your own sale, and a property lawyer should review any agreement before you sign it.