Hi Fellow mustachians,
Anyone here has experience in valuating real estate online? There are websites like [real advisor](https://realadvisor.ch/en) and UBS immocheck which claims to provide reasonable estimates based on various parameters? Any idea how accurate these estimates are with respect to market value. Wondering if we are over paying for a property, current purchase price is in line with these online estimates.
Regards,
Element532
Banks check the plausibility of real estate value with IAZI - they offer as well a service for private clients
An important point to check IMO is the yield you would get if you had to let your object.
I do this by computing the ratio r/p (r = net rent, p = price) of similar objects in a given area.
To get those data, you can use Homegate, ImmoScout24, Comparis, etc. .
Then comes my question, which yield is interesting for you and where does it begins to stop being interesting?
For me it is at least 4%. I don’t find a lot of them. When it is the case, it is usually a 4-5 flats + extras (a commercial space or garages boxes etc), which means it is too big for a lot of buyers, yet too cheap for companies and funds.
I’ve tried UBS immocheck and it provides useful information on the area ( canton, village) were the house is located. you can compare with other villages/cities their “location rating” based on criteria like public transport, schools, distance from noise sources, … even population criteria like median salary in the area!
So I can recommend it to collect some information on the area.
Regarding the RE evaluation itself it’s not so useful since they are not going to reveal good data, they provide only a generic grade like “price in line” or “over/undervalued” with a really wide range. If the real value for the house is 1M CHF, their evaluation will say it’s fine from 900k to 1’100k.
~1 year ago you could bruteforce it testing many values to discover the full range and extract the average.
But now is blocked to 3 value evaluations per account.
Other free services have even wider range, like comparis.
as stated above by Bruenu IAZI is the official source used by banks, they collect past completed transaction value in the area and have a statistical database, in addition to other RE evaluation criteria. Their service cost 350fr per evaluation
UBS is using Wüest & Partner, not IAZI. So their estimate isn’t based on the real completed transaction values but on the publicly published prices with no correction for further price adjustments.
But both are rather good with a range of ±10%.
Thank you everyone for the inputs. We are looking at around 2.4% rental yield which quite normal in Zurich area. So far our purchase price is -10% to +5% range of various estimate, and even the bank who is offering us the mortgage said it is close to their estimate.
The online tools can be good for research about the area as jcd suggested, and for a proper valuation IAZI can used for additional fee.
Immoscout has a really interesting API: https://api.immobilienscout24.de/api-docs/market-analytics-and-valuation/overview/
However, you do have to get access to it by requesting permission.
I’ve personally done so a few weeks ago but I haven’t heard anything back yet.
And another one just found (it seems that those parameters are required):
https://www.wuestappraisal.com/?hash=f58f79e5716f978e456a77d3427d6ee4&lang=en&logo=1
~5.5% net (so, subtracting the “charges” / “Nebenkosten”: heating, water, common electricity,…) is good for an object in good shape without expensive equipment like a lift or a flat roof. Below that, be careful…
So I just tried out “neho” for a house that I know, and it gave a range 338k to 467k. That’s 405k +/- 16%, a spread of more than 30%. (Is that the same spread as other people get, or was “my” house a difficult one to value?)
Anyway, the price is in that range 
I know this valuation was free, but isn’t such a (big) range useless for anything more than a very very rough idea? On the other hand you enter such little data about the house, no wonder the uncertainty is so high. The question about the Swimming Pool gave me the impression this app was bought from a US company & not adapted to the local situation at all.
To me these “free valuations” are a way of collecting data. Let’s see how much spam or calls I get.
I tried everything posted here today and I already got an email about some investment in Dubai… So, as always, nothing is free, we just pay with our data.
I took a real estate course during my bachelor and one of the five speakers/themes was valuation. We learned about probably hundreds of different factors. Nothing we could really use in practice, but the theory was interresting anyway.
I doubt you’ll find many of those “high” yield objects in Zurich
You can also shop around for mortgages at banks and insurance companies and see what each evaluates the property, for free, actually they’ll offer you coffee and often chocolate 
(well it’ll cost you time)
When I visited basically all banks/insurance companies in Zurich to get the best mortgage, the valuations I got varied quite a lot, with a few banks evaluating our house some 15% more than the asking price, while others up to over 20% less.
Great job wasting others people time.
Well, it’s not really wasting people’s time, unless you are not really looking for a mortgage, that is.
I believe Neho works with a Swiss company for its valuations not an American one. But yes you are right about the calls. I tested their platform and it took some time before the calls stopped