I tried a free Purplebricks virtual house valuation – and I was surprised at how easy it was

Selling your house is a bit of a rollercoaster. I know this, because I've just gone through this stressful process myself. And it all started with a phone call to the estate agency.

We had quite a few agencies on our high street, but plenty of houses in our area were marketed by Purplebricks. So it made sense to ask them to value our property, too.

To be sure of what our house was worth, my wife and I enlisted two traditional estate agents, and we signed up for a free valuation from Purplebricks. They were the quickest to respond, and the first agency to have availability.

Lizzie Bennett was our valuer, and she dropped me a message shortly before the time and date we'd set to check we were good to go.

To my surprise, the valuation was virtual. Lizzie invited me to a call on either WhatsApp or Microsoft Teams, and, on the dot of noon, she called up.

I must admit, I was sceptical about a virtual valuation. Lizzie was very thorough in her digital tour of my house, garden, and driveway, but I wondered how accurate a valuation could be from an agent who hadn't actually stood in the house.

But it turns out there's far more to the craft of valuing houses than just walking from room to room. Lizzie guided me through a piece of software she uses that analyses the area we live in, examining house prices, the lengths of time it takes to sell them, and what values have been realised for similar properties.

It's a deeper version of some basic analysis we'd already done ourselves, but it was very insightful, and having an expert guiding us through her findings was really interesting.

We had a figure in our heads of what we were expecting to ask for when we went on the market. Our mortgage advisor had already told us what we'd be index-linked to, and Purplebricks would give us an official figure to work with.

Happily, Lizzie suggested we should go on slightly above our expectations, given what we'd done to improve the house in the nine years we'd been here, and given the demand in the local area.

She briefly discussed selling fees and options but at no point was there any hard sell. The same can't be said for one of the agents that visited later that week.

In fact the whole process of getting a virtual valuation with Purplebricks was a delight. We needn't have bothered doing such a frantic job of tidying the house, Lizzie was warm, friendly, and chatty, and never pushy in any way. The call was over within an hour, and our official valuation arrived by email within minutes of the call ending. She even got a quote for conveyancing, which was handy.

Lizzie's valuation was pretty much identical to the figure quoted by the other two traditional estate agents that came to visit, both of whom had sold countless properties in the area, so it appears the virtual valuation is effective.

👉 Thinking of moving? Get a free valuation from Purplebricks: click here

And in the end, we fell very lucky. The following weekend some friends who were looking for a house came to see ours, before we'd come close to instructing an agent. They loved it and made us an offer. It saved us a hefty estate agent fee, and Lizzie graciously admitted defeat and wished us well. We’re now settled in to a new house a few miles away and glad the moving process is behind us.

It's completely free to book a valuation with Purplebricks, and if we'd gone ahead with them, the fees would have been at least half the price of the traditional agents.

Sometimes it's nice to have the personal touch, and speak to someone in person, but to get a figure to work on from a professional, it's really not that necessary any more.

• RELATED: Make memories and save up to 50% at Flamingo Land Theme Park & Zoo (aff)
• RELATED: £75 TOG24 waterproof jacket reduced to £30 in clearance sale
• RELATED: This simple phone upgrade could save your holiday when mobile data fails