Seller valuation appointments: preparing the visit

Make the valuation visit its own service, with a slot long enough to see the whole property and talk about the sale, and list in the description what the owner should have ready: the title deed or purchase documents, recent bills, energy performance certificate, any planning permissions and a list of works done. Ask in the booking note for the address, the type of property and the reason for selling. An owner who books a slot online and arrives prepared gives you a better visit, and a more accurate valuation.

For a seller, the valuation is the first real meeting with an agent. It's where they decide whether to trust you with the sale. For you, it's where a listing is won or lost. Squeezing it between two viewings, arriving late and leaving in a hurry sends the wrong message.

A valuation visit also takes a predictable amount of time: a tour of the property, measurements or a check of the stated surface, a look at the outside, the neighbourhood, and a conversation about price, timing and next steps. That makes it a good fit for a fixed slot that owners can choose themselves.

On Book, each service has a name, a price and an optional description shown on your public page. Each slot belongs to one service, with its own start and end. Owners pick a service, then one of its free slots. With one place per slot, a booked slot is full and disappears from your page.

Lengths are examples: set your own, and leave travel time between two visits. Valuations are shown as free in this example; if you charge for them, enter your price.

Put a short checklist in the service description. It helps the visit, and it shows the owner you know what you're doing before you've even met.

The public booking form asks for first name, last name, email and phone, plus an optional note that you read in your new-booking email. Ask for the address, property type and size, whether it's occupied or rented out, the reason and timeframe for selling, and whether other agencies have already been asked. You arrive knowing the context and can prepare comparable sales in the area.

Owners who work during the day may want early evening or Saturday morning visits, when they can be home and show the property themselves. Weekday daytime slots suit retired owners, or owners who work from home. One option is to keep a few evening and Saturday slots each week for valuations and use the rest of your week for viewings and paperwork. Create them on those weekdays and repeat them each week until a date.

One booking page covers your business; if several agents in your agency do valuations, one honest workaround is a service per agent, named after them, since Book doesn't assign bookings to staff members.

Send your written valuation within the time you promised in the description, then follow up. If the owner wants a second meeting to sign a mandate or discuss the price, book it with them from your calendar: first and last name are required, email and phone optional; with the email, they get a confirmation with a calendar file. Owners can't move bookings online: they contact you, and you reschedule or cancel from your bookings list, then confirm the change yourself, since Book doesn't email them about it.

Book costs €5/month, everything included: unlimited services and bookings, no commission, no contract.