Short answer: yes. Absolutely. The longer answer? One appraisal isn’t enough — and the agent who tells you it is probably isn’t the agent you want selling your biggest asset. I’ve been in real estate since 2002. I founded my own agency in 2006 and rebranded it as Naked Real Estate in 2012. Across that time, I’ve personally settled over 1,500 sales in the Perth Hills. And I’ve watched seller after seller leave hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table because they either skipped the appraisal process or trusted the wrong agent to do it. This isn’t a sales pitch. It’s a warning.

Why one appraisal isn’t enough

The journey from “we’re thinking about selling” to the SOLD sticker going up usually takes about six months. In our Perth Hills suburbs — Bedfordale, Kelmscott, Roleystone, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon and Seville Grove — the market has moved roughly 13.2% in the past six months. If you took an appraisal six months ago and list at that number today, you’re listing at yesterday’s price. You’re leaving money on the table before the first buyer walks through the door. Here’s the process I recommend to every seller: 1. Get an appraisal as soon as you start thinking about selling — even if you’re six months out. 1. Ask the agent for a list of improvements that could lift your final sale price. 1. Do the work (or pay someone to do it). 1. Get an updated appraisal before going to market. The first appraisal sets your baseline and your to-do list. The second appraisal captures what the market — and your improvements — have done since. Both are completely free. That’s the part most sellers don’t realise. You’re getting professional advice on your largest financial asset at no cost. Why wouldn’t you take it?

A real example — Bedfordale, six months ago

A few months back I appraised a deceased estate in Bedfordale. The kids were cleaning the place out and planning to take it to market as-is. My initial appraisal: $1.2 to $1.25 million I told them: get a skip bin in to declutter, throw on a fresh coat of paint, and if you can stretch to it, put new carpet in the bedrooms. None of those costs are fixed — a small skip bin and a single touch-up coat is a very different bill to a large skip and a full two-coat repaint right through the home — but for their place, the total came in modestly. They did the work. Honestly, I was surprised at how well they pulled it off. When I came back for the second appraisal, I revised my expectation up to $1.35 to $1.4 million. We listed it from $1.4 million. Three weeks later it sold for $1,515,000. Run the numbers. Top of the original “as-is” appraisal: $1.25 million. Final sale: $1.515 million. That’s a $265,000 difference — and it sold $115,000 above the asking price as well. That’s the case for getting an appraisal. That’s the case for actually listening to the recommendations.

What happens when you skip it

The flip side is just as real, and I see it constantly. A nearby property recently went to market with another agent. With a skip bin and some basic decluttering — maybe a weekend’s work — that home should have sold for $700,000 to $750,000. The other agent listed it at $600,000. It sold for $585,000. That’s a $115,000 to $165,000 hit because nobody took the appraisal process seriously. Here’s why this happens. When a buyer walks into a property and sees clutter, dated paint, worn carpet — they start a mental list. “I need to do this. I need to fix that. I need to take this off the price.” Every item on that list comes off your sale price. And once a buyer starts that calculation, you’ve lost negotiating power before the offer is even written. A good agent sees that list before the buyer does. A proper appraisal accounts for it and tells you what to fix — before it costs you tens of thousands.

Agent resistance — and why some sellers ignore the advice

Not every seller follows through on the improvement list. The pushback usually comes in three flavours: – “It’s not worth spending the money.” It almost always is. Look at the Bedfordale numbers again. – “Another agent told us we don’t need to bother.” That agent wants the easy listing. They’re not thinking about your wallet. – “There’s no one to do the work.” Sometimes that’s genuine — elderly owners, deceased estates, interstate sellers. In those cases, hire someone. It still pays for itself many times over. I get it. Spending money before you’ve made any feels backwards. But the math is the math. A modest investment in presentation often returns ten, twenty, fifty times that in sale price.

Agent appraisal vs bank valuation — know the difference

Here’s a confusion I want to clear up, because it trips sellers up constantly. A real estate agent’s appraisal is not a legal valuation. Real estate agents are registered or licensed real estate professionals — we’re not licensed valuers. We give you a market opinion based on comparable sales, current buyer demand and local knowledge. That’s powerful — it’s what actually gets your home sold for the highest price. But we cannot legally provide a written valuation for a bank, a court, or a legal proceeding. I see this come up in divorce cases. Solicitors will sometimes ask three agents in to provide appraisals to help establish a property value. More often than not the judge will look at them and say, “I want a licensed valuation from a licensed valuer” — and that’s a separate person, a separate process, and it costs money. So: – Need a number for a mortgage, a court matter, or a settlement? You need a licensed valuer. – Want to sell your home for the best possible price? You need a sharp real estate agent who knows your suburb cold. Two different jobs. Two different professionals.

Short timeline? You can still make it work

Sometimes life doesn’t give you six months. You need to sell in eight weeks, not half a year. The appraisal process is still essential — you just compress it. Focus on the fixes that move the dial fastest for the least money: – Declutter. A skip bin and a weekend. – Fresh mulch in the front garden. Sounds almost too simple, but it’s one of the most effective kerb-appeal upgrades there is. – Swap old lights for LEDs. Most are plug-in. A few need a quick electrician. The difference between a dim, dated room and a bright modern one is enormous — and buyers feel it the second they walk in. Even with a tight timeline, you can lift a home’s presentation significantly. A proper appraisal tells you exactly where to spend that limited time and money.

The industry problem nobody wants to discuss

Here’s the part of this industry I’ll say out loud when most agents won’t. Agents are trained — from day one — that the listing is what matters. To survive in real estate, you need to get the contract signed. That pressure leads to a practice we call conditioning. It works like this. An agent comes to your appraisal and tells you what you want to hear — a big number. Bigger than the next agent. Big enough to win the listing. You sign the contract, and then over the next five or six weeks the story slowly changes. > “The market’s softened.” > “Buyer feedback hasn’t been great.” > “We’re not getting the offers we hoped for.” > “You’ll need to drop the price.” That’s conditioning. The agent never believed in the price they quoted. They needed your signature. Now they need a sale — at any price — to get paid. And here’s the trap. Most agents will push you to sign on for 90 to 120 days. There’s no hard rule on listing length — you can technically agree to seven days if you want — but most sellers don’t realise that, and most agents won’t volunteer it. Once you’ve signed for the longer term, switching agents mid-contract risks you paying two lots of commission. The internet has made this worse, not better. Sellers come to appraisals armed with information they’ve pulled off Google — and a lot of it is dead wrong. That makes them easier to mislead with a flashy number from an agent who’s quoting to win, not to sell. At Naked Real Estate, we put a guarantee in writing in every appraisal pack. If you’re not happy at any stage, you can pull the pin. No commission trap. If we’re not doing the job, you’re not stuck with us. That guarantee exists because the industry needs it.

The bottom line

Do you really need a property appraisal before selling? Yes. You probably need two. And you definitely need an agent who’ll give you: – The honest number — not the inflated one designed to win the listing. – The honest improvement list — even if it means delaying the sale a few weeks. – The honest follow-through — backed by something more than a handshake. The appraisal is free. The conditioning game costs Perth Hills sellers tens of thousands of dollars every single week. If you’re thinking about selling in the next six months in Bedfordale, Kelmscott, Roleystone, Mount Nasura, Mount Richon or Seville Grove, get an appraisal now. Whether you call us or someone else, get one in writing, get a list of value-adding improvements, and ask the agent to back their number with something more than a smile and a signature. The wrong choice of agent can cost you tens of thousands. So why risk your biggest asset

Truth. Strategy. Sold.

Brendan Leahy is the founder and CEO of Naked Real Estate, specialising in the Perth Hills since 2006. In 2025 the team settled 79 sales at an average of 14.01% above list price. To book a free appraisal, call (08) 6254 6333 or visit nakedrealestate.com.au.