Preparing for remortgage valuation

straddie

Hi,

We have a surveyor coming to value our property for a remortgage. We're borderline on the LTV and need the highest valuation possible so we're having a standard valuation rather than a drive-by.

We've never had a house valued before, so I was wondering whether there is anything we should consider doing in preparation to encourage as high a valuation as possible, or whether there's not much one can really do in this situation - as its a remortgage not a sale it's not like we're trying to impress potential buyers with nice smells or have lots of photos taken etc. Obviously the house would want to be tidy and presentable etc, but I would imagine that a surveyor would see through most of the fluff and guff that vendors use to make a house look more attractive and valuable.

So with this in mind, are there any tips worth heeding? Or is it just a case of crossing fingers and various other extremeties?!

Thanks in advance.

ixwood

Make them a cuppa, get them onside and then cross your fingers?

Conrad

Stad

I think your instinct is correct - that there isn't anything you can really do that will alter a valuation, with the provisio that the place ought to be reasonably clean and tidy to include mowed lawns.

I'm afraid I must report that down valuations are the norm now. I've had 3 London properties all down valued by c15% in the last 3 months. I cite London as supposedly we were told London would hold up, ha! It's the same or worse with properties I've dealt with outside of London. One detatched home on a newish estate was valued at £425,000, whereas the owner had thought £550,000, and is a sensible chap.

The bottom line is that surveyors expect the continuing lack of mortgage money supply to cause prices to decline. Until lenders regain thier appetite, this will be the status quo. You cant put 1/2 the fuel in a tank and expect to travel just as far as you always did.

People think prices cant fall because they've bought into all this nonsense about supply and demand and armies of immigrants waiting to snap up those proerdee's.

With less money available prices ALWAYS fall, wheher it's cows, cars or houses.

silvercar

No harm in tidying up and making the place look and smell nice. Even though this is just a quick valuation, the surveyor will have in mind how the property would look if you needed to sell. Usual tricks: offer a coffee talk about how hard their job must be at the moment, but how interesting, flutter eyelashes etc.

If there are any problem areas, do your best to hide them away. Eg a coner prone to damp could have (neat) furniture against it , so the valuer is unlikely to choose that spot to use his damp reader.

straddie

Thanks for the info guys. Yes, I'm conscious that down values are the norm, we're expecting a lower valuation than we'd like and have funds in place to account for this, although obviously our funds are limited so we can only accommodate a certain amount of down valuing.

Another question I've got, a bit of a stupid one (but remember we've never had this done before!); is it best to point out the various features of the house to them whilst showing them round (there's a few features I want to make sure they appreciate such as scope to extend, a house over the road having just sold, underfloor heating etc), or is it best to leave them to themselves a bit? I don't want to do too much talking and get in their way if it's going to be counter productive!

Also, you mention the damp reading - what other checks are they likely to do whilst there?

davidla

We had a surveyor round last week for a revaluation. I had painted the window frames (as they were pretty tatty) and also the small entrance area by the front door (same reason). And we had a big tidy up the night before.
He asked my wife how we came to our valuation of £160K (we bought it 18 months ago for £150K) - she replied that our neighbours are trying to sell their (identical) property for £185K so we wanted to be conservative with our valuation.
How much did he value it at?
£160K! (Coincidence or not?)
David

stevie_wonder

As one poster said before, hide any obvious defects if there are any (such as damp,electrics, leaks, rotten floorboards, woodworm, etc) and clean and tidy up best you can. Other than that, its in the lap of the gods.

We bought our house for £190 in October 2006, and thought we'd sold it earlier this year (but fell through) for £205k. The surveyor valued at £175k, earlier this month, which is 15% off the peak price I reckon. Although it may be lower than we expected or lower than the "for sale" prices on our street, I believe the surveyors are building in some room for manoeuvre for further drops in price. Good luck, and hope you get in the right LTV bracket

PeteHi

best bit of advice is to leave them to it and don't follow them round into every room. There really is nothing more annoying as a surveyor

Its not going to be some in-depth survey where they will be pulling carpets up and going into your loft etc, so unless you've anything drastic to hide there is no point trying to cover things up with furniture.

The previous advice about lying about neighbouring properties being put up fo rmore than they are actually worth could work/plant a seed in the surveyors mind, but thats only if there are no comparable properties in the area.

Offer them a drink and sit yourself in front of the TV for 20 mins. good luck!

davidla

PeteHi wrote: »

The previous advice about lying about neighbouring properties being put up fo rmore than they are actually worth could work/plant a seed in the surveyors mind, but thats only if there are no comparable properties in the area.

Not sure if this is directed at my earlier post, but if it was then I'd just like to point out that we weren't lying. Next door's house is up for sale at £185K, and the surveyor could check on Rightmove.
If the comment wasn't directed at me - apologies!
David

straddie

Well, she came, she saw... and we conquered, woohoo! Valuation has come in at bang on our estimate, despite the fact we had put that figure down optimistically, prepared for it to come in much lower. It's the same as we had it valued at when we bought it 2 years ago, so whilst people have been talking about surveyors down-valuing by huge percentages, that hasn't been the case here.

In terms of the surveyor's visit, I did end up going round with her though not too in-your-face, mainly because she was asking plenty of questions as she went. I pointed out various features without overselling them too much, and explained how we came to our valuation objectively. I also pointed out a similar house down the road which has just sold (although on the market for less, it hasn't as much going for it as ours), I'm guessing that probably helped.

I think this highlights the importance of a standard valuation if you're borderline LTV, as I'm positive we wouldn't have got this with a drive-by.

This whole thing has been stressing me out for weeks so it's a huge weight off the mind to have got it sorted now! :beer:

happybroker

congratulations! I think quite a lot (not all) of the talk of properties being down valued is down to people having an inflated view of the value of their home which is fair enough...it's a very emotive subject.

estimating the value as what you paid 2 years ago was really realistic..it's nice to hear some good news on here!