House undervalued for re-mortgage....help please.

olliesmummy06

Hiya, we are coming to the end of our fixed mortgage deal with NR in dec and started looking for a new deal. Im currently pregnant so opted for interest only for 2 years with direct line (in 2 years we are moving to Edinburgh so not a major problem with what we owe on the bottom line as we will be down-sizing.) Anyway we said our house is worth £160k....they have come back with £150k. We needed them to say it was worth £153k + as we need £138k (i hope that makes sense.) They came into the house for a valuation and houses in surrounding streets to ours are on the market at over £150k so i am stumped as to why ours has been valued as it has. We are in the process of re-carpeting the stairs and my dh is fitting a new tile floor in the porch but i was told on the phone by directline line that these things did not matter as we are not selling ony re-mortgaging.

I was told on the phone today that if i go to estate agents in the area and get details of houses similar to ours then they may look at it....what are the chances of them actually agreeing with us and lending us the money we need? Or do i just go looking somewhere else?

Also the carpet will be down in 2 weeks time and dh is finishing the flooring in the porch as i type....do you think its worth me getting local agents in to value our house and if they are what we think they will be send them in also?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.xx

inmypocketnottheirs

Look at nethouseprices and see what properties in your post code area have sold for. What they are on the market for is meaningless. Lenders are paranoid about falling prices hence their extreme caution.

dimbo61

I take it to get the mortgage you want you need 10% equity in the property ?
Could you pay off some of the mortgage debt with savings so you dont need
to borrow so much and still get this deal with directline.
GOOD LUCK

olliesmummy06

Ive looked on newhouseprices. Not much has sold round here since we moved in 2 years ago. People tend to stay here for years-ours is showing as the last sale and before that it was a good few years.

Dimbo-we are remortgage our current property and the ltv is 90% which is £135k as they valued it at £150k and we need them to value it higher.

_Andy_

olliesmummy06 wrote: »

They came into the house for a valuation and houses in surrounding streets to ours are on the market at over £150k so i am stumped as to why ours has been valued as it has.

On the market and actual sale prices are two different things. Also house prices are falling so surveyors need to factor that in.

Not quite sure why you thought £160 given that you've said similar houses are on the market for less.

olliesmummy06

I know on the market prices and sale prices are different but i thought a valuation would be more £155K +. Our house is bigger than the majority round here and been opened up. Our garden is also twice the size of the other houses in the street due to a generous corner plot. It has also been fully refurbed in the past 3 years-both inside and out. The majority of houses which are on the market are on the other side of the main road on a not so nice estate (75% council and much of that is not very nice at all unfortunatey-they are planning to knock it down)-our street/area is much more sought after. 2 houses were for sale on our street for £200k but these were 4 bed and ours is 3 bed. Maybe i'm just being un-realistic on what i think its worth. I just stuck on what to do. Do i bother getting estate agents in or getting details of other houses in the area on at the price we need?

_Andy_

An EA valuation doesn't really mean a lot.

If you can find evidence of 2-3 comparable properties that have sold for excess of your valuation recently then you might have a small chance.

olliesmummy06

Thanks Andy-unfortunately no houses similar to ours have sold recently and i was a bit dubious about EA valuations being taken seriously iykwim. We are only £3k a miss on what we wanted and dh did say he would sell his bike if needed but we wanted to avoid that option if we could.

I dont really see the point in going with another mortgage provider as they could value it the same or less and it'll get us nowhere except on a varibale rate with NR til its sorted and we really don't want that.

Thanks again for your advice, looks like we shall go with the £135k and save ourselves some money in the long run.

minimike2

Sorry to put a dampner on your post title, but your house has not been undervalued.

This statement has been batted about on this fourm a few times lately and the sooner people open thier eyes the better.

I make no apology for being blunt, but dont mean for you to take it personally, but the number of times I see and hear "But *our* house has x/y/z better than Mr & Mrs Jones and *our* house is x bigger than the smiths"....

Its time to face facts. Property prices are falling. It is likely they will continue to fall. Valuers are not under-valuing. They are valuing in line with market conditions.

fraggle8

we had a valuation done that came back 10000 lower than we believed and we had already lowered value in line with property slump - mortgage company told us which houses they compared to and it was only three and none were like ours! we tried to appeal by submitting our evidence showng propertys selling for more than 20000 more than our value but thet would only refer back to same valuer who wouldnt change his opioion they did say they had a 10% margin of error which i find rediciolous in a market where even 1% can make a difference!

dunstonh

they did say they had a 10% margin of error which i find rediciolous in a market where even 1% can make a difference!

If you find the price tag on the house that tells you what its worth then you are on to a winner. However, until then its just opinion and that means there will always be a margin of error. Plus, the valaution for mortgage purposes is a simple valuation only. It it not a survey or homebuyers report. Both of those have the potential to increase or decrease the value quoted by the surveyor to reflect a truer value. However, even then there will be opinion and "margin for error".

Example: If you put a house up for sale at £150k then you may think its worth £150k. However, chances are it will sell for £140k in the current market. So, is the value £150k or £140k? It is £140k even if you think it ought to have gone for £150k