House valuation came back lower than the offer price

jayp70

A friend of mine has had an offer for a house accepted at £149,500. He undertook a home buyers report and the valuation came back at £134,500.

He really wants the house but is in two minds now because the valuation is lower than his offer.

What options does he have?

jockettuk

talk to the sellers see if they will drop the price mabey half way between the two figures.. can only ask see what they say

AndrewSmith

Hi,

It his unlikely that the surveyor will amend his valuation. There are a couple of reasons for this.

1) Property valuations by surveyors in every case are attained by using comparisons of local similar properties that have recently SOLD through local estate agents. The surveyor will visit local agents and ask for comparable evidence as to the value.

2) The surveyor is hardly likely to admit that he got it wrong and made a mistake.

First call would be to the agent. Ask what justification do they have for the original valuation. Then he would need to look at his own situation. It could affect his mortgage etc as the lenders will only lend based on the purchase price or value, whichever is the lower.
If he was getting a 90% mortgage for example on £149,500, he will now only get 90% of £134,500.

The I would, as excellently stated above, be looking to the vendor for some kind of reduction in the price.

Either that or walk away.

Hope this helps

Andy

jayp70

Thanks Andrew this is great advice. I will get back to my friend and provide him with the options.

apples101

this is sounding very familiar.

Bought house two years ago. paid £320K........ got it valued a month ago for re mortgage...... came back as £295K....

I do think that the banks are talking to the valuers to slow the market down.... perhapps trying to reduce the risk of a massive fall.......

Doozergirl

apples101 wrote:

this is sounding very familiar.

Bought house two years ago. paid £320K........ got it valued a month ago for re mortgage...... came back as £295K....

I do think that the banks are talking to the valuers to slow the market down.... perhapps trying to reduce the risk of a massive fall.......

I had heard that remortgages are more likely to come in on the conservative side. Don't know why

worriedfirsttimebuyer

Our surveyor admitted he had made a mistake. When we called him to go through the survey and valuation (always do this if given the option, you've paid for it!), he apologised and changed it there and then. This was only a small amount but still worth doing.

muffle_2

I made an offer on a house last year. The mortgage valuation came back at 15% less than the offer price. This meant that the mortgage company would not lend me the amount required to buy the property. The seller was unwilling to drop the price to its true value as they had been blinded by the EA's over-valuation and had already dropped 16% to meet my offer price. Basically the EA had over-valued it by 30%! This cost them a sale as I could not proceed and several months had now passed since it was taken off the market. By this time it was heading into the slow winter period so I don't think they've sold it and I haven't ever seen it re-advertised to date.

Check whether the valuation figure matches the most recent land registry data.