Would you trust the valuation on a sellers Home Report?

jenniferfluff29

I have looked at a house in Scotland which I can get at 8% below the valuation on the home report. The question is: can I trust that the surveyor gave a realistic figure of the current price of the house or will they have inflated it as a bargaining tool for the seller?

My solicitor has said that the valuation should be unbiased.

Has anyone had any dealing with home reports yet or do you know how they come to a valuation figure?

Thanks for any advice.

Fluff

googler

The HR will have been prepared by a qualified surveyor, a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). They have a 'method', for want of a better word, or guidelines, for arriving at the valuation, but you'd have to sign up for their training courses to get the full scoop on what that method or their guidelines are. There's some study and exams involved, so perhaps beyond the scope of summary here.....

You need to look at Zoopla, nethouseprices and see if there's any similar recent sales of the same type of property in the same street or area, and see how that compares with the HR valn and what you're looking to pay.

Which area of the country are you looking at?

jenniferfluff29

Thanks for your thoughts googler.

Unfortunately, there has been no other houses like these sold recently. Last one sold for £5k less than what we are paying in 2007 and it needed everything gutted inside.

The house is in Perth, Scotland.

Thanks

googler

Don't know the housing in the city, but - only paying £5k more than a similar one in 2007 which needed gutted - and I assume the one you're looking at doesn't need the same - sounds on the face of it like a reasonable deal......

jenniferfluff29

Thats what I am thinking too.

I may get a basic valuation for piece of mind.

Thanks

poppysarah

Why waste the money - just offer what you are happy with offering. If that's 15% less than so be it.
Land registry says we're back at Sept 2004 prices - so houseprices.co.uk should show you similar sold prices in the area back then

jenniferfluff29

poppysarah thanks for that, house prices for the area that I am looking it are nowhere near 2004 prices. Unfortunately for me, the houses in my target area are near good schools and come up very rarely. Supply/demand dictates that people will always buy. Also, the houses are coming up more rarely now as people are unwilling to sell if they think that their house is now worth less than it was previously worth.

eco-friendly_2

poppysarah
Land registry says we're back at Sept 2004 prices

For the whole of the UK?

googler

eco-friendly wrote: »

For the whole of the UK?

Probably not, since Land Registry only covers England & Wales - and this buyer is looking to buy in Scotland.

You need to look at Registers of Scotland figures in this case.... and as the poster says, Perth has traditionally been 'in demand'. as it were, which will likely have an influence too.

jasper12

googler wrote: »

Probably not, since Land Registry only covers England & Wales - and this buyer is looking to buy in Scotland.

You need to look at Registers of Scotland figures in this case.... and as the poster says, Perth has traditionally been 'in demand'. as it were, which will likely have an influence too.

House prices in Perth & Kinross as a whole haven't fallen by a huge amount (around 4% in the last year for detached IIRC) and Perth itself is one of the more desirable areas in the county.

Indeed, some areas in Scotland (e.g Angus) are still increasing according to RoS.

On the face of it, 8% below HR valuation would seem to be quite a good deal ...I would certainly be very tempted if it is a house you really want and if they come up rarely.

chickmug

Valuations?????????????

The reality is that whoever values will use a combination of ways to get to a figure. In my case (retired agent) I found a figure hit me as I was walking around and then however much time I spent working it out with whatever logic I used I still came back to the first figure.