Likelihood of having mortgage valuation lower than sale price?

ellersb

Hi,
I think I'm getting myself in a tizzy, but probably because our flat is in the process of being sold (after nearly a year on the market) and our offer has been accepted on a house we'd been watching for the same amount of time!
Now, we've gone through the mortgage application and are waiting to receive the forms to sign and return. When this is done, the valuation will be instructed (apparently, this could take up to 6weeks to arrange, but I'll be on the phone every day if it starts to drag!).
We're only getting the mortgage valuation done through the BS, I've found a private RCIS person to do a full structural.
Couple of questions:
On what sort of grounds do mortgage valuations come in lower? We're borrowing £105k which is 78%, no other similar properties have sold (it's a bit unique), 4 bed semi, old, damp and empty for 18 months. I know it'll have problems, but we've budgeted to fix those. It sold in March 2007 for 250k.
What do they look at during the mortgage valuation? Is it worth at all getting our full structural done anyway, in the hopes that the mortgage one is ok or should we wait?

cattie

I'd wait untill you got the valuation done first. It should only be a matter of days delay.

Surveyors can undervalue for a number of reasons. If a property is unique in the area & comparibles not readily available is one. Also, newbuilds are often undervalued as are flats in an area where a lot of similar properties are up for sale & just not selling

If a surveyor doesn't know the area, they tend to check with local ea's what similar properties have recently achieved, & this helps them decide if the valuation should be given as lower than sold price.

toothe

the valuation will take into consideration the damp etc, but this should be reflected in the price. the mortgage company may lend the money with an arangment on you fixing the jobs