Survey valuation less than offer

noff

Good evening

This is another 'survey valuation less than offer thread' however I am not trying to up the valuation.

I am a cash buyer (after the sale of my house) and the asking price was 495K, Ito be honest I didn't think it was worth anywhere near this however my OH loved it.

I placed an offer of 420K which was rejected and finally upped it to 435K which was accepted.

It is a distressed sale and the vendor does need to move asap.

However the survey valuation has now come back and has valued the property at 385K (50K less than what we offered). It also has 4 urgent things that need attention including suspected timber and damp which the surveyor has implied that the value may be less if their is a cost to sort out the problems (I had a homebuyers survey so further investigation is required).

If it was anything to do with me I would pull out now, however my wife loves the house and wants to make it the family home for the rest of our lives.

Now I may be missing the point of this but as far as I am concerned any sort of price or offer that was made prior to the survey is no longer relevant. (forgetting about the potential reduction for as minute)

The true price now is £385K.

If I pay more than the £385K then the vendor has achieved higher than the true price and if I pay less than 385K then I have paid less than the true price.

I am a cash buyer who is about to complete the sale of my house.

The vendor is a distressed seller who really does need to sell asap.

I would argue that I am in a much stronger position than the vendor.

I will be contacting the vendors EA tomorrow with the news and revising my offer.

I am going to say that I am prepared to pay no more than 385K and that is on the understanding that the 4 urgent things that need to be addressed are no more expensive to rectify than the surveyor has taken in to account when making the valuation. If the cost of rectifying the problems is more than has been accounted for then the offer would be reduced by this cost.

In my mind I am being very reasonable, I could try to play hardball and even try to use my strong position to gain a reduction from the true valuation however I am not that sort of person. I genuinely just want to pay what the house is really worth.

What do people think?

ciano125

Would you just give someone you met in the street £50k for nothing? Why give it to someone who you're buying a house off that's not worth it then? Same thing.

I'm glad I'm not married to your wife as well, she sounds expensive!

Ulfar

An offer is always made subject to survey, the question is you need to work out how much it is going to cost to put right and whether the vendor will accept a much lower offer.

They may not be able to accept an offer this low due to mortgage commitments.

ad44downey

noff wrote: »

What do people think?

You sound way too sensible for this forum mate.

ruggedtoast

We can only really help you with...

a Rightmove link!!!

:j:j:j

a Rightmove link

:money::money::money:


Give the people what they want - give them a Rightmove link! :T:T:T

noff

Thank you for the replies.

My wife is very expensive but notwithstanding that I certainly believe I am no fool with my money and rest assured if the vendor does not accept 385K (less any additional costs I may incur) then I will be pulling out, fortunately my wife does agree that she doesn't want me to pay more than it is worth!

To be honest I do feel sorry for the vendor who bought the property for 495K 3 years ago but that shouldn't cloud my judgement.

noff

As a footnote to above I phoned the EA today and explained my situation and made my revised offer of 385K.

EA couldn't believe that the valuation would have been that low and when I read her the valuation she implied the surveyor 'didn't understand the local market'

I did say that I was relying on the valuation of the surveyor over and above everyone elses opinion and asked the EA to pass my offer on to vendor

EA said that she couldn't make this revised offer to the vendor unless she had seen a copy of the survey as If it later transpired that I was lying then they would be liable for the 50K loss.

I explained that it says on the report that this would be for my and my solicitors use only however the EA did ask me to check this with the surveyor as she couldn't accept the revised offer without proof of the valuation.

I contacted the surveyors office and they advised me not to share the details with the EA however I could if I wanted to as it was my survey.

I don't want to give them a copy (I have nothing to hide if that what's anyone is thinking it is just my paid for report) and am now stuck as to what to do next?

Any advice would be appreciated

Gwhiz

Just tell them the new offer is the new offer regardless of any bits of paper or you'll just walk away. That should focus their attention.

Cazza

Personally, I would give them a copy, it just backs up your argument and gives you a stronger case. It may also be that similar issues came up when they bought the property, such as the timber and damp. If they had work done, which is now defective it should be covered by guarantee, which saves you the hassle of sorting it out yourself. Agreed, that £385,000 is the right price to stick to assuming the figures on the survey are correct, it's a fair and reasonable offer.

poppysarah

It's your bit of paper.
But depends how a rsey you want to be with the EA.

Offer what you're happy with.

hahah local market indeed. You are the local market. you make the prices happen not the ea.

noff

An update on this one, I have offered 100% of the valuation of the survey and also (as a concession) offered to pay for all of the work that needs to be undertaken that was highlighted in the report irrespective as to whether the work that is required would lead to a lower valuation.

In my eyes, psychologically at least, I am therefore in real terms offering more than the value of the house as payment for a distressed sale in a falling market (I hope that no-one points out that the current bounce makes it a rising market). However the vendor has indicated that they are not interested in selling under those terms and an offer closer to the 'original' selling price may be considered.

I am very reluctant to offer anything above what I already have done. I konw that I have spent out quite a bit of money (surveys/solicitors/searches etc) however I do fell that I would be 'giving money away' by paying any more for the property.

I am interested in finding out peoples opinions on this one and what you would probably do if you were faced with this scenario.