First Time Buyer - Valuation not as expected

jonewer

Milliewilly wrote: »

What makes the opinion of one surveyor always correct?

Err.. maybe he is a trained proffesional? Unlike the vendors, and estate agents who simply make it up?

poppysarah

Sammy85 wrote: »

In our case this surveyor was undervaluing consistently at around £15k on a number of houses we know of, !

Maybe because he knows priced have dropped?
Bear in mind the land reg details are flawed as the lowest house price drops are deliberately never included.

If they had to publish every house price it would be much more useful.

Milliewilly

jonewer wrote: »

Err.. maybe he is a trained proffesional? Unlike the vendors, and estate agents who simply make it up?

I don't know how many houses you have bought and sold.

It amazes me why people are so quick to insist a Surveyor must be correct on price as they do it for a living when they are sent in by the bank from some faceless large organisation from in my experiences 70 - 80 miles away and use stats to value the house or call in at the EA anyway (and they can't value remember!)

The valuation Surveyor is only there because a sale is in process - isn't that an indication that a deal at current market value has been struck or are all buyers naive and all sellers greedy too??

If you think the Surveyor is wrong then challenge them, you are paying them afterall.

poppysarah

Milliewilly wrote: »

If you think the Surveyor is wrong then challenge them, you are paying them afterall.

If you want to decide exactly how much you want to spend on a house then use your own cash. When you want to borrow money you have to take someone's advice.

Milliewilly

poppysarah wrote: »

If you want to decide exactly how much you want to spend on a house then use your own cash. When you want to borrow money you have to take someone's advice.

True - but that still doesn't mean that Surveyor's can (and do) get valuations wrong but because you need a mortgage you have to lump it.

You are paying for a service it should be carried out correctly and accurately and if it isn't then challenge it.

My sister had to spend £400 on a second valuation because the NatWest Surveyor valued her (2005 built) house at less than the plot value it was built on. She had a LTV of 20%

The valuation was not surprisingly upped drastically after the second Surveyor came in - did she get her £400 back from the Natwest because of their incompetent surveyor not being able to value? No.

Did I get my valuation fee back after I had to sue the Alliance and Leicester Surveyor? No.

Did I get my fee back when I had to comission a full structural survey because of the Woolwich Surveyor not knowing what he was doing? No.

But they are Professional therefore always right so cannot be challenged

Fire_Fox

Even if the surveyor is wrong, a buyer would be pretty stupid not to seize the opportunity to renegotiate with the vendor when the alternative is to pay an extra £10K. If the vendor isn't happy to renegotiate he is free to put the house on the open market and see if he can get buyer willing and able to pay the higher price.

Eric1

Sammy85 wrote: »

In our case this surveyor was undervaluing consistently at around £15k on a number of houses we know of, and for his valuation i couldnt have bought a semi on the street, never mind a detatched, it was very unrealistic, purely designed to lower the risk to the bank (which is fair enough) but doesnt help us!

Help you do what? Take more risk than the bank?
It's fine if you are ready to pay for it, but I wouldn't appreciate anyone "helping" me to do that

Milliewilly

Eric1 wrote: »

Help you do what? Take more risk than the bank?
It's fine if you are ready to pay for it, but I wouldn't appreciate anyone "helping" me to do that

If you follow the bulletin boards on the stockmarket trading sites its common knowledge the banks do not want mortgage business. Its just like HBOS / Bank of Scotland etc say they are willing to lend to small businesses to keep Gordon Broon happy for bailing them out then they apply terms / rates that are prohibitive so no one takes them up on their loan.

They get the valuation fees and can show that they are 'willing to lend' but then instruct the Surveyors to undervalue so the most risky i.e at the highest LTV can not afford to proceed.

Eric1

Milliewilly wrote: »

If you follow the bulletin boards on the stockmarket trading sites its common knowledge the banks do not want mortgage business. Its just like HBOS / Bank of Scotland etc say they are willing to lend to small businesses to keep Gordon Broon happy for bailing them out then they apply terms / rates that are prohibitive so no one takes them up on their loan.

They get the valuation fees and can show that they are 'willing to lend' but then instruct the Surveyors to undervalue so the most risky i.e at the highest LTV can not afford to proceed.

Sounds reasonable.
But let's look at the bright side (for buyers). The only solution is to drop the price to the valuation. Otherwise, losing the valuation fee is nothing compared to coughing up the difference.

Sue81

Just thought I'd round this thread off. I spoke to my landlord (the vendor) he is not willing to drop the price at all. He came up with some unusual ideas to try to move things forward but I've decided not to continue with the purchase. There are other properties out there which seem better value for my money. I have told him and he didn't really react except to say "Oh" but I think once it sinks in he may give me notice so I am now looking for somewhere else with no chain so I can get a move on if necessary.