Is there a difference in quality / suitability of Home Reports in Scotland?

rpc

This bit is rather confusing and I don't understand the logic behind it.

The MVR is an optional part of the Home Report, but the single survey does contain a valuation. The valuation in the single survey is the same as the valuation in the MVR, but only the valuation in the MVR can be used for mortgage purposes. Of course, the MVR costs extra.

I've never seen a home report without a mortgage valuation included (although I've probably only ever seen about 10) and, to be honest, it might put me off a little. If the MVR is recent enough (our lender used 6 months as the cutoff) then you know exactly how you will be treated by a lender once you offer. Without the MVR, you are back to the old "offer subject to survey" business.

PPPingu

rpc, I think you've summed it up pretty well.
The only other point I would add is that as far as I understand, the MVR is not guaranteed to be acceptable to the buyers lender, as they only accept MVRs from certain surveyors on their approved "panel"

PPPingu

Just as an addendum to this, it looks like we are going with a traditional estate agent - if we had an extra couple of months, I'd have been happy to try the online only option, but this time, we want to maximise the chances of selling sooner rather than later (googler, I'm sure you'll be pleased to see us sticking with the high street!)

JQ.

A slight deviation from the focus of this discussion - but for me, when deciding what estate agent to use I have a completely different set of criteria. Marketing a property to a global audience is quite a simple procedure in this age of the internet - I want my estate agent to be a deal maker, a negotiator, someone who'll take a potential buyer's offer and get them to increase it using whatever tactics they can. To me that's what I'm paying an estate agent for - they are salesmen and I want them to sell my house for the highest possible price.

The last 2 sales we've done, we've used the same agent and he's been brilliant, using all the tactics under the sun to get the best possible offers.

I'd much rather pay someone £3,000 if they sell my house for £10,000 more than some internet comapny I'm paying £500 to - it's just a false economy.

I therefore always go on personal recommendations or personal experience - I don't care if the EA is a 1 man band or national chain, I just want to know they can negotiate a good price. We now live in a different area so can't use the last EA (who was a manager for a national chain with quite a bad reputation, ie the chain had a bad rep buy this particular EA was excellent). I already know who we'd use next, due to the experiences during the purchase of the current house and it's a 1 man band, a very small local firm.

So don't make any assumptions when it comes to EA's - just speak to loads of people in your local area and get recommendations.

ps - I don't mean just use the EA who quotes you the highest sale price, anyone can do that.

harz99

PPPingu wrote: »

rpc, I think you've summed it up pretty well.
The only other point I would add is that as far as I understand, the MVR is not guaranteed to be acceptable to the buyers lender, as they only accept MVRs from certain surveyors on their approved "panel"

Correct, and a further point worth mentioning is that as far as I am aware, the MVR is only acceptable to lenders for a period of 12 weeks from date of valuation, after which it is neccessary for the MVR to be "refreshed" - obviously at the vendors expense!

In a slow market that might happen several times, so why pay for it in the first place, as its not a legal requirement.

googler

harz99 wrote: »

Correct, and a further point worth mentioning is that as far as I am aware, the MVR is only acceptable to lenders for a period of 12 weeks from date of valuation, after which it is neccessary for the MVR to be "refreshed" - obviously at the vendors expense!

In a slow market that might happen several times, so why pay for it in the first place, as its not a legal requirement.

As far as I'm aware, there's only the need for one refresh - when they have a buyer, the buyer's offer has been accepted, and the buyer's lender asks for the refresh.

Or do you reckon there's people out there refreshing their HR every 12th week....?