How do valuers sleep at night????

swbrua

HAPPY_BEING_A_YUMMY_MUMMY wrote: »

We have had a house on the market for three years now - belonged to my parents who had to move out after 55 years and we had the whole house refurbished before putting on market. It first went on three years ago for £450,000 - we knew that was optimistic but as it was in an area with its own little micro climate of value we tried to be optimistic with the advice from the estate agent. Over the three years we have had lost and lots of viewings and a fair few offers but the market has gone completely stale here with houses in this price bracket (its been on a gradual reduction of price in the three years too) so when we accepted an offer from someone we know for 357,000 we accepted and we agreed to pay their stamp duty.

They are desperate to move in and are both in highly professional totally secure jobs (if there is such a thing!!) but when they have gone to the building society who have agreed a mortgage offer with them based on their incomes etc the building society have arranged a valuation who has come back with a value of £275,000!!! He has got to be kidding - the brick house next door sold earlier this year for 290,000 and that is a three bedroom (was originally a two bed) with one bathroom - this is a large Victorian stone with five bedrooms and three bathrooms totally refurbished - electric, plumbing, bathrooms, kitchen - the lot!!!

We have had to agree a price of 311,000 (they have borrowed 275,000 and got 36,000 on a private loan) because they are desperate to be in and of course we want to sell - the sale should be going through anytime soon - fingers crossed, but I am still absolutely livid that a two bit valuer can come along and completely wreck the hopes of two families when they know the house is so substantial it can hold the agreed first price and the couple who are buying it are good for the money.

I know people are going to come back and say

• why didnt they go somewhere else -- hey literally dont have the time as two busy profs and they have a young babe and another on way!
• why didnt we accept another offer -- because how do we know the valuer on the next offer wont come back playing silly devils - it could even be the same valuer

another interesting point though is this valuer comes from out of the area!!

I fixed the formatting for you, you can copy and paste it into the original post if you like so nobody else has to suffer the all caps ;-)

BitterAndTwisted

If you haven't exchanged contracts then just withdraw from the transaction. Take down the listing on RightMove and anywhere else. Then put it back up so it's looks like it's new to the market. Then you'll know whether this particular valuer is a numpty or not.

SouthCoast

Please let this thread know when you have exchanged contracts.

JQ.

HAPPY_BEING_A_YUMMY_MUMMY wrote: »

Valuers are too scared to make a sensible valuation and put their name to it they like to play it ubber safe - to no benefit of anyone other than themselves!!!

Well, it's to the benefit of their employer - the bank, and ultimately the rest of us on the basis we now own most of the banks. It would also appear it significantly benefited the bank's customer too.

brit1234

HAPPY_BEING_A_YUMMY_MUMMY wrote: »

Valuers are too scared to make a sensible valuation and put their name to it they like to play it ubber safe - to no benefit of anyone other than themselves!!! If its just a case of doing a local computer generated valuation - we can all do that and we have come up in the 350k ball park for this size in this area!!! Theres no point in the valuer coming out if the rains too much for his hush puppies!!!

You sound really bitter. You do realise there is a 33% difference between asking and selling prices for the average property. Estate agents are overvaluing not only to get business but also reduce the damage when asking prices.

The valuers may not be benefiting you but they are benefit the bank, the buyers and future buyers in the area after the land registry is updated.

I'm also sure the valuer is more highly qualified and more importantly accountable than the estate agent.

Just answer one question, are the recent sold prices for similar properties in the area more similar to estate agents or the mortgages valuation?

pinkteapot

HAPPY_BEING_A_YUMMY_MUMMY wrote: »

Valuers are too scared to make a sensible valuation and put their name to it they like to play it ubber safe - to no benefit of anyone other than themselves!!!

You're generalising. Tens of thousands of house purchases go through every month in this country. We get a handful of complaints about valuation figures. It's hardly a widespread problem. If all surveyors were "undervaluing" property, more people would have noticed and said something.

Advice for the future - research prices yourself before having EAs round to value. When I sell, I look at (1) what my competition is on the market, condition and price and (2) recent sold prices for properties like mine (freely available on the net).

When EAs come round, I ask them what we'd market it at and what price we'd be looking to achieve. If they're massively over recent prices, I ask why.

It goes both ways though. My brother was an EA for a few years and he walked out of a couple of valuations because the vendor wanted to market for far more than the property was worth. He refused to market their house.

As previously said, your options are to take the money your buyers can now pay, or to re-market the house. A future buyer could be using a different lender who uses a different surveyor.

Re care home fees, there was a good article in Which magazine a couple of months ago about using house sale proceeds to fund long-term care. There are some IFAs who specialise in advising on investing house proceeds to provide care funding. There's a particular IFA qualification to look for which less than a third of IFAs have (Chartered Insurance Institute CF8). Just worth considering in case you were planning on putting the money in the bank and managing it yourself. A good IFA will make the money last much longer. You can do a Which trial subscription online for a £1 and they have lots of info on funding care (just remember to cancel after the trial period).

Trollfever

And information from AGE UK:

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/

SecondLegDownIsTheBigOne

How do valuers sleep at night?

Secure in the knowledge that they have valued something correctly so that the lender's risk is minimised and the buyer does not overpay.

Of course, if seller wants £450K for something worth £275K, then that level of delusion is bound to cause them to blame someone else.

ukcarper

brit1234 wrote: »

You sound really bitter. You do realise there is a 33% difference between asking and selling prices for the average property. Estate agents are overvaluing not only to get business but also reduce the damage when asking prices.

The valuers may not be benefiting you but they are benefit the bank, the buyers and future buyers in the area after the land registry is updated.

I'm also sure the valuer is more highly qualified and more importantly accountable than the estate agent.

Just answer one question, are the recent sold prices for similar properties in the area more similar to estate agents or the mortgages valuation?

Same old rubbish

SecondLegDownIsTheBigOne

DannyboyMidlands wrote: »

1. If it was worth anywhere near the £450k it wouldn't have been on the market for 3 years. That asking price seems utterly deluded.

2. If you don't like what you are being offered then don't sell it.

3. The other families dreams have come true. The valuer has given them a £46k discount.

I agree with your sentiment Dannyboy, but let's be clear, no discount has been given, the surveyor has established it's value.