Surveys value is £7k less than I have agreed to pay

Weave

Hi People

I agreed to buy a house in July and had it surveyed in August with the surveyor stating in his opinion it was worth £7k less. All other survey points are acceptable. My solicitor is suggesting we ask for a reduced price but I can't imagine the seller will agree. To put the difference in perspective the house is worth between £250 and £300k and it’s a cash purchase (no mortgage).

In your opinion will the seller just say no chance? I’m just after some second and third opinions on this.

Thanks.

Wallpaper

Its a buyers market, I have just bought a place for £95k less than it was on the market for earlier in the year. Go for the reduction in price I say.

QBSBuck

No harm in explaining the situation and asking.

Does the down-valuation affect your offered LTV ratio? It did on mine and I managed to convince our seller to meet us somewhere in the middle. There were real logistical reasons why it needed to happen.

Wallpaper

QBSBuck wrote: »

No harm in explaining the situation and asking.

Does the down-valuation affect your offered LTV ratio? It did on mine and I managed to convince our seller to meet us somewhere in the middle. There were real logistical reasons why it needed to happen.

No LTV as OP stated a cash sale.

Nan_Dingle

it’s a cash purchase (no mortgage)

Kind of depends why you are buying the house. If you're looking to flip it, you'll want to hammer the price down. If it's a 'forever' house, £7K may not matter, in the long term we're all dead.

With the collapse in turnover, assessing the 'worth' of a house has a hefty margin of error. It's what you are prepared to pay.

Fire_Fox

Renegotiate based on the valuation, no sensible vendor wants to lose a cash buyer. Potentially the next buyer will have the same problem but won't even be able to raise the full mortgage. Who knows if your vendor is sensible, hopefully you can persuade the agent to take your part.

Kynthia

If you pulled out the vendor would have the same issue with the next buyer and they might not have the choice of overpaying due to their lendor and/or cash position. Therefore you should definitely try to get the £7k knocked off. Argue that a professional has valued the property at a certain price and you are not happy paying more than that.

Weave

All great comments, thank you. Based on that I think I'll state my case and stand firm for a bit to see if it can save me some cash.

Thanks for your opinions.

CrazyChick80

We had the similar problem when we put in our very first offer on the house we are currently buying. Not cash, but with mortgage. Vendor accepted offer, & our mortgage at bank got accepted for said price. Different story when survey/valuation was done. They knocked £13k off our offer, & £15k off the original asking price. No work needs doing on the house & no bad points came up in the survey, but just came back valued lower than expected.
We were certain vendor wouldn't wanna accept a lot less, but after a week mulling it over, she took a lower offer from us. She was looking for a quick sale, we were ready with mortgage, finances in place, no chain etc, so we seemed the easy way out for her. I think if she'd refused, the next buyers who came along would probably encounter the same obstacle.
At the end of the day, would you be prepared to pay more for a house that is worth less? You can go back & offer less & see what they say. Depends on how desperatly they wanna sell. Ball in their court so to speak.

hcb42

I am selling, valuation was £5K less, on £360K house, we dropped immediately, granted a mortgage was involved, on the buyers side, but we werent going to lose a sale for £5K either.

Weave

Well... I went back to the seller and told them the agreed price is £7k over market value according to the surveyor and they very quickly replied saying they will just put it back on the market if I pull out. They are not willing to negotiate.

I reallly hate the whole house buying process!!:mad: