Halifax-drive by valuation

gord115

Made an appointment with the Halifax for a free valuation of our property because we are toying with the idea of moving.The appointment was for 1pm today.
At 12.57pm got a phone call saying she didn't need to come because they value houses as they drive past.
How the hell do they know what our interior and back garden look like? Told her we had spent a fortune putting in new kitchen,bathroom,wardrobes,decking etc but informed that doesn't make any difference to the value of a property!!!!!!!!
If that is true why did she need an appointment? Then she informed me that if I did need an internal inspection it would cost me £75
Tried another estate agent who thought it was laughable that a property could be valued without visiting it.Needless to say if we do sell it won't be the Halifax getting our buisness

payless

drive by for remortgage ( and even purchase in some cases) is fairly common , but for a sales assessment totally mad !....

Not saying their valuation won't be right ( I saw 3 estate valuations on a property £350K- £450K , and they had all been inside , so no science ) BUT surely estate agents are all about selling their service to the potential seller / customer/ person paying 1.5% ish , and not going inside is just likely to lose them business... can't believe this is their normal practice, either you got some lazy so & so, or they think you are just trying to get a free valuation for other purposes

gord115

Just been on 'phone to Halifax complaints and apparently it is not Halifax's policy to do drive by valuations. It sounds like the lady in question is not doing her job properly and they will look into it and get back to me.
I'll keep you informed.

marty1888

well i guess you wont be letting them sell your house.......

Tallymanjohn

Years ago, when I worked for a finance company, it used to be standard practice to get valuations purely from drive-by's, the reasoning being that properties were, within reasonable margins, similarly priced based more on location & outward appearance than on what was inside - internal differences would only speed up sales rather than increase value so they were regarded as a waste of time when the company was just looking at the 'forced sale value' - ie what they would be committing themselves to. In these days of a seller's market, with EAs doing as little as possible for as much return, you can hardly be surprised that they try & cut corners, especially with the number of properties appearing on the market, trying to beat the June 1st cut-off.

Biggles

Valuing houses is far from an exact science.

Which would you prefer, that they drove by and took a guess at the value; or they made an appointment, charged you £75 and took a guess at the value?

;-)

kingkano

Couple of agents said the same when they came to value our flat. They even said I shouldnt have bothered replacing the kitchen to sell it.... I couldnt believe it really. But then they tried to convince me of a higher valuation because the flat 'was in excellent condition'. Guess when it suits them.....

Bun

I think it matters when you are replacing a delapidated old unhygienic kitchen with bits falling off to something liveable, but I think it's when people rip out a perfectly good one just to update it to standard beech or whatever that it isn't worth it. There is no way we could have sold our flat with the old kitchen.

kingkano

Bun wrote: »

I think it matters when you are replacing a delapidated old unhygienic kitchen with bits falling off to something liveable, but I think it's when people rip out a perfectly good one just to update it to standard beech or whatever that it isn't worth it. There is no way we could have sold our flat with the old kitchen.

Same thoughts for me. It was a 25yr old kitchen, but the problem for me was bad design wasted so much space. I got the money back and a quick sale, so no complaints from me

Actually 1 complaint, after having a lovely new kitchen here for a few mths, we are moving to a house which has an older one again lol. !!!!!!.

agmoore

Just had Halifax round to ours to value and they came in, measured up etc. - Must be just that branch specific.

regularsaver1

Branch's don't do valuations. They instruct them

In this case it could have been halifax estate agents

or it could have been their surveyors . Colleys

I have a feeling its more the first one, who didnt think you were a genuine seller, their loss