Remortgage and valuation?

busybumblebee

Hi all
I'm sorry if this question has already been answered somewhere. I have a mortgate with Santander, the current deal ends in July, so I'm starting to look for new deals. I've spoken to someone at a bank and he's worked out that we are on about 82% LTV, based on the mortgage we took out (128000, now owe 105000), he suggested that if we revalued the house and it was valued at 131000 or above then we'd qualify for better rates as we'd go to the 80% LTV bracket. I'd not even considered doing this to get a new deal, I just assumed we'd use the 128000 value we had the original mortgage for. So is getting the house revalued the right thing to do?
Thanks all

kingstreet

First things first. It isn't a remortgage. You're already with them, so you're looking for a customer retention product. These may not be as good as the lender's remortgage products, those for new borrowers to the lender.

If the retention product is based on a loan to value, the amount the lender uses for the valuation will determine that. If an inspection by a surveyor may get you a better figure than the indexed value, some lenders allow you to pay for that and it may be worthwhile.

However, if you are asking for £150k and it is plainly only worth £120k, you may waste your money.

I suggest you look at other lenders' remortgage products and compare them as you will be a new borrower to everyone but Santander.

busybumblebee

Thanks, I am a bit unsure about what I'm actually looking for.

It was Natwest who mentioned the valuation element and said I'd get better rates, so I would be a new customer if I went with them.

I'm not looking to take any more money, the new mortgage taken out will be £105000 (or whatever it's gone down to by July). I'll have to look at the overall longterm save and see if it's worth shelling out the valuation fee. We're just about to have a brand new boiler installed and getting rid of our 30 yr old back fire boiler, so I cerainly hope the house would be worth more, but you never can tell. Thanks for the advice.

kingstreet

Sorry. I thought you had approached your existing lender, Santander as you didn't mention the new potential lender by name.

As you are remortgaging, the lender will normally undertake a valuation inspection by a surveyor at its expense. With NatWest, you have to tell them at the outset you want an inspection, otherwise they may only arrange a drive-by.

Jimbo1976

NatWest or whichever lender you apply to for a mortgage will want to do a survey/mortgage valuation on your property.

They will inspect your property but the core element of the valuation will be based on locally sold similar properties. Go onto the property portals, zoopla, rightmove etc and have a look at local sold values. Whatever you think its worth or whichever estate agent you speak to is irrelevant compared with the locally sold figures.

It may be worth speaking to Santander to see what they will offer you. They will probably use an indexed valuation where they take the purchase price and then apply whatever has happended with house price inflation in your area since you purchased. You should be able to get this figure over the phone without paying anyone anything. However as mentionned other lenders will send round a surveyor.