Home Valuation Horror Stories - Help?

googler

flickeringmuse wrote: »

Yes but what if the vendors don't agree that the house is worth less?

Then they can -

Suck it up and accept this buyer's lower offer, or

Reject this buyer's offer and remarket, in the hope that their next buyer will have a lender and surveyor who value it higher, or that they'll find a buyer who has more cash in hand to offer higher than valuation.

I refer back to #5. The seller, if they reject the lower figure valued at now, has to gamble that they'll find a friendlier surveyor next time.

You can use this as a negotiating tool, as you should when buying a house. You don't just blindly pay what the seller wants.

hazyjo

Have seen it many times on here, but does seem to happen mainly when the buyer has gone straight in and offered the asking price. Did you negotiate?

Jx

isisini

Happened to us - one of the first flats we offered on as naive first time buyers. The valuation came in at about £30,000 below the figure we'd agreed the seller would not (possibly could not) budge. We couldn't make up the difference and didn't love the flat enough anyway - we'd been planning to sell it on in a few years so did not make sense to pay over the odds for it.

It was an expensive mistake as with hindsight we could have prevented it happening by doing more postcode level research and not making the offer in the first place. I think the vendor eventually took the flat off the market.

BUT we are very glad we didn't end up there in the end, as we moved on to better things.

Good luck with yours! When I'd learned my lesson, using ourproperty.co.uk was really helpful for me in checking whether our offer was about right.

moneyistooshorttomention

flickeringmuse wrote: »

Yes but what if the vendors don't agree that the house is worth less?

There is always that possibility.

As I understand it, a valuer is likely to value a house in accordance with the last 2 (or is it 3?) similar nearby houses that sold.

All it would take is for 2 (3?) houses in quick succession to be sold off by desperate type sellers (repossessions or needing to sell fast or something) and the next seller there could find their house being undervalued.

All well and good if your house is undervalued and you can manage to withdraw it from the market and try again later...but if you cant and get buyers coming along trying to tell you its only worth the same as the desperate housesellers before you then you have a problem on your hands. I feel for sellers who find themselves in that position, having been horrified at watching one nearby house go at way under value (courtesy of a desperate seller) and I heaved a huge sigh of relief when the next couple to go "came right" and mine couldn't end up being undervalued.

EDIT: Going straight in offering at asking price does depend on part of the country again. People have had me studying very closely a nearby road I know extremely well and I can see that the houses there do seem to fetch their asking price okay darn nearly always (one in need of some work fetched a couple of thousand £s less, but that was the exception that proved the rule and this isn't in London area).

dominoman

In my case the valuation has come in at the full amount, but our independent surveyor (and my own research of houses on sale in the streets around) show that that is an over-valuation.

I wish he had valued it lower, because I don't think I can get the seller to budge without that. Can I ask him to revalue it?!

DRP

dominoman wrote: »

In my case the valuation has come in at the full amount, but our independent surveyor (and my own research of houses on sale in the streets around) show that that is an over-valuation.

I wish he had valued it lower, because I don't think I can get the seller to budge without that. Can I ask him to revalue it?!

Then why did you bid that high?

Emmajane1987

Four weeks ago I had a similar problem as a buyer that thevendor had put their house up for a certain price and the only property to besold in the same road in the last 5 years was by a desperate couple who hadjust got divorced and were having to file for bankruptcy. Their house was finishedto a beautiful condition and just had their garden landscaped. Obviouslywithout knowing there circumstances I went in with a much lower offer on myhouse because it needed a lot of work doing to it (decorating, drive way,levelling out the garden) in the end me and the seller met in the middlebetween her asking price and what I had originally offered and my offer gotaccepted only £3K less than the desperate sellers. I am having my mortgage valuationand house buyers report done in two weeks and I’m now worried that the surveyorwill take next doors house (desperate sellers) sold house price intoconsideration and put a lower valuation then was agreed. Obviously this wouldbe great if I knew the seller would budge on price but I know she won’t or atleast I think I do anyway.

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

There is always that possibility.

As I understand it, a valuer is likely to value a house in accordance with the last 2 (or is it 3?) similar nearby houses that sold.

All it would take is for 2 (3?) houses in quick succession to be sold off by desperate type sellers (repossessions or needing to sell fast or something) and the next seller there could find their house being undervalued.

dominoman

DRP wrote: »

Then why did you bid that high?

At the time I was happy to pay that price, as the house seemed to be in excellent condition, but subsequently we found out it has subsidence and needs a new roof.