Are prices rising faster than valuations? What to do?

song_of_calliope

We have seen a nice house that we'd like to buy. Thing is, it's on at £250k and I'm concerned its valuation will only come back at around £231k - this is based on going through the tools on the mse site to estimate valuations. Zoopla only puts it at £225k but I know their prices are often low.

So ... What should we offer? What's the highest we should go? And how can we lose the least amount of money if the valuation comes back less than the agreed price?

We want to get a full structural survey as the house is over 100 years old. How does the timing work on that? Don't want to pay for a full structural if the valuation comes out low. We will be getting a 90% mortgage due to losing money on our last house so think the valuation needs to be equal to the price paid due to LTV ratio.

ethank

Are there any other houses on the road that have sold very recently? Can you find these on Zoopla? Is there anything else current on the road?

Kynthia

We got our lender to do a valuation and confirm our mortgage before instructing a surveyor to do a condition report. We already researched and found him beforehand so he was ready to go with all the house details so it didn't delay anything.

song_of_calliope

ethank, there have been three fairly recent sales on that road. 265k in August 2012, £115k in March 2013, and £196k in Aug 2013. There is currently another house on the market at offers over £185k. The one at offers over is nice but not double fronted or on a corner plot like the one we want. The three that have sold I don't know more about as I haven't been able to match them with old ads, but we could at least drive by them and take a look from the outside to see if they look comparable.

Kynthia, that sounds really good as that way we wouldn't lose much money if the house is a nonstarter due to valuation. Do you mind my asking what you had had to pay for by the time you got the valuation?

I'm not a ftb but its my first time buying in this country so am still not entirely sure what gets paid for when.

ACG

A valuer will go off the current price - some valuers are better than others.

The systems your using will usually go off things like land registry info which can take months to show. They also do not take into account the state of the property etc. The online systems are a guide at best.

opinions4u

Bid as low as possible.

Reach an agreement.

Pay for valuation.

See what happens.

Kynthia

song_of_calliope wrote: »

Kynthia, that sounds really good as that way we wouldn't lose much money if the house is a nonstarter due to valuation. Do you mind my asking what you had had to pay for by the time you got the valuation?

I'm not a ftb but its my first time buying in this country so am still not entirely sure what gets paid for when.

Nothing that I recall. As soon as our offer was accepted, although should have done these before, I got quotes and picked a local trusted solicitor and found a broker who I felt I could trust after taking to him. I then gave the solicitor the house details and they said they would hold off doing anything until my mortgage offer came through. I got the broker to find the best mortgage I was happy with, added the fee to the balance of the mortgage so that I didn't gave to pay it yet but could on around the time of completion if I wanted, and got a free valuation. Then after the valuation the mortgage offer came through quickly followed by the mortgage offer, so that was when I paid for my survey and the searches.

So in your position it is likely you'll have to pay for the lender's valuation and possibly the mortgage arrangement fee if it can't be added to the amount being borrowed. However this is only my second time buying so maybe someone else will correct me.