Countrywide survey undervalue

ncfcfan

Hi folks, sorry if this is the wrong place. Perhaps it should be in mortgages?

We have hit a stumbling block (hopefully just that) in what should have been a fairly straightforward exchange.

Our estate agent valued our house between £225k - £240k. We accepted an offer from first time buyers for £235k. Understandably they wanted to move quickly, so we then had a mad 3-4 week dash to find a house, which we found luckily.

Fast forward another couple of weeks, things are moving quite quickly (we had an estimated completion of end of August/early September) when we get a call to say that the buyers have instructed Countrywide to perform a survey for their mortgage. We did think at the time that their mortgage probably should have been in place way before this.

A week later, we've just heard that the surveyors have undervalued our property, and our buyers are only willing to offer £220k. This is a vast undervalue considering similar, older properties in the area have been sold for £240k. It's a new build (built about 3/4 years ago), will within it's NHBC warranty.

Our buyers are obviously in a sorry state at as well, but they did have plenty of time to get his organised. They've said they will appeal as they really want the house.

We obviously have a couple of options, but they're all quite painful.

Any others experienced this? If so, how did it end?

hazyjo

How long is the chain? Could get the EA to see if people up the chain would accept a bit less on each of their properties to keep the chain together.


If your buyers have the cash, there's nothing wrong with them paying more than the valuation. If they're cash-strapped, you might want to remarket.


Lenders are cautious with FTBs especially if they have a small deposit. That won't have helped with what they'll lend.


Have prices gone up much in the area since you bought it?


Are they still building on the estate or are there other new builds in the area?


I bought an 8 year old 'new build' once in a very pricey area and it had barely gone up compared to what they paid. Others had increased loads. Often a (sometimes hefty) premium with new builds which might bring the value down now a few years later.

leix2012

We had same happen to us and appealing did nothing

Our house was valued 165-175k, we listed at 170k then accepted offer at 167k.
The home surveyor came and undervalued at 153k nothing wrong with the house, no real reason given besides its the area. We appealed back and forth it got us no where. We managed to come to an agreement at 155k as we wanted to move fast. (That ain't happening as we are stuck just before exchange now)

If we weren't looking to move fast we would have put it back on the market and tried again to be honest.

edgex

They haven't undervalued.
The EAs are not valuers, & will give you a number that gets you to sign up with them.
They gave you a range of £15k, & the actual surveyors valuation is only £5k below the bottom figure.

Surrey_EA

ncfcfan wrote: »

Fast forward another couple of weeks, things are moving quite quickly (we had an estimated completion of end of August/early September) when we get a call to say that the buyers have instructed Countrywide to perform a survey for their mortgage.

The buyers didn't instruct Countrywide to carry out a mortgage valuation, their mortgage lender did.

ncfcfan wrote: »

We did think at the time that their mortgage probably should have been in place way before this.

It sounds like the mortgage valuation was booked in a couple of weeks after you found a property to buy, and the chain was complete. That's probably a very normal time-frame. Most buyers aren't going to be happy committing themselves to the expense of a mortgage application and valuation when the chain is incomplete.

ncfcfan wrote: »

A week later, we've just heard that the surveyors have undervalued our property, and our buyers are only willing to offer £220k. This is a vast undervalue considering similar, older properties in the area have been sold for £240k. It's a new build (built about 3/4 years ago), will within it's NHBC warranty.

Have any 3-4 year old properties of a similar size sold nearby? What did they go for?

Something of a generalisation, but older properties can very often fetch higher prices than 3-4 year old homes of a similar size.

ncfcfan wrote: »

Our buyers are obviously in a sorry state at as well, but they did have plenty of time to get his organised. They've said they will appeal as they really want the house.

We obviously have a couple of options, but they're all quite painful.

Any others experienced this? If so, how did it end?

All you can try and do is obtain evidence that similar directly comparable properties are currently fetching £235,000.

ncfcfan

edgex wrote: »

They haven't undervalued.
The EAs are not valuers, & will give you a number that gets you to sign up with them.
They gave you a range of £15k, & the actual surveyors valuation is only £5k below the bottom figure.

Either way, it means we now can't buy the house we want.

And the valuation we first received from the EA was in-line with other properties. In fact it was a little bit below what we'd hoped for.

We bought the property in 2015 for £205k. One of the last properties to be built on the plot. The houses in the area have sky rocketed in the last few years, and the market is really competitive in our area. We sold within a week and had 2 or 3 others very interested.

ncfcfan

hazyjo wrote: »

How long is the chain? Could get the EA to see if people up the chain would accept a bit less on each of their properties to keep the chain together.


If your buyers have the cash, there's nothing wrong with them paying more than the valuation. If they're cash-strapped, you might want to remarket.


Lenders are cautious with FTBs especially if they have a small deposit. That won't have helped with what they'll lend.


Have prices gone up much in the area since you bought it?


Are they still building on the estate or are there other new builds in the area?


I bought an 8 year old 'new build' once in a very pricey area and it had barely gone up compared to what they paid. Others had increased loads. Often a (sometimes hefty) premium with new builds which might bring the value down now a few years later.

It's just us, really. The house we're buying is now owned by part/exchange company. It's been empty since January. For now, I'd rather not bother them with re-negotiating, until the appeal goes through. We'll have to rethink things then.

Prices have gone up hugely in our area. I'm quite surprised at this inexplicable valuation, all they had to do was look at sold prices in the area and realise that we were actually quite competitive on price.

They've finished building on our site, but there are other new builds in the area, yes. The 3 beds are going for £500k. We're a 2 bed.

edgex

ncfcfan wrote: »

Prices have gone up hugely in our area. I'm quite surprised at this inexplicable valuation, all they had to do was look at sold prices in the area and realise that we were actually quite competitive on price.

A valuation for a lender is to get a number that they would be able to sell it for quickly in the future. It will be on the safe/lower side of whatever is happening with current prices in the area.

As for sold prices in the area, you won't know how they were financed, so are not relevant.

Surrey_EA

edgex wrote: »

As for sold prices in the area, you won't know how they were financed, so are not relevant.

That's not entirely true.

When a surveyor carries out a red book valuation on behalf of the lender part of the report will include details of comparable sales, minimum of three within the all within the preceding 6 months, that provide an indication of what market values are.