surveyor undervalued our home

AdrianC

Robinette wrote: »

My bugbear is that the valuation seems to depend on the loan to value; for example, we bought a house in 2017 for £321,000 with a very small loan to value, whereas our buyer had a high loan to value and the valuation came in at £300,000 less than two years later.

I know that the mortgage company has to protect its loan, but surely the value should be the same regardless of the circumstances?

I suspect the most important differences between the two valuations are not the LtV, but the time difference and different surveyors.

wesleyad

Robinette wrote: »

My bugbear is that the valuation seems to depend on the loan to value; for example, we bought a house in 2017 for £321,000 with a very small loan to value, whereas our buyer had a high loan to value and the valuation came in at £300,000 less than two years later.

I know that the mortgage company has to protect its loan, but surely the value should be the same regardless of the circumstances?

Firstly, no, the bank is valuing the asset that it may have to sell at a later date (if you stop paying the mortgage), so different banks will have different prediction in place and can give different values. And even the same bank will change it's parameters on a regular basis and could come in at different values only weeks apart.

Secondly its almost two years apart so how can you compare valuations? And it's only a difference of 6% which is well within any sort of error margin on a house valuation.

Cakeguts

Why are you relying on the estate agents to give you comparable prices? Why don't you look at them yourself on Rightmove or Zoopla?

theartfullodger

Valuer has valued it correctly, you've over-valued it.

Mutton_Geoff

striker44 wrote: »

Hi,

Any advice appreciated - home valued by local agents 250 - accepted 242

Surveyor of national company spent 10 mins walking through our 4 bed 2000 square ft immaculate home. He lives 25 miles away. valued at 230, said by comparing other similar properties nearby.

With the help of estate agent compiled comparison list of nearby sold properties in price range 240 - 260. Our home stands out as being really undervalued at 230 compared to the 6 listed properties.

Sent letter to national company with documentary evidence suggesting their agent had perhaps made a mistake in his valuation of our home.

Short reply - as you are not our client we are not able to discuss this matter with you.

As above any advice to what I can do next to complain about what I and others believe is a wrong valuation and to rectify the mistake this surveyor made will be appreciated. Many thanks in anticipation of any help forthcoming.

Regards

Dave

This forum has one of these posts almost every other day. Your selling agent "valued" your house at a figure that was attractive to you. A buyer made an offer based on that "finger in the air" valuation. Then a professional valuer turned up and disagreed.


Your buyers valuation for mortgage purposes was just that. It is the bank instructing a professional valuer to give their opinion what the house may be worth for a prompt sale. If your buyer defaults on their mortgage, they will want to liquidate their asset, not wait around for months hoping someone likes the feature wall or new tiles in your bathroom.


You have negotiated a price with your buyer, they have been advised otherwise. It's up to you to continue negotiations with your buyer. Or accept a reduction in their offer.

Thrugelmir

Valuer will be using comparable recent actual sales values, not the value a property is being listed on the market at.

Crashy_Time

Tell the buyer it is now 230k and take the money and run, before Boris starts to lose control of Brexit.

MaxiRobriguez

My experience is that estate agents almost never get it right.

The house we currently live in was valued at £240k when a quick averaging of the market gave me the expectation it would fetch £215k. I asked the estate agent if he would like to reconsider his wildly optimistic opinion and duly a week later he did so in a letter and revised it down to £220k. Presumably he thought that I was relatively young that I would be naive and he would win the business in a sought after area and simply advise me to reduce the price by 10% when it hadn't sold after a number of weeks.

Previous house I was in the estate agent under valued by about 10%. I instructed them to put it on at the number I thought was right and I had two bids at asking price within two weeks.

Moral of the story is that estate agents are unscrupulous and stupid, don't trust them.

ToadsFriend

We had the same...sold house for only £110k (already cheap compared to others in area..) our FTB bank valued it at £100k...in buyers defence he disagreed with it and tried another bank with a different valuer...Who also valued it at £100k...so I had tyo face facts that that IS what it is worth, they are the experts and unless I (or you) got a cash buyer then thats what we have to accept.
Your buyer may be willing to meet halfway...mine wasn't so I accepted the £100k as I'm aready buying a house I love and didn't want to mess about and lose it. I'm by no means rich (far from it) and will struggle without that extra £10k I'd banked on...but in the grand scheme of things its only money and your home is more important.

striker44

thanks for all your responses - looks as if I have no avenues to go down - will have to make decision based on this valuation of 230. Even though everyone I have shown our details and the comparative details agrees with me that our home is worth far more than 230.