Survey Valuation Lower Than Offer

cjohnson355

Hi All,
Please could I ask your advice? I've just received my home buyers survey and valuation which shows the value of the property to be worth £2,000 less than my offer. I negotiated £12,000 off the asking price so I'm quite shocked that I'd still be in negative equity so to speak. The survey on the building came back ok with nothing more than a bit of pointing needed on the chimney. I'm not sure what to do now. Should I go back to their agent to re-negotiate and tell them about the valuation? My heart is saying it's only 2K out so leave it and let it go through but my head is saying that I've actually paid over market price for it which I feel isn't right. I'd be really grateful for your thoughts on this.
Many thanks

davidmcn

You'd need to tell us the price to give us some context, though £2k is almost certainly going to be within the normal margin of error for valuations.

cjohnson355

davidmcn said:

You'd need to tell us the price to give us some context, though £2k is almost certainly going to be within the normal margin of error for valuation

It was listed at £375 and our offer was finally accepted at £362,500 but it's been valued by the surveyor at £360,000

SMR710

If I was the vendor and I had already agreed 12k reduction and you came back quibbling over 2.5k (0.6% on a house worth 360k) then I'd tell you where to go to be quite honest! 

TN1984

Depends on how much you want the property I guess. If it was me, I wouldn't let a really small difference in valuation change my mind on a property I had already negotiated hard to get. Another surveyor could easily come along and value it at £365,000, we are only talking about very small margins here.

davidmcn

cjohnson355 said:

davidmcn said:

You'd need to tell us the price to give us some context, though £2k is almost certainly going to be within the normal margin of error for valuation

It was listed at £375 and our offer was finally accepted at £362,500 but it's been valued by the surveyor at £360,000

Right, so split the difference and it's £361,250 +/- 0.35%, against a typically accepted +/- 5% margin of error for valuations. Why the surveyor won't stretch the extra £2k, I don't know, but in broad terms they're agreeing with you, so I'd just get on with it. The value could change by more than £2k in the time it takes you to do the conveyancing!

cjohnson355

Thanks everyone for your advice. I know you are all right but it just feels like I didn't get the bargain I thought I had. I love the house though so in the long run I suppose that's all that matters. 

Crashy_Time

cjohnson355 said:

davidmcn said:

You'd need to tell us the price to give us some context, though £2k is almost certainly going to be within the normal margin of error for valuation

It was listed at £375 and our offer was finally accepted at £362,500 but it's been valued by the surveyor at £360,000

Sure it`s still not overpriced?

timeism0ney

I agree that £2K is a small amount in the scheme of things but if so why should the buyer compromise and not the seller who overpriced the property in the first place by £14K (not such a small amount, that one, is it?) I think advice from previous posters is probably spot on if you assume best case scenario (rising market, no sudden need to move) but I would personally go back with a £360K offer and wouldn't want to overpay even by £2K in the current uncertain climate.

Crashy_Time

Good advice IMO.

Darkslider

Remember the buyers might not be in a position to pluck an extra £2000 out of thin air! Our house was downvalued by £5k under our accepted offer, we were already stretching ourselves affordability wise as it was so finding another £5000 just wasn't possible, but we'd only paid £250 for a survey at that point so if the sellers wouldn't accept the surveyors figure we were fully prepared to walk away and find another house. Luckily they did and everyone lived happily ever after.