E Surv

KAP0365

We have agreed to part exchange with a developer and they have asked E Surv to do the homebuyer report. We have already accepted £15k under what it was being marketed for, and £10k under the expected selling price from 3 agents, but I’m seriously worried given E Surv’s reputation that they will undervalue and the whole thing will go pear-shaped. Any others had experience with part exchanging and E Surv valuing their house?

Surrey_EA

Esurv are a massive company and do valuations on behalf of many different lenders. No particular reason that you should worry about them downvaluing.

KAP0365

@Surrey_EA thanks, the reviews online are awful and mention horrendous undervaluations, and I’ve heard horror stories from friends too so as soon as they phoned and introduced themselves I panicked a bit! I suppose they do thousands of valuations so the reviews are probably a small proportion of what they actually do. 

AnotherJoe

Why would a developer want a homebuyer survey?? Its not as if they need a mortgage!

KAP0365

@AnotherJoe it’s pretty standard for any buyer, they act as a cash buyer.

Thrugelmir

AnotherJoe said:

Why would a developer want a homebuyer survey?? Its not as if they need a mortgage!

They need to be able to liquidate the asset quickly. 

FtbDreaming

E-surv undervalued mine by £2k. I just had to make up the difference with ltv. 

eddddy

KAP0365 said:

We have already accepted £15k under what it was being marketed for, and £10k under the expected selling price from 3 agents, 

Just a tip...

The first question an Esurv surveyor asked me as he walked through the door to value a property, was whether I had any recent valuations from estate agents.  I had anticipated the question and had made copies of the valuation letters from the EAs for the surveyor to take away.

So maybe prepare copies of any valuation letters you've had from EAs in advance, plus a copy of the property details from your current EA.  That might help the surveyor give a realistic valuation figure.

Although, anecdotally, a lot of valuers are down-valuing at the moment. 

KAP0365

@eddddy the part exchange is being managed by an intermediary - we don’t have a copy of the actual valuations but the PX price is lower than the valuations given. So I would hope that the ‘down valuing’ wouldn’t apply here (south east, private road, catchment area, renovated etc) as we are already accepting below the apparent market value given by the estate agents... maybe I shouldn’t have looked online!!

SMR710

E Surv valued ours that we were selling. Granted it was back in Feb before any covid intervention, however, like you I was worried when I looked them up online after they called to book in.
We were pushing top of value and not many comparable properties in the area. He went round with his iPad, looked in each room, quick look in the loft, took a few pics from front and back garden then had a brew and a chat about cricket! And his report agreed with the valuation   happy days!
The online reviews say their surveyors are rude and undervalue! Not in our case and hopefully not in yours either!