How difficult is it to pull out before exchange of contracts?

hopeitwill

robatwork said:

Just bear in mind that every semi or terraced house in the country is something of a lottery. And quiet neighbours today doesn't mean quiet neighbours tomorrow. Your mental health may be served by a detached house in a not-so-good area.

We're now only looking for detached houses. We were so fixated on this area that we know of and the house that we're used to, and we were disregarding the fact that we could be getting a detached house in a not-so-hot area but a decent one at the very least.

MFWannabe

hopeitwill said:

Just as an update, we have officially withdrawn from the sale. Conversations were not easy but it feels like a big weight lifted.

I have an additional question and I always do under my posts, but, when we intended buy the first house, the zoopla estimation was almost exactly the same as the Level 1 valuation but vendor wanted 30k over it, and we accepted (silly, I know). We are now looking at other properties and their zoopla estimations are close to their sale prices.

Is there value in having a Level 2 valuation other than having an idea of the repairs needed so that the property is really valued after having been visited by the surveyor?

Really glad to hear this 👍
You must feel so much better x 
im not entirely sure what you mean by Level 1 and level 2 valuations? 

Mortgage lender will value the property to make sure it’s priced worth what you’ve offered 

hopeitwill

MFWannabe said:

hopeitwill said:

Just as an update, we have officially withdrawn from the sale. Conversations were not easy but it feels like a big weight lifted.

I have an additional question and I always do under my posts, but, when we intended buy the first house, the zoopla estimation was almost exactly the same as the Level 1 valuation but vendor wanted 30k over it, and we accepted (silly, I know). We are now looking at other properties and their zoopla estimations are close to their sale prices.

Is there value in having a Level 2 valuation other than having an idea of the repairs needed so that the property is really valued after having been visited by the surveyor?

Really glad to hear this 👍
You must feel so much better x 
im not entirely sure what you mean by Level 1 and level 2 valuations? 

Mortgage lender will value the property to make sure it’s priced worth what you’ve offered 

It does feel so much better, I don't know why I didn't push for it before, I'd rather rent honestly.

I think, and I am not exactly sure but with Level 1, it could be a desktop survey, or it could be that the house is visited but I think that's rare and the house is then valued based on other house sales around the area etc.

But with Level 2, the surveyor does visit the house and gives a valuation based on that and sales around the area etc. So there is more information available to the surveyor about the house.

There is also a building survey but it's much more detailed and could be costly. Although the benefits could cover the cost easily at times if the house is old.

I think we were really shocked when the valuation came 30k below for the house we were going to buy because it did feel it was worth 300k. We just don't know if it was because of the simple desktop survey that it was like that. And I know a house is worth what you're willing to pay for it but you don't want to be cheated out of your hard earned money either.

In addition to that, and zoopla numbers can be open to discussion but zoopla's valuation was also 270k. I don't want to believe a desktop survey is just a search on zoopla

MFWannabe

It’s the valuation from the lender that’s the important one, as they won’t lend more than they value the property at. If they value lower then your options are 
1) make up the difference 
2) Renegotiate with the seller (will be yes or no answer) 
3) walk away and find another property 

Building survey you need to find out if there’s anything wrong with the property, especially when buying older properties and that again brings up similar scenarios to the above