Remortgage valuation

Anita.jesson

Hello 

We have started the process of remortgaging through a L&C broker. We have completed an extension to our house & I have given a valuation fee of the property based on similar sold properties in nearby neighbourhoods. I have done this as we live on a 1950’s estate & we are the fourth house on it to build this type of modern extension but we are all still living in them & so there are no sold prices to compare it to. The other slight difference is that we live at the end of the cup-de-sac and our houses were made slightly bigger as apparently they were built for the executives of the house building company at the time. We also benefit from open fields to the back of us that is environmentally protected & south facing, so quite a desirable spot to be in. 

The only recent sold prices on our estate are for houses that need a lot of work as ours did when we bought it 8 years ago as it’s a sought after estate that people tend to buy on & remain there. Am I ok to base the valuation on 1950’s home of the same style with a similar level of extension & finishing but are around a mile away in nearby local neighbourhoods? We live in a small northern city, in what is deemed a nice village in the city, much like the neighbourhoods I have looked at to get prices from. 

Or would I be better off getting a couple of estate agents round to get their valuations & send them to the broker instead? 

Any advice would be very welcome. 

Thanks 

Thrugelmir

How critical is the valuation in relation to the LTV you are hoping for? The lender is most likely going to send a surveyor round. 

Anita.jesson

The valuation I have given sits £15k below the sold prices of the houses I’ve based it on, & makes the mortgage in the 75% LTV bracket. It’s not the end of the world if we go into the 80% LTV bracket but obviously if I can help to demonstrate the properties value then that would be the ideal. At the moment it’s looking like it will be Nationwide who will be the mortgage company from the deals the broker has come back with. 

In terms of them sending a surveyor around, do they come and look around internally as I feel this would benefit us more than just looking from outside? Or might it be dependent on national restrictions when they’re ready to come around? 

Thanks 

RelievedSheff

We had a remortgage valuation on our house on Wednesday. They did a physical valuation. The chap was here for 10 minutes looking around the house. 

We had ti leave all windows and internal doors open for him.

IAMIAM

This is interesting, I rang Nationwide and they said to me that if the valuation is borderline between 75% or not and it will increase payments significantly (which 80% will) they are currently supporting a 75% LTV rate rather than make the customer pay the 80% rate.....but who knows if they were just fobbing me off

Thrugelmir

Anita.jesson said:

The valuation I have given sits £15k below the sold prices of the houses I’ve based it on, & makes the mortgage in the 75% LTV bracket. 

Sounds as if you've been conservative. Surveyors are primarily interested in whether the property provides adequate security. i.e. overall condition etc. Surveyor will be using recently sold prices as a benchmark. 

RelievedSheff

Thrugelmir said:

Anita.jesson said:

The valuation I have given sits £15k below the sold prices of the houses I’ve based it on, & makes the mortgage in the 75% LTV bracket. 

Sounds as if you've been conservative. Surveyors are primarily interested in whether the property provides adequate security. i.e. overall condition etc. Surveyor will be using recently sold prices as a benchmark. 

They do tend to air on the side of caution though as they are working for the banks. 

Anita.jesson

Thank you for all your responses. From everyone’s input it looks like we will just proceed with the remortgage application & wait on the surveyor coming around & keep everything crossed they’re happy with our valuation. 

We’ve put a full new roof on & all new windows mainly to future proof the house for ourselves as we do plan to live in it for a long time, so hopefully the surveyor is of the same view that it’s future proofed the house for a long while yet. 

Thanks