Physical vs desktop valuation

Jamie_86

Hi all,

I've commented on a couple of other threads detailing my recent experiences of our mortgage journey but I'd really appreciate hearing people's experiences of valuation's as this is the latest roadbump for us.

To give some background, myself and my wife had an offer accepted for asking price of £725k on a beautiful new build home in late September. It had not gone on the open market so we were confident (having spoken to a couple of local estate agents who we knew personally who felt it would go for up to £750k at least on the open market) that we had got in at a good price. 

Our broker made a mortgage application for us to HSBC, whose valuation came back £50k under asking price. (We understand it was a desktop valuation). Looking at houses in the immediate vicinity, there weren't any comparable properties of that quality so a desktop valuation (in our opinion) wouild always lead to a down valuation. After discussions with the vendor and again with those local estate agents, we decided for various reasons to go to another lender. 

We have now made an application to Coventry Building Society. Our valuation was booked for last Friday but we've been told today that it has now been re-arranged for next Monday (6 December) as the valuer believed a physical valuation was required (which given our recent experience with HSBC, we agree with). 

My question is, is that decision likely to have been made on the basis that there wasn't enough information available to provide an accurate valuation from just a desktop survey or are there other reasons this might happen? Also (and I appreciate it is probably impossible to answer this question) would you think you're more likely to get a valuation closer to the original asking price with a physical valuation vs a desktop?

Thanks all

ACG

Physical valuations can be good or bad. If the property is a dump and you dont care, you probably want a desktop valuation. My first house had one plug socket in the whole house working. Some of them had black soot around them where they had blown. We had to wipe the plug sockets clean and get rid of all the extension leads in the house - I would have preferred a desktop valuation. It passed so was all ok, but only because we staged the house a bit first I think. 

Desktop valuations, if the figure does not match up some lenders will just send out a surveyor, others will not. Every lender has their own process. Your broker could have also asked for a physical valuation with Coventry and it could have just been delayed due to covid, double booking etc.