Good idea to have a survey on your own house before you sell?

DeeSpare

Good morning

I am thinking of putting my property up for sale in the next year or so.

its quite a big non standard build,

My friends  in the same area put theirs up for sale , had an offer made, but when it came to survey , it was down valued and also had some repairs recommended. This delayed the sale and they then lost the house they wanted to buy, so bad all round.

with that in mind, is it sensible to book my own structural survey or homebuyers report well BEFORE i put it up for sale , in order to get a correct value and to see if theres any problems?

i know the eventual buyers will need to do this again, but i was thinking it might save some problems down the line and then no one will be messed around.

i am advancing in years and dont want as little trouble as possible as i dont think my health will stand it.

What do you think? Are their any down sides to this (apart from the cost)

Many Thanks

user1977

Are there any particular defects you're concerned about? 

DeeSpare

Re defects. The house was built about 70 years ago and the soil has clay content. I am worried about subsidence ( this is what the neighbour had) …that said there are no cracks or anything outside the house. There is a crack in the coving though…one upstairs and one down.
Our front path also has a slight undulation beneath the path, which i think maybe due to the trees next door.
The house creaks a bit at night too which worries me, however I am anxious though by nature ,for examp,e i hate the window cleaner coming in casee they break anything with those big wands they use.

Ps will a surveyor also give us a correct valuation so we dont have to do a dance with estate agents who i understand sometimes overprice things then things come unstuck at survey sometimes?

canaldumidi

What would you do if the survey indicated subsidence as you fear?

You do realise you immediately have to inform your insurers.....?

This is a mad idea - buyers of 70 year old houses (should) know there will be creaks, maintenance issues, etc. Let them get a survey and then deal with whatever arises at that point, if anything.

Surveyers/Valuers give their best professional opinion on price. If that leads to a 'dance' (??) so be it, but again, deal with that if it arises.

As for the price you ask - sure, listen to 3 local EAs opinions, but bear in mind some EAs talk the price up to sellers to try to win their instruction, so do your own research too.Look at local recent 'sold' prices (not advertised prices).

theoretica

In Scotland, you have to.  I know someone whose survey turned up dry rot - so he got it sorted and then sold, which was probably smoother than finding out later in the process.

How long have you lived there and what did the survey say when you bought? 

canaldumidi

theoretica said:

In Scotland, you have to.  I know someone whose survey turned up dry rot - so he got it sorted and then sold, which was probably smoother than finding out later in the process.

How long have you lived there and what did the survey say when you bought? 

And they tried it in England. Remember HIPs? Got abandoned.

ele_91

You could try and negate the impact of a downvaluation by choosing a buyer with a higher deposit. With higher equity the mortgage lender will be less concerned about the value of the house and may lend the money regardless.

flashg67

Your buyer might not even get a survey - my last buyer didn't, and the valuation for their mortgage was either  a' drive by' or desktop valuation as no-one came calling. We did the same on our last purchase - perhap unwisely, but it's a 200 yr old house and we assumed there would be issues and budgeted accordingly

lookstraightahead

Our vendors lost a sale based on the survey their buyers received, so they had their own structural engineers survey done.

when we came to buy, they handed us their engineers structural survey to help us (very old house). We still had a L3 survey but it gave us some extra info too, like how secure the roof was etc. We still checked though.

It helped us a lot. Not sure re insurance, but from a buyers perspective it's a good thing,

lookstraightahead

flashg67 said:

Your buyer might not even get a survey - my last buyer didn't, and the valuation for their mortgage was either  a' drive by' or desktop valuation as no-one came calling. We did the same on our last purchase - perhap unwisely, but it's a 200 yr old house and we assumed there would be issues and budgeted accordingly

You didn't have a survey on a 200 year old house 😵‍💫

lookstraightahead

ele_91 said:

You could try and negate the impact of a downvaluation by choosing a buyer with a higher deposit. With higher equity the mortgage lender will be less concerned about the value of the house and may lend the money regardless.

But then you're not only making your pot of potential buyers smaller by wanting a higher deposit, you're also expecting them to throw money away if something is wrong. I don't agree necessarily with reducing offers based on common sense, but for anything major ...