Down valuation - Renegotiate price with seller vs try new lender for better valuation?

TheB

sorry, should have added, sellers declined our initial ask to renegotiate to 10k over. 

IAMIAM

It all depends on the surveyor. I have always found the banks who use countrywide - they always down value. HSBC/Nationwide etc to name a couple

Thrugelmir

TheB said:

But also there is a line where we won't be left with enough in our pot to do the work we know it needs. 

The property still requires work?  Thought that it had been refurbished in the past year. What needs to be done? 

mdcooper88

IAMIAM said:

It all depends on the surveyor. I have always found the banks who use countrywide - they always down value. HSBC/Nationwide etc to name a couple

Do you know any lender that uses someone else out of interest, as it looks like Barclays use them too? 

TheB

Thrugelmir said:

TheB said:

But also there is a line where we won't be left with enough in our pot to do the work we know it needs. 

The property still requires work?  Thought that it had been refurbished in the past year. What needs to be done? 

It needs a new bathroom, the garden needs landscaping and the private survey showed some damp in loft space (likely lack of general roof maintenance, but didn’t think it was more than that) everything else has been renovated.  The work that has been done is all new windows, removal of artex, painting, new kitchen, new boiler, new flooring..

TheB

mdcooper88 said:

IAMIAM said:

It all depends on the surveyor. I have always found the banks who use countrywide - they always down value. HSBC/Nationwide etc to name a couple

Do you know any lender that uses someone else out of interest, as it looks like Barclays use them too? 

Our surveyor that was sent out twice was E Surv and it was for Natwest and Halifax.

mdcooper88

TheB said:

mdcooper88 said:

IAMIAM said:

It all depends on the surveyor. I have always found the banks who use countrywide - they always down value. HSBC/Nationwide etc to name a couple

Do you know any lender that uses someone else out of interest, as it looks like Barclays use them too? 

Our surveyor that was sent out twice was E Surv and it was for Natwest and Halifax.

Thanks a lot 😊

TheB

I thought I would come back and update on our second valuation.

Even though the second lender sent out the exact same company (and, in fact, the exact same person) they actually valued it higher than last time by 15k. It had only been about three weeks but I guess maybe there had been more completions in that time? 

Anyway, simply to say that it is maybe worth the effort after all in a fast moving market! Unfortunately for us, our sellers are being very stubborn and refusing to climb down at all even with the new valuation. We have offered to evenly split the new difference with them (7.5k each) but so far we have not had any luck and may still need to walk away as we just aren't prepared to stump up the 15k over bank value alone.

Hope this helps anyone else in the same position!

K_S

@theb Thanks for updating the thread. Unfortunately, as you've seen, valuation is a bit of a crapshoot sometimes.

I had a client recently who had an offer accepted at 350k. Lender 1 valued it at 315k and due to the client being on a visa, they couldn't go above 75% LTV so tried Lender 2 (that used a different surveyor panel) and a week later valued it at 350k. Thankfully, most lenders now offer free vals so it's often worth a shot.

In the current supply-restricted market, EAs and vendors are increasingly immovable on price as there's always someone willing to pay it and eventually lender valuations also catch up.