Worried about down valuation

Kimlock

Hi all,

Just looking for some input because I’m annoying myself with worrying and endless googling.

We had our house valued by an estate agent locally just after Christmas at £85-£95k. Small two bedroomed terrace in West Yorkshire. Before we could put it on the market, we had a private offer of £90k by relatives of our neighbours. We accepted and immediately started looking for a new house, put an offer in and it was accepted.

Our buyers are using Santander and are sending Countrywide to do a valuation next week. I’m now seriously worried about down valuation. We know our buyers have no wiggle room and have struggled to get their 10% deposit for their mortgage. And we need all the proceeds of the sale for the deposit of our new home.

I’ve read nothing but horror stories about Countrywide and down valuations. We’ve looked for comparable properties close by and we can only find a couple which have sold for between £85k-£100k.

I’m genuinely concerned that we’re going to get down valued and have to pull out of the chain completely.

Is the massive increase in down valuations something to be concerned about for a lower priced property like mine?

K_S

@kimlock There is no massive wave of fatal down-valuations happening up and down the country. Trust me, as a broker whose main new business is from high-LTV FTBs (often looking to maximise borrowing) across the country, I would have noticed if that was the case or at least heard about it in peer forums.

In the few cases where there is a down-val significant enough to make it a no-go, the next lender (using a different surveyor panel) we've tried has in most cases come back at the purchase price.

I can't give a useful opinion on whether or not your property is likely to be down-valued, but imho there's no need to worry about it at this stage. 

spoovy

Kimlock said:

Is the massive increase in down valuations something to be concerned about for a lower priced property like mine?

What massive increase in down valuations?

newsgroupmonkey_

Kimlock said:

Hi all,

Just looking for some input because I’m annoying myself with worrying and endless googling.

We had our house valued by an estate agent locally just after Christmas at £85-£95k. Small two bedroomed terrace in West Yorkshire. Before we could put it on the market, we had a private offer of £90k by relatives of our neighbours. We accepted and immediately started looking for a new house, put an offer in and it was accepted.

Our buyers are using Santander and are sending Countrywide to do a valuation next week. I’m now seriously worried about down valuation. We know our buyers have no wiggle room and have struggled to get their 10% deposit for their mortgage. And we need all the proceeds of the sale for the deposit of our new home.

I’ve read nothing but horror stories about Countrywide and down valuations. We’ve looked for comparable properties close by and we can only find a couple which have sold for between £85k-£100k.

I’m genuinely concerned that we’re going to get down valued and have to pull out of the chain completely.

Is the massive increase in down valuations something to be concerned about for a lower priced property like mine?

Bear in mind stuff on the Internet isn't real life.

Let me put it another way.

Countrywide do 1,000 valuations. 990 go through fine. 10 are down valued.

Which of those 1,000 people are going to go on the Internet and shout and scream about it?

I'll tell you. It's none of those 990 people. In the same way that I take everything Tripadvisor and the like with a huge pinch of salt. The only people who review things are generally either really satisfied or heavily annoyed. The latter in fact more likely too.

Banks are wary, but Surveyors have some wiggle room. Simply put though, do your own homework. Most of their valuation is going to come from comparables - similarly sold properties in the area. And unfortunately, most of these comps come off the back of actual sold prices that have been registered with Land Registry. With LR being very slow right now and the market rising quickly, they could be 6 months behind, so don't blame the surveyor (or the company). It's the way that banks force surveyors to work.

Go have a look at Zoopla and put your postcode in (+1 mile). It will tell you the actual Land Registry sold prices.

I think (and please don't quote me on this) but Countrywide, like all the big players, will often outsource the work to a local surveyor (depending on the area and how busy their own surveyor is).

user1977

Kimlock said:

Is the massive increase in down valuations something to be concerned about for a lower priced property like mine?

There's absolutely no point in being worried about it before you know what their valuation is.

lookstraightahead

user1977 said:

Kimlock said:

Is the massive increase in down valuations something to be concerned about for a lower priced property like mine?

There's absolutely no point in being worried about it before you know what their valuation is.

I would say this too. You just need to wait and see.