Buyers surveyor undervalued our house

BikingBud

monkey-fingers said:

Put it back on the market.
Buyers are timewasters.

I am assuming that you mean the specific buyers rather than buyer generally.

But to balance we do not know the motivation or the worry beads of the buyers.

It appears they have paid for a survey by a "competent" agent. I would expect they trust the advice they get.

Many people will require different levels of assurance, just because they might be misaligned to the vendors expectations and needs doesn't necessarily mean they are wasting time. 

RocketRonnieRadox

we’ve had the house on the market for 15 months and this is the first offer.

maybe the reason for that said it had been overvalue if we did risk putting it back on the market at say 270,000 and another buyer instructed the survey that also resulted in them lowballing us then we might be £10,000 better than this buyer so I have gone back to the estate agent and I’ve asked the buyer to meet me in the middle at 260,000 and proceed. waiting for an update 

at the same time, I’m waiting for the report from the roofing company, which will expose the surveyor to be the lowly scum that they are. and hopefully restore some confidence in the condition of the roof.

MyRealNameToo

RocketRonnieRadox said:

we’ve had the house on the market for 15 months and this is the first offer.

maybe the reason for that said it had been overvalue if we did risk putting it back on the market at say 270,000 and another buyer instructed the survey that also resulted in them lowballing us then we might be £10,000 better than this buyer so I have gone back to the estate agent and I’ve asked the buyer to meet me in the middle at 260,000 and proceed. waiting for an update 

at the same time, I’m waiting for the report from the roofing company, which will expose the surveyor to be the lowly scum that they are. and hopefully restore some confidence in the condition of the roof.

Presumably this was a level 2 survey? 

Ultimately no surveyor has ever been sued for seeing something not quite right and taking a pessimistic view, plenty have been sued for saying things are fine when they arent. Even level 2 surveys are still relatively light touch in terms of where they go, what they can access/test and what has to be done by sight alone from a distance. 

A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, properties can be massively over valued because people fall in love with it and owners can also be grossly over optimistic about the value of what they own. Our last rental went on the market for £650k, they offered us and I said not work over £600k, a few months later they said they'd sell it to us for £600k  "per our offer" we said no, we had an offer accepted on another place for £575k, given the service charge is much higher we'd offer £555k for the place and the LL didnt even respond. 14 months later sold it for £525k 

The fact you've not had one offer before now would seem to suggest the price is wrong for the current conditions. The surveyor seems to agree hence the lower valuation... presumably your buyers need a mortgage so that'll be impacted as the LTV will have changed. 

Its up to you if you stick to your guns, dont lower the price and see if the next buyer is a cash buyer and/or loves it enough to pay above the surveyors view... in principle the next surveyor in 6 months time could value it at £240k so its all a bit of a roll of the dice. 

theartfullodger

Buyer's surveyor has not undervalued it, he's simply valued it in his opinion.  Understand your opinion is different.  What is agreed between seller & buyer defines actual value).

Good luck

saajan_12

RocketRonnieRadox said:

we’ve had the house on the market for 15 months and this is the first offer.

maybe the reason for that said it had been overvalue if we did risk putting it back on the market at say 270,000 and another buyer instructed the survey that also resulted in them lowballing us then we might be £10,000 better than this buyer so I have gone back to the estate agent and I’ve asked the buyer to meet me in the middle at 260,000 and proceed. waiting for an update 

at the same time, I’m waiting for the report from the roofing company, which will expose the surveyor to be the lowly scum that they are. and hopefully restore some confidence in the condition of the roof.

Remember there is a cost to waiting. If you sold the house a year ago and stuck the money in a bank, you'd have made ~10k, or invested and made 20k+ in a year. Just to illustrate as you don't have any renovations in both scenarios, but in one you could have an extra bunch of cash. Looking forward, selling for now is likely better than holding out for an extra 10k if that takes another 12 months, not to mention the bills. 

I'd ask the EA on why they don't think its selling, price it to sell and stick it back on the market. If this buyer comes back to accept you can take it off, but if they've got an expert telling them one thing, they're unlikely to budge from thsi. 

RocketRonnieRadox

MyRealNameToo said:

RocketRonnieRadox said:

we’ve had the house on the market for 15 months and this is the first offer.

maybe the reason for that said it had been overvalue if we did risk putting it back on the market at say 270,000 and another buyer instructed the survey that also resulted in them lowballing us then we might be £10,000 better than this buyer so I have gone back to the estate agent and I’ve asked the buyer to meet me in the middle at 260,000 and proceed. waiting for an update 

at the same time, I’m waiting for the report from the roofing company, which will expose the surveyor to be the lowly scum that they are. and hopefully restore some confidence in the condition of the roof.

Presumably this was a level 2 survey? 

Ultimately no surveyor has ever been sued for seeing something not quite right and taking a pessimistic view, plenty have been sued for saying things are fine when they arent. Even level 2 surveys are still relatively light touch in terms of where they go, what they can access/test and what has to be done by sight alone from a distance. 

A house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it, properties can be massively over valued because people fall in love with it and owners can also be grossly over optimistic about the value of what they own. Our last rental went on the market for £650k, they offered us and I said not work over £600k, a few months later they said they'd sell it to us for £600k  "per our offer" we said no, we had an offer accepted on another place for £575k, given the service charge is much higher we'd offer £555k for the place and the LL didnt even respond. 14 months later sold it for £525k 

The fact you've not had one offer before now would seem to suggest the price is wrong for the current conditions. The surveyor seems to agree hence the lower valuation... presumably your buyers need a mortgage so that'll be impacted as the LTV will have changed. 

Its up to you if you stick to your guns, dont lower the price and see if the next buyer is a cash buyer and/or loves it enough to pay above the surveyors view... in principle the next surveyor in 6 months time could value it at £240k so its all a bit of a roll of the dice. 

This buyer is a cash buyer with no chain as they have already sold their house

lincroft1710

If you have only had one offer in 15 months, then either the asking price is too much or there is something fundamentally wrong with the house e.g. location, room sizes, layout, garden shape/size, or people are not buying that type of house in that area.

monkey-fingers

BikingBud said:

monkey-fingers said:

Put it back on the market.
Buyers are timewasters.

I am assuming that you mean the specific buyers rather than buyer generally.

But to balance we do not know the motivation or the worry beads of the buyers.

It appears they have paid for a survey by a "competent" agent. I would expect they trust the advice they get.

Many people will require different levels of assurance, just because they might be misaligned to the vendors expectations and needs doesn't necessarily mean they are wasting time. 

Trust me, many surveyors are incompetent. I wouldn't use our local surveyor, for instance, if my life depended on it!

Asimovs_nightfall

I think you may have to try and remove the emotion from this, whether the surveyor is good or not and whether the survey helps or hinders, and think about it as a transaction only.  How much do you want to get it off your hands?

It seems you're in the fortunate position of not having to sell to live elsewhere. You may well have this house on your hands for a further six months, plus time it takes to go through the legals. How much is that worth? You may have to sell for £250k to get that sale.  Then again, it may not sell for another 15 months!  How long are you willing to sit on this asset without the liquidity of the cash?

All ifs and buts, but something I experienced and was glad to sell in the end at a reduced rate to move on with my life.

RocketRonnieRadox

Asimovs_nightfall said:

I think you may have to try and remove the emotion from this, whether the surveyor is good or not and whether the survey helps or hinders, and think about it as a transaction only.  How much do you want to get it off your hands?

It seems you're in the fortunate position of not having to sell to live elsewhere. You may well have this house on your hands for a further six months, plus time it takes to go through the legals. How much is that worth? You may have to sell for £250k to get that sale.  Then again, it may not sell for another 15 months!  How long are you willing to sit on this asset without the liquidity of the cash?

All ifs and buts, but something I experienced and was glad to sell in the end at a reduced rate to move on with my life.

I agree with you in principle and I do want to move on with my life however £23,000 is a kitchen in my new house which needs a significant spend on it.

As mentioned above I’m having a report done on the roof that will make the severe look like an incompetence surveyor and I’ve asked to proceed at 260. The agent rang the buyer to see if she’s considered this today but he didn’t answer the phone so the agent left a message and has not yet heard back let’s see