First time buyer

lincroft1710

If a potential buyers lender is happy to lend them enough so that they only need a 5% deposit, then that is absolutely fine. If the lender's surveyor subsequently downvalues the property then not only would the lender probably reduce the amount they are prepared to lend, but the prudent buyer would expect a reduction in the agreed price of the property, irrespective of the size of the deposit

monkey-fingers

Even if I were putting down 50%, if the surveyor undervalued it that much, I'm pulling out.

So 5% or 50%. Makes no odds.

RelievedSheff

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81924534#Comment_81924534

We were a bit more pragmatic than that.

Our mortgage lender did an automatic valuation which down valued the property we are buying. We agreed to buy at £402k the valuation came back at £390k.

I dare say if a physical valuation had been carried out it would have come back higher. But we would have still been in the same LTV bracket (75% LTV) so it would have been a pointless exercise.

We are happy with the price we have agreed to pay. Wouldn't have offered that of not.

mills112

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81925569#Comment_81925569

you can't always take what the surveyors says as the value of the property as the value of a property is very subjective and is very much dependent on how much someone else is prepared to pay for it. it is not a concrete formula, where there is one exact answer. you may find there is no other property like it that ticks all your boxes and you may have been looking for a couple of years and not found anything suitable, or that you can afford, so for the sake of £10k on a £400k property, it's an elephant and irrelevant. so if you had the cushion of savings to make up the shortfall, i personally would go for it, and this is how i have always valued properties.

a property value is very personal thing so blindly accepting what the surveyor tells you, particularly the bank's surveyor, may end up with you living in rented accomodation for a very long time and you would be spending more than the extra £10k in rent!