Valuers?
 

Just had the valuer in to look at my house and it all seemed very vague.

It would appear that the value is determined more on what other house prices are worth in the area than what actual value the house offers?

I have an idea based on other houses in my road, but have no idea if he will agree with that or be a million miles away.

Anyone had much experience of this?

Is this an estate agent or a mortgage company valuer?

If its a mortgage one then all he's interested in is ensuring that any mortgage taken on the property is covered by the value of the house - ie as long as the mortgage is less than the house value, then he's happy.

They also produce a cost involved in rebuilding the house if it needed completely rebuilding - this cost will be considerably less than the house "market" value.

If its an estate agent, then he's looking at a realistic sell price for the house, and don't forget that if he's keen to sell it, he may value it low just to get it through his books quickly - for the difference he'd lose in % - he'd rather sell it quick and cheaper than at top price and take a while - the longer its on his books the more it costs him (advertising etc).

Tim:frog:

its for a remortgage (changing company better deal etc)

he looked about a bit but didn't do too much really, so hopefully he will look at what it could sell for and it will all be fine :)

Sounds familiar.......
We're just going through the same as you Lily - the building society said that the surveyor probably wouldn't even need to come inside the house to value it!
:o

The valuer never even bothered with our last move - and if he did all he would have seen was a building site as it was a new build house!

I'm sure he still charged the money though!

As an self employed independent mortgage adviser, perhaps I could help on this one.

When a remortgage is arranged the lender will commission a valuation of your property for mortgage purpose. Basically this means they need to be sure (based on current market value) that the loan they grant is covered by the value of the property being offered as security.

The valauation is carried out by an independent company whose valuer needs to be qualified (FRICS) etc.

The valuation will usually last 10 to 15 minutes. Sometimes only a "drive by" valuation is carried out were the surveyor will only conduct an external inspection without entering your property. Normally where the loan to value percentage is fairly low.

The actual valuation, like any "price" is dependent upon market forces eg what someone is willing to pay for it. All valuers will look for sold houses locally to yours and of similar size etc. They will get this info from local estate agents in your area. Their valuation report will consist of normally 3, sometimes more, of comparative "sold" values. This is what will guide him to give a value on your property.

Having dealt with many valuers over the last 15 years or so, 95% of the valuation they give is based on what houses have actually sold for in your neighbourhood. The remainder is based upon decor/upkeep etc.

Estate Agents for sale prices normally do not normally match surveyors valuations and can, more recently be more than 10% different.

I hope this answers your query. If you want to know the best deals currently available in the whole market, send me a U2U and I would be happy to provide you with some confidential and free advice.