Mortgage down valuation of 50k, help!

[Branchlemon]

We’re buying a 4 bed house for around £660k and the lender has done a valuation and valued at £610k. We have quite a lot of equity from our current property so they have still given us our mortgage offer, but I’m pretty spooked that they think it is worth so much less.

It was only an online valuation, they didn’t visit in person, and it was very quick. There aren’t really many directly comparable houses that have sold in the local area and the market has slowed a little there in the last year. The road itself has a real mix of houses, some 3 beds are much smaller and around 350k, possibly ex council, and not really comparable.

I don’t know if online valuations could take account of upgrades they have made to property if it’s not clear online - would they compare the current property advert with the previous listing in 2017?

It’s in a popular area commutable to London, but it last sold for just over 500k in 2017. Other similar properties have also increased a lot in sale price over that period

Any advice?!

This just happened to my friend. She asked for a physical valuation and they valued it at what she offered.

Thank you. Halifax don’t give option for that, it’s just a take or or leave it kind of thing…

Can't you use the valuation to negotiate the price down?

You might get more help if you move this to Property

Yeah we’re aiming to but the sellers said they were clear that they needed to sell at this price to buy their new property (but then they would say that!).

we haven’t done survey yet so unsure whether to do that as there might be negotiations following that. But if we do end up having to pull out then we lose the money on the survey….

This happened to my DS . He appealed but the mortgage company stuck with their valuation so they went to another mortgage company and they valued it at the offer price

The purchasers had a 'drive by' valuation on our mother's house, after her death. The valuation was given as about £20K less than the EA valuation. I spoke to the EA about this, he seemed to think there wasn't a problem as obviously it could only be a guide if they don't look at the property.
The purchasers still paid their offer price without question.

The house is worth what you’re willing to pay for it. If you’re happy with the amount you’re paying and have the funds to cover it, then the valuation from the mortgage company is irrelevant really.

Why does it matter if the sale can still go ahead and you have the equity?

An on-line valuation is finger in the air really. You can get the same by looking at Rightmove or Zoopla. That's probably what they did, and took the mid-point. Lazy buggers.

If you want to live in the house, like the area, it's a good fit for you and your family, that's the most important thing. You have equity, so it doesn't really matter.

We asked for the calculation details of our valuation which was way less than we were going to pay. Ours was a 3 bed detached with some land. The comparator properties were 3 bed terraces on the council estate a few miles away with pocket sized back yards but sharing the same first four postcode digits.

We provided some more comparable properties and they upped it.

Full structural survey then go from there.

Thanks, we were thinking about this, though I think another mortgage application may affect credit record? Our credit rating is v good currently, no debts, loans, overdrafts etc

I thought it was but now I’m concerned that I was thinking with my heart not head!

When we come to sell, which could be 4/5 years, if other mortgage lenders also value it 50k less then we could lose the money if house prices stay the same, or lose any profit

@DillyDeclutter yes I reckon it’s a lazy quick one but apparently a lot of mortgage valuations are remotely done now so others could go the same way!

They could easily have done lazy comparisons but Halifax won’t tell us their calculations so impossible to know….