Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

AIBU to feel that we may have "given the house away" too cheaply?

56 replies

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 16:16

Put the house up for sale in March, just before lockdown. When market opened up again, we had three viewings and 2 offers. Accepted the higher one for £279000 (asking price £295000). Buyers are in rented accommodation, so no chain and they have 25 percent deposit. We have been waiting since May for the survey, which has been delayed due to pandemic. Advised by Estate agent today that the valuation has been done without surveyor visiting property. Obviously the results of the valuation must have been OK as the buyers are still proceeding. I can't help thinking that to do valuation without even looking at the property suggests we have sold it too cheaply. Why else would it be deemed uneccessary for the surveyor to actually see the house? We accepted the fairly low offer as thought that we were lucky to have any offers as it is likely that the economy is headed towards recession.

Thanks for any thoughts/opinions.

OP posts:

Garby · 16/07/2020 17:24

Sorry, that was a reply to ScandiNoir!

alreadytaken · 16/07/2020 17:25

If your buyers are not having a survey done they are fools who may have paid over the odds because they have fallen in love with your home. Never buy a house without at least a housebuyers report.

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 17:29

[quote PrayingandHoping]@TheBeeatAmbridge "homebuyers report".... thank you! That was the term I was trying to think of!!

Op that is what is traditionally known as a survey... where they will need access to your house [/quote]
Yes, it seems that our buyers must be relying on the mortgage company valuation and have decided not to go for homebuyers' report.

OP posts:

Goingdownto · 16/07/2020 17:34

Did you not have to have a survey done (homebuyers report) before putting it on the market? That is what we now do in Scotland. Surveyors must hate it, as you used to everyone who wanted to bid doing their own survey.

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 17:35

@alreadytaken

If your buyers are not having a survey done they are fools who may have paid over the odds because they have fallen in love with your home. Never buy a house without at least a housebuyers report.

I agree with this. In the lengthy wait for the survey, the flat roof on the extension has failed. Luckily for our buyer, we have been honest about it and are replacing the flat roof next week at enormous cost as don't want to sell them a lemon. If we had been dodgy, they could have lived to regret not getting a homebuyer's report.

OP posts:

VimFuego101 · 16/07/2020 17:36

@JumpingFrogs

Many years ago, when house prices were probably a quarter of what they are now, we sold a house for £50,000 to first time buyers. It was valued at £58,000, but the market was sluggish and we had fallen in love with a property. People told us we were crazy to accept such a low offer, but I have never regretted it for a moment. It enabled us to move on with our lives and to buy a lovely home. You put your whole life on hold when your house is on the market, and I'm so glad we didn't waste many more months and potentially lose another property

This is so very true. I'd hate to be in house-selling limbo for any longer than necessary.

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 17:37

@Goingdownto

No, the buyer gets the survey done rather than the seller of the property in England.

OP posts:

heymacaroner · 16/07/2020 17:42

I think all sellers wonder whether they could have got a bit more. And naturally also, buyers wonder if they could have paid less.
We spent ages agonising about the offer we ended up making on our now house, trying to work out what it was 'worth' and what a fair price was. It was right at the top top end of our budget and simply, we didn't want to end up squeezing our finances and paying that much if it was worth less.
Someone at time advised me that a house is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it. You could in theory hang on for years waiting for higher offers but there has to be a line somewhere. It sounds like you made a sensible decision at the time given the circumstances. No-one here can judge whether your house might have been worth more without seeing it but I would say try not to spend too much time worrying about it - it's natural to wonder if you could have got more but remember you accepted that offer for a reason and sounds like it was probably a fair price.

PrayingandHoping · 16/07/2020 17:42

The valuation is literally a tick box exercise for the mortgage company that they are not lending more money than the house is worth so their loan is safe....

It means nothing really to the buyer.

dontgobaconmyheart · 16/07/2020 17:56

The buyers are lunatics to proceed without a survey and purchase a property for which they have no idea is even structurally integral or not subject to any other serious issue.

I know you say it's fine OP and it may well be but gosh, what a risk on their behalf. They may well decide to proceed with one I suppose.

I can't see that there is any issue that indicates you've undersold the property but if you feel you have, why are you paying a 'great expense' to have a roof fixed. The buyers are buying the property as seen, they mist know this. If you think you're letting it sell too low, I would add whatever you're paying for the works off the final cost in your head and see if you're satisfied with that. It makes little sense to say you've sold it for less than it's worth and then also give them however many thousands worth off in extra works that they get the benefit of, as a freebie, for no reason.

It's nothing to do with your son unless he owns a stake in the property OP. Very rude of him to upset you and seems rather grabby of him to boot. Would he still be annoyed by it if it werent his future I inheritance? It's your home, you sell for whatever you like, don't have to proceed and deserve to feel happy in whichever decision is made and it isn't his place to comment, not least in a way that has left you hurt and worried.

SusieOwl4 · 16/07/2020 18:24

Posters are correct . Drive by valuations are the norm and have been for a long time . If they have enough information on local housing sold then that is it they are happy . It’s a valuation not a survey .

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 18:32

@dontgobaconmyheart
I can't see that there is any issue that indicates you've undersold the property but if you feel you have, why are you paying a 'great expense' to have a roof fixed.

When the buyers looked at the house, the problems with flat roof weren't apparent, so they made offer on basis of a house in good condition. When the flat roof failed, we were advised that a new one was needed (existing one 11 years old). Decided that we would sort it out prior to survey as knew it would be flagged up on the survey anyway. Turns out we would have got away with it as there won't be a surveyor scrutinising the inside of property. Not sure I would be comfortable anyway in handing over the keys to the new occupants knowing the flat roof was defunct.

OP posts:

BoomBoomsCousin · 16/07/2020 18:41

If you’ve replaced an old roof with a new one rather than just patching it, your house is probably worth more than it was when you put it on the market.

But I think the post about not putting your life on hold is the advice on this page to put the most weight on.

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 18:53

@BoomBoomsCousin

If you’ve replaced an old roof with a new one rather than just patching it, your house is probably worth more than it was when you put it on the market.

But I think the post about not putting your life on hold is the advice on this page to put the most weight on.

You could be right. The wallpaper needs replacing in the areas where the roof leaked. I think I will use the fact that we have added value to property (by replacing flat roof) as an argument to leave redecoration and possibly replastering for buyer to do.

OP posts:

rwalker · 16/07/2020 18:57

they have 25% deposit so as long as it's worth what they are borrowing they wouldn't visit .

Quarantimespringclean · 16/07/2020 19:00

I agree that drive by valuations are routine nowadays. I wouldn’t give this any more thought. If you kept on refusing to sell in the hope there was a higher offer out there you could drive yourself insane.

Beaniebeemer · 16/07/2020 19:14

Yes it’s all based on comparables. If your house is one of many with the same Or similar blue print it’s a piece of cake for the surveyor. If it’s more unique it would be harder to value by doing a drive by. Drive by valuations are nothing new. They were done in the 90’s when right to buy was a big thing. They called them second gear valuations.

Original poster

HouseSale · 16/07/2020 19:14

@rwalker and @HouseSale
Thank you! I am feeling much reassured that a drive by survey is not necessarily a sign of a house being sold too cheaply!

OP posts:

Whenwillthisbeover · 16/07/2020 19:16

You sound a fair and decent seller OP, i hope your chain is smooth and you get your dream home.

greenlynx · 16/07/2020 19:21

We’ve bought our house 1.5 years. We gave good deposit (about 30%). Our monthly payments are less than the rent we’ve payed previously. No one went to look at the house to do evaluation. It all was done online. Your buyers probably claimed good income which wasn’t affected by Covid so their bank didn’t bother.

JacobReesMogadishu · 16/07/2020 19:26

It’s because of the big deposit. My current house we put a 55% deposit down on it and the mortgage company never valued it....I don’t think we paid under the odds for it.

You must have been happy with the price you put it in for and had an idea of what your local market is like?

dairydairywhyamihairy · 16/07/2020 19:29

I Work in surveying. A lot of the work in valuing a house is actually done before the visit. Without entering there could be things inside bringing the value down that we wouldn't see but in the current climate a drive by/desk valuation is still a good way of valuing the house.

If you are worried you can get a survey done for your own peace of mind but I would say that often there are things inside that bring the value down so personally I wouldn't unless I honestly felt there was a lot of value knocked off.

Starlyte · 16/07/2020 19:44

House surveyors in France are really recent, unfortunately (we got ripped off here, with a leaky roof and other stuff - the vendor had water recuperation hidden under the floor and behind the walls in the attic, and he was a "sweet" old 85 year old! It's costing a fortune to get it put right, plus we're both getting past the DIY age!) .
I would never buy another house here or any where else without a surveyor's rapport, detailled, even if I got him flown over from England! They're all English surveyors here, started up very few years ago. It's not a French thing at all, so if you buy here, do be warned!
Get a surveyor's rapport, without hesitating!

SmilesAreFree2020 · 16/07/2020 19:47

Same here. We had a valuation without a visit. If a lot of similar properties in the same area and sold recently it is fairly easy to work a value out.

Zelda93 · 16/07/2020 19:59

We had valuation without a visit they did a drive by and looked at local houses similar to ours ..

Flip

1 2 3