Can someone advise me about this house valuation please?

[BibiThree]

Bit of a rambling explanaiton to follow so please bear with me.
We're buying a new-build from Redrow. The sale fell through with the previous buyers so it came with a few "extras" like turf and carpets, and on part exchange with our house. They valued our house at £10k lower than our asking price, but took £10k off the asking price of the new build (£240k reduced to £230k).
We got a mortgage advisor to source a mortgage for us and the lender we chose sent out a valuer who Redrow tell us is "notorious" for low valuations. He valued the new build at £215k, and Redrow didn't have enough comparable sales to convince the company to lend over that amount.
We have now instructed a second valuer who valued on Thursday but we are yet to find out what value he's put on the new build.

What I'm sure of now is where I stand if the second valuation comes in at £230K. Do I have to totally disregard the first valuation or do I have ground to haggle on the price? If it comes in under £230K, then I'd assume I could ask them to meet us half way.
H thinks if it's the asking price, then we're paying that regardless of the first valuation. My feeling is that the first valuation is as valid a product as the second.

Thanks for sticking with me! What do you think?

What I'm UNSURE of, sorry ...

Bumping because I'm very impatient ...

I'm no expert OP but I'd be tempted to revise the offer your willing to put in on the newbuils if second valuation comes in lower again BUT I do think they will revise the offer on yours also as they'll want to keep the difference between the houses about the same as it is, this is what happened to us and we didn't go ahead in the end. Hope it works out though :)

The second valuation has come back at the asking price ... should I try to get them to meet me between £230 and £215?

Thanks NatNat, only just seen your response. Who do I go through to revise the offer, through our solicitor or do I just ring Redrow themselves?

Have you checked what your mortgage company is prepared to lend? Worth making sure that they don't lower your mortgage offer based on the first valuation - if they do you'll have to try to negotiate the price accordingly.

We are going with a different lender who isn't aware of the first valuation. They are prepared to lend the £230k, will get an official offer by the end of the week.

In that case, you probably have nothing to lose by trying to negotiate the offer down. That said, from the seller's point of view why would they? If a valuer is prepared to say the house is worth a certain amount, their position is likely to be that they want that amount for it - regardless of what a different valuer has said.

Thanks all. I have decided to ask, regardless of what they say. If I don't ask I'll forever be kicking myself that I didn't. The only glimmer of hope I have of them knocking the price down is that as the house is built and ready to go, it's costing them money the longer it isn't sold. Fingers crossed.

This happened to us. We ended up paying the asking price which was what the second valuation came back at. It does very much depend on the lender and its policy regarding valuing new builds. Depending on how desperate the builders are to sell, they might take a lower offer. Our builders wouldn't budge. Good luck!

They are confident with their asking price. Will not even consider negotiations.

What are you going to do? We paid asking price as I said, and have never regretted it. It just comes down to lenders policy which the builders don't care about as they know some lenders will value at asking price. If you are in for the long haul, I would see it as less of a concern. If you want to move on in a couple of years, you might risk negative equity. I love love love new builds and we were willing to pay the premium on this one as it ticks all our boxes. Let us know what you do but i think you should go for it

We really want the house, but typically I'm now thinking of the positives of staying where we are: tiny mortgage, we can both have new cars, a new kitchen, I could go part time in work in the future if I needed to, we are fairly central to all amenities.
The downsides of moving are we'll have a whopping mortgage, be further away from amenities and won't have the budget for new cars, which we may need in the next few years.
I'm going to give it some thought. Also thinking of ringing the sakes manager for a bit more of an explanation on why one valuation appears to be more valid to them than another, and explain our hesitation.

Sales manager rang me to say the survey came back to say there is "cracking on the rear elevation" of our house, which is a split level built on a hill, essentially two habitable stories but another below bedrooms down to garden. Apparently this is common for houses built on a hill and it appears to have settled but Redrow now want a specialist surveyor.

The house was built in 1997, so it's not ancient, we have no internal cracks in any of the plasterwork. Does this meant hey're going to pull out of the buying of our house or offer us less for it?

Forgive me being completely clueless.

It sounds like they might be playing games and finding a way to offer you less for yours, which may be because they are now nervous about the value of theirs or may be because they want to go back on the price they agreed. We had a px deal fall completely apart because they said the surveyor downvalued ours by £30k! I think they just wanted out of the deal!

I guess we'll find out this week. Thanks all