EA "valuation" v lender valuation

[mandy214]

Has anyone re-mortgaged / purchased recently?

I'm just trying to get a handle on the likely discrepancy between an estate agent's price and what a lender is likely to value it at if we were to re-mortgage.

I am a bit of an avid right-mover I check what has come onto the market in the last 24 hours most days, and check rightmove sold prices too so I have a good idea (I think) of what the local market is doing and what we'd achieve if we sold. Have had an EA round aswell to give me a figure he thinks we'd get, and a marketing / selling price. My opinion, and EA's, are in the same ball park.

So question is, if we were to re-mortgage (& extend) rather than sell, how conservative are lender valuations (for a re-mortgage) likely to be in comparison to the EA's figure?

I know its all a bit vague but any recent experience would be good. Thanks in advance.

We remortgaged recently. Had EA to value before just to get idea. EA came in at 600k. Mortgage company valued at 575k. The 575k is probably more realistic. I imagine if we put house on at 600k we would get offers of around 575k.

Fab that's really helpful thank you!

Estate agent valued our house at about 420, mortgage company valued it at 380. Irritating, but no effect on LTV so didn't argue.

That's the issue, the LTV. Really interesting to see the difference!

We have just completed an extension and re-mortgaged. The lenders valuation is around 15 - 20% lower than what we would expect the house to sell for. Ours was just a drive by valuation though and we're up north.

A friends house was recently valued by the lender quite a bit lower than she expected.

Had you had an estate agent to value it too Msmorgan? That's quite worrying . I suppose we'll just have to err on the side of a conservative valuation.

You can argue them up with recent sold prices and comparisons, or if your house has had improvements that you don't think are reflected in the valuation. But I would go conservative. You can always pitch high to the valuer when he comes over.

Thank you. Useful advice!

No, we haven't had an estate agent valuation but there have been a few other recent sales in the street. Our house was only valued at £15,000 more than the unimproved or extended house next door which recently sold.

Our mortgage broker said lenders are being very conservative in their valuations. Our LTV's low so it doesn't make any difference to us.

Our lender's valuation was as per nationwide house price index - maybe check that out

Gaslamp Thats interesting because we're currently with Nationwide and they do use their own HPI as the basis for a remortgage valuation (we remortgaged with them last time). I have asked already how we would challenge it, because it is too low (it doesn't appear to have kept pace with our village / town, it just gives an overall % increase for say "the North" or "the North West") and you can go through a process with them describing work / refurbishment to get them to move away from that figure. But I don't think it would still get to a realistic value. We live on a road of identical houses and our next door neighbour but 2 has sold in the last couple of months. Identical house, same layout, actually a smaller garden and they have no garage (whereas we do). Their sold price is £110,000 more than the Nationwide HPI (which is about 25% of the value) so it makes a massive difference to the LTV we'd get. Its not just slightly out, its way off.

I was told that mortgage companies start with a paper valuation normally calculated by someone at a desk 100 miles from where you live. If that is too low (for the ltv that you need) you can request a real person visiting your house type valuation, which will be more accurate.

We are now paying for a valuation so hopefully someone should come to the house. I was just trying to get a feel for how conservative they might be!

I thought the valuation was out but our LTV is low and getting a valuation wouldn't have made a difference to us, from amount or rate perspective. But interesting to hear how far out it is on yours! I think ours is more like 5-10% out - it recognised a 17% increase in last 18 months, but I think if house was marketed now it would get at least 5% more even on a quick sale