Home buyers survey has lower value of house, any advise please?

[OnePotato2Potato]

Hi,

Would appreciate opinions on this please. We had an offer accepted on a house, now the home buyers survey has come back valuing the house at 15k less (which is about 5% less than offer price). The surveyor has recommended renegotiating on the price. But the mortgage offer has come through so that means the lender is happy to lend even if it's over price?

Do i have a leg to stand on with regards to negotiating? Has anyone had similar happen with them? Thanks for reading!

I thought that it was the bank valuation that was most important?

I would definitely renegotiate, its a lot of money, why pay over the odds!

If the mortgage company aren't bothered and you're happy to pay the price that's fine. So the mortgage valuation was fine? In which case I would t worry, if it's the house you want.

You have every right to refuse to dr

Also what's his down valuation based on?

Try again. You have every right to say you will only pay the lower price but the sellers also have the right to refuse. Just depends who is more desperate.

Thanks for the replies.

Yes, mortgage valuation was ok.

Just got off the phone from the surveyor and he;s adamant it is over valued! He compared it to houses on around that street and said even though it has been extended it is still only a 3 bed and that you can get a 4 bedroom for much cheaper!

I will speak to solicitors and estate agent now.

The bottom line is a house is worth what someone's willing to pay. I wouldn't put too much stock in what the surveyor has said, unless they're lowering their valuation based on critical work that needs doing.

The thing with houses is that they're not like mass-produced items sitting on shelves whereby if it's over-priced in one shop you can buy the same thing somewhere else for a better price; they're all different. So if you like one in particular you're not just paying for the bricks and mortar, you're paying for no-one else to be able to buy it as well. And sometimes that's worth quite a lot!

If it makes you feel better my mortgage valuation when I bought in 2011 was about 5% lower than what I was paying for the place, but I wouldn't have not paid it and risked not living there - I love it! And anyway, it's worth loads more than either of those valuations now anyway, so whatever :)

if it indeed true that you can buy a better house for less, do it.

It usually isn't.

Just to give an update if anyone is in a similar position...

We ended up negotiating and went in with a offer just over half way, so 7k off the original price. Estate agent had typical scare tactics about offering to other potential buyers who had already offered close to that amount

Vendor offered 4K off, then 5.5k off and we finally settled on 6K off.

So all in all at least we got a good few grand off but in hindsight if we had started off with a lower offer I'm optimistic we would have gotten 8k-10k off. But we wanted to be fair to the vendor so started half way.

It's possible to negotiate but depends partly on how much you want to risk upsetting the vendor

But we wanted to be fair to the vendor so started half way.

Well done you - you help bolster my faith in people.

And bolster property prices... (I'd have done the same as you OP!!)