Remortgage. Mortgage valuation

[Confuseddot]

So we were told by santander that the mortgage valuation would be carried out online. Literally in put our address and a figure would come up. On their computer it came up as 175k.

We out the house on the market not long ago for 215k. We told them this.they said no its only worth 175k on our system as it's based on structural in the area not decor. Which I was confused anyway as you can't get a 3 bed in my area for less than 200k atm anyway?

Weeks later they've now said th at they want to come out and do a valuation. Well another company.

Anyone had experiences like this? Or work as a chartered surveyor? Santander said when questioned that It wasn't coming up accurate online as not many houses sold in my area. But there's been three on my road in the last year and plenty within a half mile radius? I'm worried they'll value it at even less than 175k in which case we wouldn't get the better mortgage rate were hoping for! We weren't happy with the 175k in the beginning!

Normally for remortgage they are happy to save the money and do a desk top valuation, as long as the loan to value is good.
If that is enough then everyone's a winner, if not they should come out to value in person. At that point it's a person's professional opinion, so it should be more accurate.

We've just taken out a mortgage on a property we bought for cash 6 months ago. A valuer actually came out, said he had no idea and would have to think about it as it's so unusual (it isn't). He valued it at ten grand more than we paid, which is still 10 grand less than the open market asking price for the one next door (which has one bathroom and IS unusual). Dunno how they work it out.

Yes, we tried to re-mortgage with Nationwide 2 years ago. They would only use their online desktop valuation which simply based their remortgage valuation on their original valuation 2 years ago, and then increased it based on the average regional increase (for the whole of the region North West) when in fact, we live in a particularly expensive pocket where house prices had increased much faster than other areas. We offered to pay for a new valuation (so a valuer would come out etc) but were told there was no way around it.

We ended up re-mortgaging with a new lender who valued the house £100k more (when the valuer came out to value) than Nationwide valued it at through their desktop valuation.

A valuation is not what people are prepared to pay on the open market. You cannot say your house is worth more because a house down the road sold for more.

How not, delilah?

Valuation is its market value. Market value considers what other similar local properties sold for. Otherwise, what would it be based on?

Delilah thats precisely that value is - its not an exact science, its what someone is prepared to pay for a property on the open market between a willing buyer and a willing seller.

If you need the house to be valued at more than what their computer has thrown up, they need to send someone round to see if it's worth more.

However, you could choose not to pay for the valuer and just cover the shortfall in cash. E.g. You have 150k outstanding on the mortgage and there's a 70% ltv deal you'd like to get. If the house is valued at 215k, you can secure that deal. However, with a 175k valuation, you'd be 27.5k short of 30% deposit. If you had the money, you could just pay that shortfall and secure the 70% ltv deal anyway.

Not sure what your personal circumstances are, but don't worry if similar houses in the area have been selling for around 215k.

We had similar with Nationwide last time we remortgaged. The sale price from 10yrs ago with just the standard regional increase applied.

Our house is on a popular estate where all the houses are much the same so it should be easy to work out a correct valuation from recent sale values. I showed them stuff from Zoopla and rightmove and they agreed to come out and value it properly. Lo and behold it was 50,000 more than they had originally quoted which made a huge difference to LtV and rates we could get.

Brilliant thanks for that everyone. Guessing santander or the surveyor has realised my area is worth a lot more than what computer says so. I had mine valued two months ago at 215k so I'm not basing it on the house up the road. But the houses up the road go for similar if not 200k at least. Houses fly off the market round here and usually for more than asking price.

My situation is that I just want a good deal really. I could get a decent deal with the computer valuation of 175k but it's a bit shitty knowing my house is worth 30-40k more. Even zoopla prices at 200k and they're usually 10-15k below what the house is put on the market as.

Good to know we may actually get a better deal with the surveyor coming out. We never asked for him to come out and santander covers the fee so that's good. I'm guessing they've looked Don their computer then zoopla and or right move and realised their computers are way off at 175k haha.

I shall update Friday when surveyor has been. Hopefully he can tell me what he values it at there and then.

You've had yours valued by who? An estate agent or a surveyor? Both will give a very different price.

An estate agent. And yes I understand that but I don't understand HOW it can be 175k from a surveyor and 215k from an estate agent.

However, My question was regarding WHY a surveyor now wants to come out as when I asked santander they said it's all computerised and price cannot be altered and that it is based on market value. Clearly wasn't based on market value as I don't know anywhere in my area that you can get a 3 bed for 175k.. And now surveyor suddenly wanting to come out?

I don't think there is much point in mulling it over, it is what it is, it doesn't matter why. Just let them come and see what they say.

We've just remortgaged with Santander (we were already with them, but have borrowed a bit extra). They sent someone to value our house, it's come out slightly lower than their online estimate and than what we thought...... however, it hasn't affected the mortgage offer (although our LTV is very good, so it has not pushed us over any thresholds).
Try not to worry or overthink it.

Just to add, I was surprised they wanted to value ours - given that we're not a new customer. But as you said, they cover the cost, so no big deal

Are you possibly confusing the reinstatement value for the market value?

Given you can put in your own value into Zoopla, valuing online is bonkers anyway. How about altering the predicted value yourself before the next survey?

NotCitrus they don't use the likes of Zoopla for the valuations! They have a special system that only staff can access that takes into account lots of different factors. My dp is a mortgage adviser for Santander and I know that system is usually pretty accurate. The only reason they would send a surveyor out rather than go with the system is if they believe or are told the information held is incorrect. For example, ours was valued originally as a four bed when actually it is a five, and thus it needed checking and revaluing.

Just to add my experience (and I thought we were the only ones!). We bought our house for £166k in 2008, (and that was mid-range of what the surveyor said it was worth when we had our survey done on the house).

However, when we have since tried to re-mortgage, because when we bought it we must have checked some box that said we don’t want our sold price being made publicly available, the mortgage company went with the previous to us sold price. Which was £80k in 2002. They applied some generic formula to the £80k price and came up with £105k in 2011. Which was bonkers because there hasn’t been a house on our street that was sold for less than £150k since 2005, and they were a smaller type of house to begin with! We lost our re-mortgage application. But I was heavily pregnant at the time and didn’t pursue it further. And wouldn’t really know how to (could you appeal to the surveyors body – we had someone come out to survey it for the mortgage?)

As previous posters have said, it seems that they take the last sold price (that is publicly available) and apply the regional house price trend increase (or whatever formula they come up with). We shot ourselves in the foot when we didn’t make what we paid publicly available. At the time, and subsequently, I haven’t heard of anyone else having this problem, but I don’t know what we do about it. We were so put off we haven’t re-mortgaged at all. It all hinges on what the very crude survey says which is ridiculous when it doesn’t take into account local factors (even what houses on the same street have literally sold for!).

Sorry, not sure that last post was helpful. I guess what I was trying to say was that for our re-mortgage, we had the surveyor round too, and he/she STILL came up with the generic regional price (i.e. £105k) which didn't reflect the actual sold prices on our street (or what we paid for it). So not sure what the point of the survey was when they didn't look at the local information.

delilah - I'll take your word for it, but the last three mortgages we've had have by an amazing coincidence valued the property as exactly what it says on Zoopla... We've been going for a less than 50% LTV, so maybe they're particularly unfussed?

I have recently had an additional loan on my mortgage from Santander. I, too, thought they would not send out a valuer, but they did. Only last month.

The valuer who came out valued my property at 17k more than their computer said. The valuer was lovely, by the way.

I'll read through your post in more depth and see if there is anything else I can add.

Thanks all and shortlass that is reassuring. Did he say what he based the factors of the valuation On?

Posters saying that they don't let zoopla and right move influence but that's what santander said to me could be swaying their decision instead of computer says this.. As they've already told me what the computer valued it at. Then wanted a surveyor to come out?

Also poster above zoopla you can put your own estimate in but property experts reassess it and either put the valuation up or down or stays the same. I couldn't put a million in on zoopla and they would say yes ok?? Hahaha

Most valuers have access to a central database that includes all valuations (those done for remortgage purposes and those done in preparation for a sale). Most lenders will use valuers who have access to this database. Valuers are professionally obliged to look at 3 completed sales in the last 6 months when they value a property. The difficulty comes from getting a valuer involved in the first place if you're remortgaging (as I said above) and then dealing with the subjectivity of a valuers opinion when there are not 3 direct comparables selling in the last 6 months.

I've never come across a valuer who considered Zoopla.

There has been 3 terraced houses sold on my street in the last 6 months. But they are still coming out for some reason a nd database still valued it on 175k! None of it makes sense to me. We shall see Friday