Is our home worth what we're being offered?

[fretting123]

House went on market in June, valued between £275 - £285. We put it on for £285, much interest and accepted offer of £295, wonderful. Struggled to find our next property, eventually did, but 2 weeks after they accepted our offer they pulled out due to health reasons. Soon lost our buyers due to redundancy. House back on market in Sep, we put it on for £295 this time, accepted offer of £306 (to an investor) excellent! FINALLY had our offer accepted on another property (they preferred our circumstances over a higher bid apparently) only for our buyers to pull out due to change in financial circumstances the same week. Spoke to our sellers EA who said if we had buyers before Dec 20th ( which gave us 2 weeks) they would still be happy to continue. House back on market, we thought 'fuck it' and put it on for offers over £300. Had more interest than ever this time! 8 offers in total all between £320 - £330, amazing! Anyway, I'm now worried that when our buyers lenders value our property, they won't value it anywhere near that and therefore our buyers won't get their mortgage. Unfortunately none of the offers were cash buyers, although many in rented with MIP agreed etc.

We are in a city in the SW and the market here is mental.

Impossible to know until the buyers lender does their valuation I would think.. I have heard of this being an issue due to the market being crazy, so fingers crossed it works out for you!

It’s worth whatever someone is prepared to pay for it tbh! My parents put theirs on for 650 and accepted an offer of 695, the. Offered 435 for one that was in at 395 and didn’t get it - this is also in the SW. From my experience of buying, the valuation usually comes in pretty close to the offer that’s been made, unless it’s a ridiculous offer in the first place

@Summersdreaming

Impossible to know until the buyers lender does their valuation I would think.. I have heard of this being an issue due to the market being crazy, so fingers crossed it works out for you!

Yes, thank you. I'm thinking we should have had it re valued before re listing.

(Typo, 425 not 435)

It will also depend on your buyer’s loan to value borrowing. If they do not need a large mortgage and the bank can be confident they would retain their investment in a situation where the buyer defaulted and there was a forced sale, they will be far less bothered about valuation. The one for our purchase was done from a desk in a bank office somewhere (or maybe someone’s kitchen table if they were working from home!) They didn’t even come and take a look.

If it does down value just be prepared to renegotiate the price. As pp said, it may not matter if they have a good deposit.

Yes I had a bidding war on a house I was selling (pre covid) but the agent warned me to not let it keep going as the level was already the highest achieved for a three bed , and mine was two. He said a valuer would down value it. Which he did, and the buyer lowered his offer to even less, but after negotiations I was back up to my original asking price. Moral: even though I had two people willing to spend X, the mortgage company will not be swayed and will go with comps, so don't be greedy.

It is an issue in a rising market and even more so when the deposit is small. You are within your rights to ask the agent for circumstances including size of deposit. I would take a lower offer with big deposit vs slightly higher offer with only 10% or less. Lenders have much less appetite for risk when there is more deposit on the table. They’ll likely do a desktop valuation too which can speed things up.

If the buyers come back with proof that their bank only thinks it's worth X, then you can negotiate down as needed (meeting halfway if possible).

I’m in the SW here and the market is truly mental.

I bought my house for £220k in July 2019. A house 30 seconds walk from me on the same road sold within a week for £330k (was up for sale for £300k). The house next door is for sale for £325k and sold within a week.

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz

If the buyers come back with proof that their bank only thinks it's worth X, then you can negotiate down as needed (meeting halfway if possible).

This is infuriating though as it means thy have just bid wildly to secure the house with no way of paying for it. I would sooner put it back on the market than negotiate.

So out of the 2 highest bids (330) one are in rented with a 60% deposit and the others are 'sold' but as of yet we don't know their deposit. We really want the house we're (hopefully) buying, so are open to negotiations on price if it's valued lower.

Rented with a 60% deposit is excellent. Got to love a short chain. 👏🏼👏🏼 Good luck.