Getting house valued for remortgage equity release

[daschundsanddancer]

We bought a house in 2018 that needed lots of work, which is now done (electrics/kitchen/bathroom etc). We're hoping to remortgage to release equity for an extension, but how to do you work out what your house is worth? The mortgage people revalued after big building work, but just added the price of the work onto the bought price. We're in the countryside but 20min commute to major city, so it's the sort of property that all the articles seem to say has got extra popular over lockdown. Do I get estate agents in or is it the just the mortgage company I need? My experience of mortgage companies is they as what it was valued at and then give you the same answer!

I looked at similar recently sold listings on Rightmove & pitched a value to our mortgage broker based on that, with a list of the more significant improvements we've made (new roof, windows, boiler & added an upstairs bathroom).
He verified it with the estate agent he is based at (who sold our flat when we bought our house) who were in agreement with my estimate. We didn't have any issue getting extra borrowing based on that (we borrowed extra for kitchen extension).

When I was a mortgage underwriter, the percentage loan to value was relevant, so if you have a £25k mortgages now, and you want to borrow another 25k, on a property valued at £100k, it would be 50% loan to value at the end, and no valuation required. It if was 85%ltv, you'd have to instruct a valuer, and there are companies that do this, not estate agents. You can instruct your own, as long as the lender has them on their books, or go through the lender. They don't want to advance you £100k on top of your £100k mortgage if the house isn't worth it, or going to be worth it.

You can get a couple of estate agents round to give you an indication if you tell them you're thinking of selling. If you want to be upfront, some agents will give you a remortgage valuation for a fee or Yes, you're just relying on the mortgage company's valuation.

@TripleSeptic

When I was a mortgage underwriter, the percentage loan to value was relevant, so if you have a £25k mortgages now, and you want to borrow another 25k, on a property valued at £100k, it would be 50% loan to value at the end, and no valuation required. It if was 85%ltv, you'd have to instruct a valuer, and there are companies that do this, not estate agents. You can instruct your own, as long as the lender has them on their books, or go through the lender. They don't want to advance you £100k on top of your £100k mortgage if the house isn't worth it, or going to be worth it.

Thanks for this; we're definitely the latter! currently ~70% LTV and would like to increase it to 85% based on what I currently think it's worth. The new value would be about x3 our income so should be affordable- I just can't seem to save very well as we keep using the money on smaller projects!

@AwkwardPaws27

I looked at similar recently sold listings on Rightmove & pitched a value to our mortgage broker based on that, with a list of the more significant improvements we've made (new roof, windows, boiler & added an upstairs bathroom). He verified it with the estate agent he is based at (who sold our flat when we bought our house) who were in agreement with my estimate. We didn't have any issue getting extra borrowing based on that (we borrowed extra for kitchen extension).

Sounds like you were in a similar position to us- can I ask what your change in LTV was?

Our LTV hasn't actually changed, still 80% (comparing the outstanding mortgage to the value when purchased 4 years ago, vs the new mortgage to the new valuation).