Would an estate agent value a property for remortgage purposes only?

[Notmyname21]

We’ve extended and renovated over the last year. Our mortgage deal expires in the summer. I’m thinking if our house is now worth more, we will have a higher LTV and could therefore get a better deal.

But I’ve only ever had a house valued when I’m planning to sell and I’m not sure how it’s done when you’re just looking to remortgage. Do EAs value houses for remortgage only? I have a good relationship with our local EA who we’ve used twice for buying/selling but it feels cheeky to ask when they’re not going to make any money out of it!

I know the mortgage company will do a valuation but that’s after they’ve given you a provisional mortgage offer plus that’s for their own purposes.

So please wise-ones, how do I go about it??

I rang the ones we bought from, said I am not going to waste your time pretending it is going on the market, the kitchen and bathroom still need doing, ALL the Laura Ashley wallpaper has gone including the stuff in the kitchen 🙄we have three new fireplaces in the three receptions, new double doors to the garden room, etc.,

He roared laughing and said the LA paper removal added £20k immediately. 😂

He then said thank you for not wasting my time, I will do a drive by tomorrow and call you with a figure, and he did and it was spot on.

Our surveyor offered this option - think it was about £250 if that helps

I wouldn't recommend relying on an EA valuation to plan your finances for a remortgage. The market is so turbulent at the moment that they could get it wrong by as much as 20%, and lenders are down valuing by sizeable amounts all the time. So it doesn't really matter what the EA says anyway.

If you want to avoid higher mortgage costs, stay with your current lender and don't go out to any others. They won't care what your house is worth, they'll just send you a letter with a new proposed rate.

If you are convinced your house is worth a significant more, eg 80k, get an RICS surveyor in to value it.

But, still be prepared to argue the toss with any mortgage lender who are being extremely conservative ATM.

One of my exes was an estate agent and did this FOC with the hopes that you’d recommend or think of him when you did decide to sell.

We’ve done this in the past and EAs have been prepared to do a free valuation. We normally say something like “ we need a valuation but not planning to sell for another 2/3years” they seem to want to build a relationship hoping for future business.

You could also just have a look at similar property locally and chance it with the mortgage company. Our product transfer went through very quickly and they never queried the LTV, though in our case it was firmly in the 60%. If they value it lower I think you will have to have something more official than an estate agent valuation anyway to argue back.

When we took out an advance on our mortgage to build an extension we wanted to base the new rate on what we knew would be a better LTV once the extension was done, so the mortgage company sent out a valuer who assessed the existing house and the plans. Perhaps they will do that if you tell them you think its now worth X?

@Sanch1 did your mortgage company charge you for that?

Not as far as I remember, although they could have added it on to some fee or other and I have forgotten I suppose, sorry not very helpful!

Ask your mortgage provider to value it. We did. There was no charge and it did make a difference in what we were offered due to LTV.