Do I need a professional valuation?

Question

I am currently going through a remortgage on one of my properties to release some equity to buy two further properties. 

I have a good idea that I have valued the house right myself from the research I have done and as such I have submitted this number to the mortgage provider. 

Should I have got a professional valuation first to avoid the risk that the valuation comes in lower? 

Answer

The answer to that depends on the price differential between what you paid for the property, how much greater than that price you now think it’s worth and the time period between the two. 

If you bought two or more years ago and have done little to it apart from redecorate, the surveyor would value it pretty much according to the increase in the local market generally over that period. 

However if it was bought less than a year ago, you have made significant improvements and think it is now worth significantly more you should definitely get your own surveyor in first to give a value. 

Surveyors will naturally want to value a property at or near the purchase price paid within a year of purchase; unless you give them specific concrete reasons to do otherwise. A bit of research on market values in the area is highly unlikely to cut the mustard.

I speak to so many investors whose refinance valuations are a disappointment because they do little more than hope the surveyor will be 'nice' to them.

Agents perceptions of what a property is worth are irrelevant as far as surveyors are concerned. They only take notice of what other surveyors think.

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