Hi Everyone
I am still relatively new to property investing and I am trying to learn as much as I can. I have a question on property valuation: Is there a fool proof/cast iron method of knowing what the true valuation of a property is?
I had an experience some 2 months’ back: I had a property offered to me at 15% BMV (DL14 9LN post code). Guarantee for this was a Rook Matthews Sayer Valuation that put the property at £100,000. Since I was happy to pay the legals+mortgage arrangement fees on this deal, I proceeded with arranging the loan. My lender used Countrywide Surveyors and they returned a valuation of £85,000 and the deal fell through! This is costing me £850 of non refundable costs (valuation + arrangement fees). Thankfully, detailed searches on the property had not been completed so I only lost £40 on the legal side.
The above incident now makes me very unsure of myself when I try to assess how attractive a deal is because I just cant determine assuredly enough what the true value of the property is. This is especially the case when I look at ‘comps’ where there are sales of similar types of properties all on the same street/area but with the figures all over the place (i.e. non convergent comps). I’ve made my fair share of mistakes in the past and right now I really cant afford to make any more mistakes (at least not before I make some money first biggrin:))
Does it make sense instead to always get a (for e.g Countrywide) valuation first before attempting to proceed on each deal? Can I then simply take these valuation reports to the lender in the event that the deal stacks up and not have to pay for a separate valuation for the lender?
Appreciate any help/advice!
Many thanks
Chucks
[I]PS: I have 2 potential 20%/25% BMV deals in Liverpool but cant even determine if this is a true bargain! :-[/I]x
