Free Valuation Service

As a result of the credit crunch, much confusion and anxiety has been generated by the media and so called 'experts'. Without doubt, property prices have fallen substantially and will continue to do so for an indefinite period of time.

At the same time, utility bills, food and fuel prices, combined with increased costs of just about everything else, all conspire to stretch our incomes to and beyond the limit.

To make matters even confusing, mortgage lenders and their surveyors are deliberately down valuing properties to ensure that in the rare cases when they do lend, they require much larger deposits and charge higher interest rates.

All this, plus the general feeling of gloom and despondency, is creating much uncertainty as to what is a properties true market value. Some property companies simply invent the lowest figure they think they can talk you in to accepting, others compare your house with a similar property which has sold in the same area within the last six months. This is called a 'comparable'. Regrettably, as this recession bites, there are fewer and fewer current 'comparables' to reflect the true market value., as fewer properties are selling.

In our opinion, a property valuation should be carried out by a local independent RICS qualified surveyor as opposed to a large corporate company of chartered surveyors retained by a high street lender to perpetuate its lending policies at the time. The local independent surveyor has intimate local knowledge of the area where many 'panel' surveyors do not and will ask local agents or even the vendor, what price they are selling their homes for and then down value to that figure.

We use comparable where we can, to try and arrive at a general ball park valuation of your property. Then after negotiating with you and agreeing on a way forward in principle, we instruct an independent RICS surveyor to carry out a valuation to arrive as closely as possible in the current market to the true market value of your home. This is an expensive exercise and will be paid for by our company, once we have reached agreement with yourselves to purchase your home.

Should the valuation differ either way, from our 'in principle' offer, the purchase price will be based on the true market value.

Other factors which can affect the agreed selling price are: how much rent you can afford to pay, should you wish to rent your home back and the general condition of your property.