Get a good valuation

THE QUESTION

Any tips on getting the highest valuation for a property you want to mortgage?

THE ANSWER

It helps to know that any surveyor's mindset when asked to value a property purchased a few months previously will be to value it at the purchase price paid, unless given compelling reasons not to.

When they arrive at the property they will be focused on the purchase price paid; your success in getting the highest valuation will be determined by how much you are able to shift their focus.  Here is what I teach on my workshop on this subject.

• You need a works schedule, but that in itself is not enough; it needs to be as detailed as you can possibly make it, think of what a Quantity Surveyor would produce. It also needs to be uncosted.
• You need to provide before and during photos.  The surveyor has to be given visual evidence of the scale of the work you have undertaken.
• You have to 'dress' the property. If it is already tenanted it will have that lived in look, but if it is vacant, you need to furnish it (even just for the duration of the survey). Even though it is subliminal, bare walls devalue a property and the opposite up-values it. This is an influencer.

Most importantly of all, you get your own survey done before you let a lender's surveyor anywhere near it. This is the biggest thing you can do to achieve that required shift of focus. A valuation report by a professional colleague (albeit from a different firm) will make it much harder for a lender's surveyor to value it below what your surveyor has valued it at. Your report will, of course, include comparables but, whereas your own are ignored, a RICS surveyor's will be believed.

All of the above should be presented to the lender's surveyor as a pack. Nothing will give you an absolute guarantee, but do all of the above and you are massively reducing the risk of a down valuation.

You can learn more by:

• Attending an upcoming webinar - register here
• Booking into a LIVE! 3-day workshop - book your ticket here
• Get instant access to the full programme with the online training - click here for more information