Getting a valuation successfully revised?

I think in 15 years, I have challenged maybe 10 valuations as generally they are a waste of time.

There are two platforms which all banks use, either Valex or VMS. Valex need to go off settled sales, whereas VMS can go off properties which have been sold but not settled.

I have a family member as well as a client who are valuers for the banks and they say that VMS allows them to value the property at current market price, whereas Valex, you need to put in settled sales which could be 3 months old which don't reflect the current market.

I had one recent case where I had 3 valuation reports and the only bank due to the guys financial circumstances who would give him a loan came in 10% below contract price. Spoke to the valuer at length and said I respect your decision and went through the Valex to get it challenged as I had another report from another firm which valued the property at contract price.

He said he couldn't budge on the val. I went to the BDM to see if they could use another valuer and they went back to the same guys boss. By this time I had another valuation from a third firm which gave contract price for an identical property in the same development (off the plan).

A few days later I got a call from my BDM stating that the original valuer had amended his valuation to contract price and he was as surprised at me. Valuers do change the reports but it is vary rare sight

Is the property inner north of melbourne?

 

My most frustrating example was a purchase price of $505,000. Westpac ordered the valuation and I suspect they suspect they made a simple error and a purchase price of $500,000 was put on the order form.

The report stated the value was $500,000. I challenged this on the basis that the contract price is $505,000 and the 1% difference of $5,000 is immaterial and favourable weather at an auction would inflect a larger difference in the purchase price.

Either the bank was lazy and didn't bother to correct the valuation they ordered, or the valuer was stubborn. The value of $500,000 stood and the borrower had to put in an extra $5,000 to keep the LVR at 80%.

What a bunch of idiots!

 

Idiots indeed.

 

I had the valuation on this successfully appealed

Sold Price for 20 Dumas St Mount Barker SA 5251
The valuer swore black and blue this was a transportable home, and valued it at land value of $205,000.It is a timber frame home.When his superiors learnt of this embarrassing position he put them in,it was corrected to at purchase price.

 

4 bedroom house + 1 bedroom council approved granny flat. I wouldn't be surprised if the valuer was lazy and just did a drive by, despite having being given the contact details for both sets of tenants. I've left a message for my PM to contact the tenant in the granny flat to find out if the valuer ever came inside or not... that'll prove it either way.

 

It's not an excuse for getting it wrong but a valuer was sued sometime over the last couple of years because he valued a transportable home as a fixed one. Might have made them overreact.

 

That's not the valuer being lazy, that is what the bank orders. If the bank orders a full valuation there will be an inspection, it's a bit hard to take internal time dated photos (required by Valex etc) via a driveby.

 

The problem with getting your own valuation done with a valuer on your lenders panel and taking it your lender is the lender will still want to order their own one for mortgage purposes and then it goes into the valex roulette wheel. They allocate to a valuer at random. So you may be lucky and the valuer you chose also gets chosen or you may be unlucky and get the one you didn't want or third option pot luck you get a different valuer again.

Most lenders will have more than 2 values on their panel in a metro area.

Nab maybe an exception here I've heard but I've never tested.

You are usually better to jump ship to a different lender that allows upfront vals and if the valuation gets allocated to the same valuer you cancel immediately and then try again.

 

A small update to my ongoing saga, my lender has advised the valuation was not a driveby and was instead a full on-site valuation, citing that they request all of their valuations to be full on-site valuations and never ask for drivebys. I'm waiting to hear back from my tenant via the PM to confirm if that is really the case or not. No news on the actual outcome yet, supposedly it's been escalated to the head of their assessors to try and use the earlier valuation but I'm not confident.

 

My tenant confirmed the valuer did turn up, didn't walk inside but stuck his head in the door. The lender has rejected the higher valuation saying they can't match it so that's the end of that.

Incidentally, does anyone know if this will put a mark on my credit score? I would hope no as it's not a rejection of finance due to anything relating to me as a person, it's a rejection as the equity is not available to borrow against in the first place (in their eyes).

 

I had hell of a problem with valuations by NAB. Both came in drastically low. I understand they use the valley system. CKC was the one which came in 5% lower. Stood its ground til the very end. Westpac and ANZ both match valuations. In another one, I thought NAB came in low... like 10% lower. Shocked the hell out of the developers. Yes I bought off the plan. After appealing, the valuer, raised the valuation twice but still fell short of the contract price.

What I learn is, let other units go for valuation first, then choose the same company which did comparable units for valuation. This would require very good rapport with the sales manager of the project.