Preparing your home for Valuation

I had one client put before and after photos after 1 poor val. Val result next time was 10% higher! Coincidence probably though.

Best to get a MIX of vals. Desktop, Kerbside and a Full val. Amazing what the differences can be!

Cheers,
Redom

 

Except for a minor tidy- up, there is nothing you can or should bother to do.

The valuer will basically look at the recent similar sales in your immediate area, similar amenities, number of beds, baths, garage, land size etc, and that's it.

They could care less about the colour of the towels or curtains, or whether the lawn is mown, or the weeding done...only what has recently sold similar to yours.

 

Interesting... we had two valuers come out. Both valued the PPOR at exactly the same price, and pretty much asked the same questions/followed the same routine.

 

.....and was it the same estimated value you put on it in your application? a common valuer tactic.

 

We had our PPOR valued recently. The place had never looked better! But we also provided him with two comparable sales and a document that highlighted renovations/value add by room. Valuation came back bang on target.

 

Yes... they both asked what I thought the house was worth, and what I wanted. They said they'll try to get a valuation as close as possible to that figure - which is pretty close.

 

Yeah its a common valuer's, 'cover their backside', tactic.

They delve to find out what figure you're looking for and don't go higher even if their DD suggests otherwise.

Their perspective is you're happy, their client the bank is happy and they've minimised their risk to the bank.

 

Hmm...makes me wonder. Is there something I should have done different or not have said.

 

You have a couple options -

1. Play dumb when they ask your thoughts, or
2. Provide a figure above what you're really looking for.

Over the years of refinancing, I cottoned on & done both with success.

 

I am wondering, how many comparable sales do people generally give to the valuer? And also what would be considered "recent" for sales in a slow moving market?

 

I played option #1... should have worked #2 a lot more.

I had two printed and sitting there for them. But they weren't interested in looking, and I didn't want to push it on them.

 

Im sure they have access to all comparable sales in the area anyway.

 

YEs thats it... I dont bother providing it to them....that's their job.

 

Comparable sales are based on settled sales. So, a lot of properties that are under contract now will settle in that time and could lead to a different valuation. I haven't had this happen though.

 

They also have access to 'pending sales' - contracts that haven't settled as yet.

 

Just had one done,i did nothing and so did the tenants, they even made a sandwich for the valuer and got the kids jumping castle out for him/her! All in all they had a good day and that's what maters most the photos are great memories.

Oh and the val came in where i expected based on others. I would have been a touch more conservative

 

So if you want to dip your fingers into some more equity to buy another IP, how long would need to wait? I live on an estate built by Mirvac, and the houses/villas have similar layouts, so it's easy to tell how much something is worth when someone sells now or later.

 

When I was in portfolio acquisition phase I used to wait 12 months before getting valuations for loan pre-approvals in readiness for next purchase .

 

Our Broker estimated 1.2mil for our place and my wife thought that was to much. Valuer came out and valued our home at 1.2mil. We did nothing, the grass was a little high and house a little messy but clean. I explained to my wife its not what you think its worth it's what current sales say it's worth.

 

We refinanced our PPOR a couple of years ago and as it was our first reval we cleaned the place from top to bottom. The valuer just poked his head inside, muttered something to himself and left - didn't even bother to walk through the house. There could have been a sinkhole in the back yard for all he knew.