Buying the house we are currently renting

[beano]

We have rented our house privately for nearly a year and love it so much we want to buy it. We have approached our landlord who would be happy to sell it to us. He has given us an idea of price however he has advised we go and get the property valued and then come back to him.

How do we get our house valued when we are buying privately and have no intention of using an agent? We just want a simple valuation before going ahead and getting it surveyed.

Thanks

[Janette Guenien]

You can hire an appraisal expert for you to see the real value of the house you want to buy.

[Adam Long]

Check on websites such as ourproperty or mouseprice for a ball park figure to make sure that your landlord is not ripping you off.

Presumably you will need a mortgage and if this is the case the valuation survey will come with this so you could rely on this although they can be wildly inaccurate at the lender only really needs to ensure that their interests are covered in case the house is repossessed i.e. is the house worth their lending amount.

To be more certain employ your own independent surveyor

[Jack_Homes]

The best way of valuing this property is to employ your own independent surveyor.

[Kaz]

I don't think that EAs would come and value the house for you as you don't own it and, as tenants, you're not in a position to sign up with them. Unless of course you just don't tell them that

[Michelle Alden]

Hi

I would suggest that you employ your own private surveyor. This will give you both an idea of how much the house is worth. That way you will not have to pay more than you should and he will not be able to overcharge you for the house either.

[Dan S]

You must certainly get your own survey done. And frankly your landlord should be biting your hand off in order to get this done for you. Depending on the value of the property, they stand to save £thousands in estate agent fees by selling to you directly.

Good Luck!

[jodieB]

Of course you can contact an estate agent to value the property, morally it may be wrong but it not illegal to omit that you are not home owners. Many people get there house valued just to check the value and have no intention of selling, estate agents will not hold you to ransom. You should get three evaluations and take the mean value. If you are unhappy with this then you could use housing web-site to benchmark your property again local ones on your street or area.

[New Homes Expert]

Make me laugh!
You are worried about it being "Morally" wrong to use an estate agent purely for valaution purposes and nothing else.

The landord must be a bit simple too if hew does not already know what his own property is actually worth.

Try offering him about £50k less than similar homes on mouseprice and zoopla - I bet he comes back with his price then!

[Moby Jones]

Originally Posted by jodieB

Of course you can contact an estate agent to value the property, morally it may be wrong but it not illegal to omit that you are not home owners. Many people get there house valued just to check the value and have no intention of selling, estate agents will not hold you to ransom. You should get three evaluations and take the mean value. If you are unhappy with this then you could use housing web-site to benchmark your property again local ones on your street or area.

This. Although I would not lose any sleep by having at least three estate agents round to value the property. Lets say they come out at :-

£200,000.
£210,000.
£225,000.

Offer £180,000. You can always up your offer, make sure you have a mortgage offer in place before you make your offer though. It gives you more clout.

Zoopla and mouseprice are also good as long as comparable properties have actually sold in your area recently. Prices from 2007 are irrelevant etc....