Bank Valuations

They don’t usually give them out. I know of one bank that gives them to the broker, and that is ANZ. Other smaller lenders can also be talked into give you access too.

Terryw
Discover Home Loans
North Sydney
[email protected]

Hi Pursefattener

You are extremely fortunate to have a CBA banker like that. I suggest when he moves, you move with him.

We always have our valuations available to our clients. Even though we’re employing the valuer, the client is paying for the val so we believe it’s theirs. As we’re showing them how to achieve a maximised val, everything is above board.

The big banks not making the vals available to their clients is appalling. And it smacks of dishonesty when a val comes in under purchase price and the bank ‘keeps quiet’ about it and allows the client to purchase the property anyway.

I have even had a circumstance when a valuer was instructed by the CBA to give a really low val(less than what I payed for it), after I released a security when 2 properties were cross-collateralised. And this was when the suburb had 60% the previous year!

Needless to say I refinanced. As you can tell the CBA is not one of my favourite!

Brendon

Hi 1Hot

I think the question was though, about the bank disclosing the valuation to their client, not the client getting a copy from the valuer.

If the bank was open and honest through the whole process, and wasn’t ‘influencing’ the valuation in conservative manner(especially when refinancing) they would have no trouble showing the valuation to the client.

You are correct though in saying that it’s the bank employing the valuer, not the client, and therefore the valuer has no obligation to the client.

You can let us know, are there valuers out there who deliberatly value properties conservatively and hence get more repeat business from the banks?

Brendon

Well said 1hotvaluer – as a broker I can fully support your statements – I’ve never seen a val come up short for any reason other than unrealistic owner expectations.

And remember, none of us earn a cracker without settlements (by none of us I mean brokers, AND the lender)

cheers

brahms

If you don’t ask, the answer is no!!

I agree, for your average investor your at the mercy of the bank valuer’s valuation.

I will make a point here that I think is worthwhile for people to know, when I worked at the CBA, we were not allowed to disclose what the valuation was…. HOWEVER I was able to tell my client what 80% of the valuation was… and let them do the maths, this way they knew how much they could borrow before going into Mortgage Insured loans.

Theres a vast difference between lenders as to the process for questioning valuations, sometimes its so easy to get a better valuation by talking to the valuer straight, sometimes its a complete pain in the… but if the buyer really believes it is low, where there is a will there is a way.

Liz Wilson

Mortgage Lender

Hi Rob – The Mortgage Adviser – plus forum readers

i think any valuer worth his PI insurance will have Cadet Valuers working in the office collating recent sales, confirming settlements and maintaining their own database of recent sales (every time they do a val, it stays on their system, so the next time they are in that street, even if it isn’t posted on rpdata or residex yet – they will have the sale).

therefore, good valuers will have more up to date info than most customers (who are often armed to the teeth with listed prices from r/e windows and the local r/e section from the newspaper – which as we know has no relevance to settled sale prices.

valuers work specific patches, they become absolute experts in their geographic areas. for the miserable fee they are paid per job, you are getting a lot of experience.

i remember a geezer i worked with who was constantly harranging the valuers, barely a week passed with out some ‘issue’ – at the same time I was being invited to the footy with the same guys and my vals were getting on just fine thank you very much…[snitch]

back to topic, fully support the valuers, they aren’t out there looking for ways not to come up with the best figure – the good ones do all that is possible to make stuff happen.

after all, they don’t want the grief of every bank lending officer and every broker on the phone telling them precisely which way is the preferred way to suck eggs.

oh, and for the original post – just ask your broker to find out the figure, i’ve never had a lender not tell me that – even if you do have to do the reverse math with cba (tks earlier post)

cheers

brahms

If you don’t ask, the answer is no!!

I totally agree Pisces.

Up here in Brisbane a certain Valuation firm is used by the CBA on most refinances I see, and the majority of the time it a extremely conservative val.

I have been on the recieving end of one from this firm, and that fact that the CBA is using them more and more would suggest that thay are being instructed to value down.

The fact too that this particular firm is reluctant to meet the client onsite, or discuss any relevant past sales records with the client makes it painfully obvious.

Simple solution though, just refinance away to more sympathetic lender who uses true valuations for lending purposes.

Brendon

Sorry Rob
I think you are quite right that people dont care about the details of the valuation of a property they are buying just so long as finance is approved.

It was the wee hours when i was responding and I was just thinking of the occassions when my PPOR was valued. I was using hte equity to purchase IPs and I really would have liked to know how close my own estimate was compared to a professional valuer.

cheers
Milly

Well,i have had some “interesting” experiences with valuers that i could share:
A)One such Melb based co. sent out a guy that was just purely RUDE,for absolutly no reason.(Maybe he just had a bad day??)But,my instincts told me i was in trouble.Yep,val came in way under.Luckily i was using a savvy broker,who disputed it.No luck,so i switched banks,then no prob’s.
B)Another incident was a valuer increasing val,on the spot,after hearing of local real estate guy’s apprasal
c)Another val coming in WAY under local agents apprasal (yes,i know bank’s val’s are always lower,but not by this much: R/E val: 390-410, bank’s: 340!)
D)Another time i was charged for a val that wasn’t even done! & the only reason i knew was b/c broker told me it came in at X,which was the same as previous val (12mnths earlier),yet still tried to charge me $135!
E)I used to have a bank manager that just happened to need to go to the loo when the val’s were on his desk….[thumbsupanim]
So,i’m just learning it’s all a big game,& if u play by certain rules,u’ll get certain results!& i’m still learning![specs] Hope this helps.

Ah yes, valuers are human too! What is your no. 1HOt, I need some new vals done, and I’ve got some sad stories to tell???

Just kidding!

Brendon