A valuation report is an assessment of the property you wish to purchase to determine its value.
With most of our lenders, we’re able to order a free property valuation before you apply for a home loan!

•   You’ll keep your clear credit file: Every time that you apply for a loan, it leaves an enquiry on your credit file. Too many
  enquiries look bad and can affect your credit score.
•   You’ll know if the property will be accepted by your bank: If your property doesn’t meet the bank’s lending criteria, we can apply
  with a different bank.
•   Your home application will be approved faster: We can order an upfront valuation before submitting your application which means the bank can approve your
  loan immediately.

•   If you’re buying a property, we’ll need your full name and a copy of the contract of sale.
•   The selling agent will allow the valuer to gain access to the property.
•   If you’re refinancing a current home loan then we’ll need a copy of a recent council rates notice to check the title and ownership details of your
  property.
•   Once we have all of this information, we can order your valuation through the preferred valuer for your bank.
•   In many cases, the banks use ValEx or VMS.

In some cases, the banks may assess your property and loan to be a low risk and so may choose to complete an automated desktop valuation, AVM or drive-by valuation.

In these cases, the bank will only inspect your property if your application is audited or is later deemed to be a high risk.

If the automated valuation comes in below value then some banks will allow us to order a full valuation to check the result.

It isn’t a good idea to order a bank valuation prior to the purchase price being agreed, whether it’s a purchase by private sale or auction.

The reason for this is that the bank valuer doesn’t know what the final price will be so they may try to cover themselves from a legal point of view by putting a lower price on the valuation. For you this means that:

•   You may bid less than the market value and miss out on the property.
•   If you pay more than the valuation then that lender may not approve your loan.
•   Other lenders may use the same valuer and may also value the property for less than expected.

Buying at auction is inherently risky and so you cannot eliminate the risk. However, you can use comparable sales to estimate the value of the property.

You can also send us a link to the property that you are planning to buy and we can confirm that the property appears to meet lender policy.

It’s rare that the valuation comes in lower than the price agreed at auction because the final price of an auction is set by bidding and therefore is the most accurate assessment of market value.

The exception to this is where someone has genuinely overpaid for a property for one reason or another and that sale price is unlikely to be repeated.

If you are not buying at auction then asking for a cooling off period is the best way to protect yourself.

If the vendor won’t accept that then you can agree on the price, create a contract to be signed, we can value and obtain formal approval using that contract and then you can sign it and pay your deposit.

The problem is that this will cause delays, during which time another buyer may make an offer.

The trick is to come across as a serious buyer: if the vendor sees that, he may be more willing to hold off seeing other potential buyers.

The purpose of the valuation is to protect you and the banks from any potential losses in case the property needs to be sold. What happens after a valuation comes in short depends on your situation.

If you’re planning to purchase a property and the valuation comes in short then it isn’t really a bad thing. It just means that the purchase price you’ve agreed on is above the value of the property.

If the valuation comes in low, it gives you a chance to re-negotiate with the seller.

If you’re looking to refinance and the property value comes in short then you’re limited in your options. You’re able to challenge a banks valuation, however, the success rate is low.

A good solution for this is to order a valuation with another bank and see if it comes in higher.

The job of a valuer is to compare the value of other similar properties that have been sold in the area in the last three months. By comparing these properties, the valuer is able to determine the value of the property you want
to buy.

If there haven’t been any sales in the last three months in your area then the valuation will come in low. This is because the valuer uses the past sales history of the area to determine the value of the property. They can’t
guess what the property would be worth, they have to rely on factual information.

Alternatively, if there have been a lot of sales in the area and the market is booming then you’re likely to get a higher valuation.

The average time frame to get the value of a property is between three to four working days.

The valuation can sometimes take longer to get returned. Often the seller’s agent needs to let the valuer access the property and this can sometimes cause delays.

No. Most banks and lenders won’t use a buyer’s own valuation. If they do, it’s under exceptional circumstances.

Most banks require that the valuation to be ordered through them. This is due to issues that banks have had in the past with fraud.

Our brokers will assess your situation and determine whether or not we can order an upfront valuation for you.

We’ll order up to a maximum of two or three valuations with banks and lenders that we think you’ll qualify with for a mortgage.

We will only order an upfront valuation if the customer is serious and lodging a loan application.