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A True Property Valuation - Valuation by video

Now that my property investing days are over I am ready to expose some of the things that happened in my own investments between 1992 and 2005. This is a story about how one of my funniest valuations occurred - an insider look at property valuing.

Now, rules and guidelines change in valuations all the time and the Valuer has insurance to protect him if he makes a mistake. There are a few types of valuations and I am going to talk mainly about the one that the lender instructs to value the property so that the bank is covered if they have to repossess.

I can hand on heart say that I had a property valued by video tape!

This is an extraordinary story where I had bought a property in East London , done a huge refurbishment on it, and in the process I had made a video on it with a guy what was looking into making videos, so it was a trial run and a bit of a laugh really.

This is in the days pre buy to let mortgages, where most of us would get residential mortgages to buy to let. I had just bought a flat and got a 100% residential mortgage on it. I wanted to increase the mortgage and get cashback on it so that I could use the funds to buy my next one. I had taken about 6 weeks to refurbish it, and wanted the cash quick. The property in the area was rising very quickly at the time and I knew when I completed that it was already worth more than I had paid. I paid about 65k and it was now worth 90-100k.

As soon as the refurbishment was complete I had started to advertise for a tenant, this coincided with the re-mortgage application and the first date I arranged with the valuer it was clear for him to come and view it. I had nothing to hide, it was gorgeous inside now! Last minute he cancelled and said he was busy for a few days. The next date he gave me I had already arranged for a tenant to move in. There was no way I was going to ask my tenant to let a valuer in, or ask the tenant to let me show him around - this could affect me getting the cashback.

I said that I was busy for a few weeks now, and could not get any time to show him around BUT (and I was laughing) I had got a video of the property if he would watch it, and that he could maybe do a drive by to see that it was what I said it was. I almost fainted when he agreed - I was in fact almost joking, and not really thinking he would consider it.

I then watched the video and realise that a lot of things that were said on it were certainly things you could not want a property valuer to hear, so I gave it to my friend who had made it and asked him to make a copy with the sound removed. He did this and I posted it to the valuer.

I got a call a few days later saying that he had done the drive by and watched the video, but that he couldn't do the Property Valuation because the sound was not working on the video. I joked with him and said that did he need sound to see what it looked like, did he? He laughed and agreed!

A few days later I had confirmation from my lender that the Property Valuation had happened and that all was fine!

I still can't believe it happened!

Sitting Tenant in the property during valuation

A few years later I had another interesting property valuation in Kent . This one was for a property that I was buying for almost half price because it had a sitting tenant in it.

I had managed to get the sitting tenant on my side because I had to complete the purchase with him in it to get it that reduced price, I had arranged a cash lump sum of £10,000 for him if he would leave on completion day.

It was quite a nerve racking experience as I wanted to put it right back on the market for its normal market value and I was buying it with a Buy to Let mortgage as I could not get a residential on it. There was no Buy To Sell mortgage so I had to do something a little out of the box to clinch the deal.

The day of the Property Valuation I was in Shropshire and my tenant had agreed to show him around. I had coached him into not saying much to the valuer, I really didn't need him to say that he was a sitting tenant or I would not get the mortgage.

The type of mortgage I was getting was a loan to value one. I was to not mention a purchase price and ask him to do a cold Property Valuation. Lucky for me it had not been on the market with any agents, so there were only local comparisons to go on.

I managed to get away with it, but the valuation did mention a few things wrong with the property that the tenant had kindly pointed out (hmmm, not very helpful).

The day of completion, the tenant did move out, I got the property and sold it on for a good profit without touching it at all. These are the most exciting deals, the ones that have a little bit of risk but very fruitful.

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