"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Grunff wrote:
Hzatph wrote:

Just to put the opposite point of view, we have had excellent value from
the survey of our Victorian House. I did shop around for a surveyor
based on experience and he did a good job despite the usual caveats. It
enabled us to reduce the price by many multiples of his fee, probably
over 20. Good value.

No, you are simply believing the ludicrous marketing touted by surveyors
and their ilk, and convincing yourself that it was money well spent.

If the vendor were willing to accept £xxx off the asking price, they
would have accepted this regardless of the survey. If they were not, no
survey results in the world would make a difference.

Well, yes and no... if a vendor is faced with a buyer who says 'Sorry, I'm
having to drop my asking price by X grand because this itemised list of
repairs needs doing, which I was unaware of when I made my offer', the
vendor is more likely to agree to it than when faced with a buyer who says
'I'm reducing my original offer by X grand, just because I feel like it'.

The survey report can provide ammunition for the buyer, and the vendor may
well feel obliged to take the hit, particularly if they feel that if the
sale falls through, the same problem may occur with a future buyer in 6
weeks' time.

Not that I'm in any way a surveyor fan, mind you!

David




Lobster is dead right. We saved a lot of money this way but the only way we
could do so was by evidencing the outcomes of the survey to detail the work
that had to be done. There is no question that our final offer would not
have been accepted without the survey report. For our property it was a good
investment which paid handsome dividends.

By the way we were careful to employ a different surveyor from the one who
did the mortgage valuation so our lender did not see the full survey report.