Re-mortgage merry-go-round

Two months ago we came off our crazy low mortgage rate onto the standard variable rate, which meant an increase of 6.5x on what we'd been paying. We had our broker on the case to try and sort an improved rate and had a bank valuer over. Long story short - the valuation came in £9K below what we needed it to be. The goal was to prove that the mortgage we'd borrowed was 75% of the value of the house. That magic 75% meant a drop in the interest rate so it was worth pursuing.

£9K isn't a massive discrepency and I'd met a valuer socially who said all banks have a £10K margin of error anyway. Just to be on the safe side we got two local real estate agents to provide comparables - which are examples of similar properties under offer or recently sold in the same (or very near) postcode. We ended up with five comparables plus a statement from the agents that our property was worth at least £40K more than what the valuation came in at.

The bank wouldn't budge and took a leisurely five weeks to let us know. NB we are not borrowing any more money, we have the same sized mortgage as before, we just wanted the better interest rate.

Sod that. We went to another bank. Despite the hasty patch up job on the ceiling the new valuer was a true gent. We showed him updated comparables and a recent quote for our house from Keatons and his valuation came in the very next day £45K more than the last guy.

I can't thank Debby from Keatons enough: we bought this property (and our last one) from Keatons and despite not being able to earn a penny from this transaction she provided comparables twice, and wrote a letter stating her professional valuation of our house to help us. It's not often you can really recommend real estate agents but here's one to contact if you're looking to buy or rent in Hackney!

Oh and with our new valuation, this means that we're able to get an even better rate of interest as our mortgage is now 70% of the value of the property - result :)

The other real estate agent...

Two real estate companies were promoting our house. The second company's photographs weren't nearly as enticing. Though they were a bit more realistic, they certainly didn't show the place as it was when we actually saw it - rammed to the rafters with stuff.

At least their copy was a tad more honest, pitching the place as a "two bedroom house with a study". The third bedroom is small though it does fit a double bed. This is going to be irrelevant soon - it's on the ground floor which will be mostly gutted anyway. There's a new thing in the UK which requires sellers to get a HIP (or Home Information Pack) and I think two bedroom houses were exempt in the first wave, so that could be another reason why it wasn't called a three bedder. No matter.

I'm not a fan of these stair banisters. In fact, I really don't get "period" properties. We certainly wouldn't have paid a premium for ye olde features beloved of people on Location, Location, Location as we most certainly would've ripped them out to make the property as streamlined and contemporary as possible. Victorian picture rails? Bah! Georgian fireplaces? Chuck 'em in the skip!

Real estate photos

Aaah, real estate agents. The copy they write needs a hefty reality check, a bit like deciphering people's dating profiles (eg Medium height = short, etc). In our case it was "no expense spared" - if I was sparing no expense, I definitely wouldn't have gone for a nasty laminate floor.

The photos were taken some time ago, certainly way before the latest tenants lived there.

I love the arty appeal, the kittens playing on the floor but seriously the house didn't look like this in real life, as you'll see when I upload more photos...