"Surveyors always down value".

That is what many of my Clients hear from the Estate Agent and it is surprising how often my Clients tell me what has been said!

Here is my response to any Estate Agent who makes that statement 

Estate Agents give "marketing advice". They do not "value" property in any sense that can be considered technical. A couple of years ago Bairstow Eves renamed their 'valuers' with the new term 'marketing consultants' - that pretty much sums it up!

The Estate Agent may notice that a house is not in as best repair as could be, but they will ignore this, as much as they can, because their role is to "talk up" that house to anyone who expresses even the slightest bit of interest in purchasing it. 

The vast majority of Estate Agents have no professional expertise, whatsoever, when it comes to matters of structural condition. 

I remember as a young boy being taken down to the once famous Sunday market on Newcastle Quayside, my father buying a carrier bag full of fruit from a market trader. 

As he explained to me beforehand, the market traders trick was to place all of the good fruit at the front, where everyone could see it, and to load up the first bag with that fruit, selling it to a member of the gathered throng for what seemed like a remarkably cheap price. 

What was explained to me was that the purchaser of that lovely bag of fruit was, in fact, a stooge placed there by the trader. 

As everyone else clambered to buy their own bag from the trader, his associates in crime would hand them out. 

The trick was that behind the perfect fruit, as displayed on the stall, was fruit well past its sell by date - and that's what the traders were handing out to the willing punters looking for a bargain purchase. 

My father opened his bag and displayed the bruised and semi rotting fruit that he had purchased, insisting that he wanted the good stuff. 

He go what he wanted, but was a "marked man" from that point on. 

I don't know why he did it! The risk of being "accidentally nudged" into the cesspit of an open sewer that the River Tyne then was was a possibility! 

So, what's my point? Am I likening Estate Agents to market traders?

Not really, but the same type of mindset applies. 

What you get from an Estate Agent is what they want you to get. They give the impression that what they are offering on behalf of their customers is what you want. 

From my point of view, as a Surveyor, what you want is a professional opinion on condition and state of repair, not Estate Agents bullshit! 

As I tell my Clients, time and time again, of course Estate Agents don't like me. They don't like any Surveyors. 

We put problems in their way that could persuade the "customer" intending to buy to withdraw from the transaction or, perhaps more awkwardly, want to negotiate a price reduction. 

The way a Surveyor values is by taking into account all relevant factors, one of which is condition and state of repair. 

If my Client has made bid on a property and asked me to carry out the survey, I take the view that that individual has no professional expertise as far as structure condition and state of repair is concerned. 

The Client has assumed that the house is in satisfactory or good condition and his/her bid is made based upon that individuals assessment of its worth to them. 

If I bring to light £5,000 or £10,000 worth of repairs that will need to be rectified, my view is that my Client will have to pay that cost. 

Those costs had not been anticipated by the Client when they made to decision to make and offer on the property. 

So, I am valuing the property based on its condition and state of repair and advising the Client what they will have to do to either keep the house in good condition or put the house in good condition. 

Let me take one simple example. 

An immaculate house that looks to be in splendid condition. 

I find that it needs a full damp proof course system. 

I explain to the Client that to put a damp proof course system in all of the plaster to the whole of the ground floor will have to be taken off to a height of 3ft above floor level. 

That also means that the skirting boards have to come off. 

Then the damp proof course system is installed. 

Then the walls are plastered. 

Then the skirting boards are put back on. 

If the Kitchen also needed a damp proof course, the Kitchen units would have to come out and be put back in again. 

Then all of the ground floor needs to be re-decorated completely. 

Am I justified in providing the Client with an assessment of property value that is less than the bid made? 

I say that I am fully justified. 

My Client says that I am fully justified. 

The Estate Agent says "Surveyors always down value". 

Who is right? I will leave it up to you to make a decision on that.

Just so that the Estate Agents know exactly where they stand with me, let me tell them something else, because I am going to draw their attention to this page, on an as needed basis. 

I often say to my Clients "Who do you think the Estate Agent is working for?" 

Their answer is always the seller. 

Then I tell them that they are wrong - and here's my reason for that. 

Primarily, the Estate Agent acts for the person who is selling the house, but, and think about this carefully, if they have a buyer who has had a survey and wants to re-negotiate the purchase price, they are not going to let that buyer go easily. 

Like a fisherman with a very wriggly fish on the end of his line, the Agent is going to do whatever he can to reel in that buyer, which will probably mean that he now has to do some more work to make sure that the sale goes through. 

How is the Estate Agent going to do that? 

Quite simple, he or she acts as the negotiator between the buyer and seller. 

The seller is told about the survey and the reduced valuation in the Survey Report and they negotiate the price downwards, perhaps not all the way to what the buyer now wants to pay. 

They then go back to the buyer and try to lift them up a couple of thousand pounds. 

Eventually, they try to strike a happy medium between buyer and seller at a price that is lower than the initial bid, but higher than the Surveyors valuation. 

This is now the very important part on the discussion of Estate Agent operation and I ask you again. 

Who is the Estate Agent working for? 

The Estate Agent is working for the fee - 1% of £380,000 is a damn sight better than 1% of nothing - which is what the Agent gets if the sale doesn't go through. 

They eventually get their 1%, but after more effort on their part as they have to find another buyer. 

My Clients fully understand this explanation.

However, as at July 2008, they get even more from me. 

What I then go on to say is that everyone involved in the property market knows that Estate Agents are being particularly hard hit by the current economic situation. 

Every Estate Agent is experiencing a remarkable downturn in levels of business and, by direct association, property sales and, even more importantly to them, reduction in fee income. 

Things are so bad that some Estate Agents are closing down. Let's all shed a tear for them! 

Take my word for it, every single fee is very important to any Estate Agent, at the moment. 

An Estate Agent should now be fighting even harder to negotiate between buyer and seller to ensure that the sale goes through so that they receive their fee. 

So, to all Estate Agents out there, every time you say to a buyer "So and so always down values", remember why the Surveyor does that. 

Also remember that when your comments are repeated to the Surveyor, he is going to tell his Client what I've just said. 

Think about it. 

Who is the Surveyors Client likely to believe?