No we will organise the upfront valuation on your behalf and usually at no extra cost. Securing a real estate agents appraisal is not often of much use for lending purposes other than providing a yard stick for what a best case scenario may be should you sell – a bank valuation is completed by a licensed valuer and it prepared for the purpose of assessing risk. The valuers job is to determine risk should the property need to be ever sold and not to provide you as a borrower with a a best case marketing estimate.
Lenders and banks will always want to know the value of your property to determine how much equity you have available to determine your LVR (Loan to valuation ratio). This is a leading indicator to any lender on how much risk they are taking. The higher the LVR the risker the deal will appear to the lender.