What does 'Down Valuation' mean when buying a property?

"... there is no point getting a great deal if the lender uses a cheap surveyor to value your property. This is a little known point but cheap surveyors are often over cautious or from outside the area. Both are reasons why they may down value your property leaving you to pay their fee, the mortgage application fee, some legal fees and have nothing to show for..."

"... the absence of sold signs he calls any local agents and asks them what they have sold recently in the area and tries to match it up. There is nothing more to it than that. If you want to try it for yourself find a sold sign, call up the agent and say, "Hi, this is Fred Smith from Island Surveyors, I see you have sold something in the High Street, can I ask what it was and how much it sold for?". You'll get the complete run down including the actual price it sold for, not its asking price. Note that Estate Agents, by law, are not allowed to tell you (a buyer) the actual price a property has sold for until it exchanges as this is confidential information. Agents are however, always trying to please surveyors because they don't want properties down valued, so if you pose as a surveyor you will find out..."

"... be aware that small companies tend to down value properties to protect themselves (it will also stop you getting the mortgage) and many buyers loose perfectly good properties in a rising market because of this. Further still a small surveying company may not be carrying out many valuations and so in a competitive rising market they may be out of date in their thinking and also down..."

"... same issue. The upshot is all too often that the property is down valued and the bank refuses to lend. There is nothing wrong with the property or the price, its just the surveyor cannot believe what he sees and it looks like madness compared to the prices where he comes from. If you are..."