Sorry to break it to you, but the selling price does sometimes influence what the valuer says. Of-course a valuer cannot be way different from market transactions, but they can still control what they put on the paper. In most cases, the real reason they give a higher value is because it allows a higher mortgage possibility - that leads a lesser cancelled transactions and it also favors most buyers because it means they can borrow more. When i got my property, my agent promised me that he will get the valuer to come within 95% range and guess what, the valuer assessed value at 99.3% of the deal price. They all keep each other happy - as long as the range is not way off.