Tactics - FTB would appreciate advice

Jorgan_2

Once you have a mortgage agreed in principal, decide on the area that you want to be in. Once you have done this, contact all the agents that cover your chosen area. Leave your details with as many points of contact as possible. Do they offer an e-mailing update service? Many agents leave the negotiators to ring round buyers & conduct viewings whilst the administrators update the web sites, if the negotiators are busy you may get an e-mail before a phone call.

You also need to understand how the agents work, as Andrew has already said many will look speak firstly to buyers who they have given mortgage advice to, as they receive two commisions from this, one for selling the house & one for the mortgage.
Make yourself known to the agents, keep in touch with them. If they have a list of thirty potential buyers to call, somebody will be called first, no.'s 25 -30 may not get a call, the property may have been sold by the time they get down the list. I once had a buyer who rang, us & every Estate Agents in the area she wanted to live in, every morning to see what we were valuing that day & again in the evening to see what had come on. Whilst I accept this may be a little extreme, when a suitable property came along we knew exactly who to call first.

I also think you need to revise the price range you are looking at. Somebody who has just put their property on the market probably won't accept an offer of 90% of asking price, somebody who has been on the market 6 months probably will.

beckstrous

AndrewSmith wrote:

Hi Claz,

A decision in principle is usually valid for 30 days, while a formal mortgage offer is usualy valid for 6 months

Cheers

Andy

Andy, does this mean that if you don't find somewhere you have to get another one? Getting a place to rent was a doddle compared to this - I read that the mortgage certificate/DiP (are they the same thing?) showed up on your credit check and that it was advisable not to apply too many times.

AndrewSmith

In reality as long as nothing changes in your personal situation you should be fine as long as you go back to the same lender, as long as it's not like 4 months later or something.

Get the broker to keep in touch with the lender to ensure they will satnd by their decision.

And you are right, dont go getting credit searches done all over the place

Andy

beckstrous

Jorgan wrote:

Once you have a mortgage agreed in principal, decide on the area that you want to be in. Once you have done this, contact all the agents that cover your chosen area.

Thanks for this advice. It seems as if we are perhaps going about it back-to-front i.e. looking first, viewing properties without having sorted out a form of agreement.

Jorgan wrote:

You also need to understand how the agents work, as Andrew has already said many will look speak firstly to buyers who they have given mortgage advice to, as they receive two commisions from this, one for selling the house & one for the mortgage.

Does this mean that we would be sensible to chat to their mortgage advisor so that they "know" us? We only wanted to do it through a whole-of-market broker or maybe even ourselves, because as we understand it, the estate agents' brokers don't have access to as many lenders?

Jorgan wrote:

Make yourself known to the agents, keep in touch with them. ...

This is great advice - thanks. I think what we need to do is make an effort to ring around them all, perhaps once a week?

Jorgan wrote:

I also think you need to revise the price range you are looking at. Somebody who has just put their property on the market probably won't accept an offer of 90% of asking price, somebody who has been on the market 6 months probably will.

Are we supposed to tell the EA what the max we can spend is in the hope that they will then give us properties they think people will accept offers on? This is what we have been doing so far, but then I wondered if that's showing your hand too much. It's not like renting at all, which was really easy!

AndrewSmith

Dont ever overplay your hand.

Also if you get your broker to speak to the Agents for you there will be no salesy games played by the Agent. I would still use a whole of market broker if that's what you want to do.

Remember that the Estate Agent works for the person who's house he is selling. An outside broker will work solely for you.

Andy

Jorgan_2

Nothing wrong with telling the EA the max you are looking to spend, this figure shouldn't be confused with the max you can spend. If you want to speak to their mortgage advisors so that they 'know' you better, again no harm done. Some agents brokers are tied to panels others offer whole of market, likewise some will charge for their services while others offer free advice. Get as much free advice as possible, just make sure that you are not cedit scored by each broker as this could mess up your credit score. Keep hold of your pay slips,i.d. etc to keep in control of the situation.

Also research the area you are looking to be living in. When you have decided on an area get the local weekly paper for 4-6 weeks, this will give you a real understanding of an area.

beckstrous

Thanks again, Jorgan. Maybe we need to narrow it down a bit - at the moment we're looking at several areas, though most of them are in the same 20-mile radius.