Play your cards close to your chest?

patch3228

Hi,

Just trying to find out when initially dealing with an EA:

1) What details you should keep to yourself

2) What info the EA has the right to ask you (part of normal conduct)


I expressed an interest in a property and wanted to arrange a viewing. The EA quizzed me on the financial side of things and was really probing in terms of:

- Did I have a financial advisor and whether I wanted to use one of theirs
- Have you got a mortgage agreement
- How much deposit have you got


I did not discuss this with ease, but I did answer the first 2 questions as I was unsure whether these are questions asked as part of normal conduct or not??

I understand they don't want time-wasters ... but I would appreciate guidance on what is appropriate to disclose without affecting future negotiations.

russ21282

I think they are just trying to figure out who are genuine buyers. They always ask about the mortgage advisor, just selling their other services.

When i've been asked i just said we had a mortgage in principle and a deposit sorted. They don't need to know anymore as it could effect negotiations down the line as they know how much you can get.

I've heard many people now saying the EA wants proof of finances before they submit offers to the vendors. Personally, i wouldn't do it and would look else where. I'm sure there are a lot of EAs that wouldn't take advantage of the knowledge they had, but some probably will and that could end up costing you more.

jopop

We have had really pressing questions by pushy estate agents. I say keep em close to your chest.

miih

I expressed an interest in a property and wanted to arrange a viewing. The EA quizzed me on the financial side of things and was really probing in terms of:

- Did I have a financial advisor and whether I wanted to use one of theirs
- Have you got a mortgage agreement
- How much deposit have you got

I did not discuss this with ease, but I did answer the first 2 questions as I was unsure whether these are questions asked as part of normal conduct or not??

I understand they don't want time-wasters ... but I would appreciate guidance on what is appropriate to disclose without affecting future negotiations.

Exactly what happened to us earlier in the week. Our independent mortgage advisor suggested they might be being pushy to try and make us use their own mortgage advisor. I was a bit thrown by the rudeness actually. They initially said they wouldn't even show us round without proof we could afford it but eventually caved in. As someone on another thread said - why would we be looking round on a Sunday if we weren't interested?!

Darth_Marty

you cant really blame them, after all its their job to make sure only appropriate people can view peoples houses!
Would you be happy taking a viewing only to later find out the viewer had no funds in place, no mortgage agreed or their house wasnt on the market? I wouldnt be!

poppysarah

They got a lot of tyre kickers at the moment maybe.

Give them the name of your IMA and get them to speak to him to confirm you are in a position to buy.

zone

You dont have to declare your financial situation to the EA. But it could make things difficult if they feel you are just window shopping. Explain to them that you are serious about buying.

QTPie

russ21282 wrote: »

I think they are just trying to figure out who are genuine buyers. They always ask about the mortgage advisor, just selling their other services.

When i've been asked i just said we had a mortgage in principle and a deposit sorted. They don't need to know anymore as it could effect negotiations down the line as they know how much you can get.

I've heard many people now saying the EA wants proof of finances before they submit offers to the vendors. Personally, i wouldn't do it and would look else where. I'm sure there are a lot of EAs that wouldn't take advantage of the knowledge they had, but some probably will and that could end up costing you more.

That sounds like very good advice.

We are just selling (and moving into rented accomodation for a while), BUT I know that - when we come to buy - I would not like to disclose how much our deposit would be (about 40%) OR how much we could have as a mortgage (a very frightening amount that we wont go ANYWHERE near - we would be looking to borrow 50% of the maximum). I wouldn't want anyone to think that they can get extra money out of us because we have a large cash deposit...

QT

googler

Leaving aside them trying to sell you to their mort advisor;

Put yourself in the position of the seller and their agent. You view the property, you put an offer in, the seller accepts an offer from you, and on the basis of that they put an offer in on another property, which is accepted. The owners of that property then offer on their target property, that's accepted, and you repeat this process as many times as you'd like to consider.

If you don't have funds in place, and can't get finance to buy the house at the start of this process, everything falls apart.

WHEN do you think everyone else would like to know about it?

When you ask about a viewing?
When you view the property?
After a couple of viewings on the property?
After you've had a survey?
After your offer has been accepted?
Or, and this is the daddy of them all;

Two days prior to everyone's date of entry, when they've all arranged removal firms, redirected their mail, swapped utilities, disconnected phones, etc?

Personally, if I were the agent, I'd want to know what you can afford before I spend any significant amount of time with you. Time is money.

If you do want to play things close to your chest, I'll ask - when would YOU assure the selling agents and their client base that you can actually afford the property you're interested in?

pandamonia

I dont have much problem with EA's pushing me around. probably cus im a hard faced basta.rd lol

Salesman to Salesman i know all their tricks

ciano125

I can see both sides of this arguement, however I was asked recently by an estate agent "how much can you afford to pay for a house" (we were looking at several new builds), to which my answer was that I had a figure in mind and that I wasnt going to waste my time or theirs looking at stuff I couldnt afford. That puts them at ease that you are serious without giving your negotiating points away. They dont need to know your figures full stop and if one said to me that they wouldnt put my offer to a seller without seeing my funds, I'd tell them that they would or I would go straight to their clients and tell them that they (estate agents) were not putting my offer forward, and if they were doing that with my offer, how many others were they doing it with too?!

I tells ya, two can play these games!!