Agents trying to sell me mortgage?

bownyboy

Hi there,

We've just put an offer in on a 3 bed house and the agent is asking us a number of questions regarding our financials such as how large our deposit is, where our mortgage is and how we are going to pay. They have also said by law (stating the financial ombudsman) that they are required on behalf of the vendor to have our financials assessed. Thier financial advisor is going to call us on Monday to discuss.

Is this just a tactic to get us to purchase a mortgage from them? Or maybe a negotiating tactic to find out more about us and our bargining power?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Regards,

John

Tiddler_2

Hi John, It's not a legal requirement but it is good practice for them to do this. Remember they are acting on behalf of the seller. They should confirm to the vendor that they feel you are in a position to proceed with the purchase.

If you were selling the property you would want to make sure that your buyer could actually afford the property and weren't living in dream land.

We all know that mortgages are not as readily available as they were 1-2 years ago. If you'd told them that you had 5% deposit then they would know that a mortgage was nigh on impossible.

It is also a way of the mortgage adviser trying to sell you a mortgage - I used to hate doing them when I worked at the Halifax Estate Agents as I thought it was a waste of time (I could only offer Halifax mortgages) and so just asked have you got a Agreement In Principle/Mortgage Promise and if it was with a company offering a better deal than us I would just get a copy of the certificate for the file - that is all they need to know.

So if you have already had an AIP done just tell them this, give them a copy of the certificate and that's their requirement done.......... certainly don't let them do any further credit scores or checks

Dan_1976

I used to work for an agent and I hated when I was asked to "qualify" a client. It was used to make sure they could by and also and probably more so seen as a sales tactic.

You can tell them to stick it, but it may not help in this climate. If you have an agreement as tiddler says show them it. If the agreement says how much you can borrow blank it out. If they know your limits they have the upper hand. You can use your solicitor, ask him/her to confirm to the vendors solicitor!

Good luck

dunstonh

They have also said by law (stating the financial ombudsman) that they are required on behalf of the vendor to have our financials assessed. Thier financial advisor is going to call us on Monday to discuss.

That is a complete lie and tells you more about the agent involved than anything else.

1 - The estate agent has no dealing with the financial ombudsman service (FOS).
2 - FOS sets no rules for financial services. That is the remit of the FSA. They set no rules for estate agents.
3 - There is no requirement for you to provide any financial detail to the estate agent and certainly not their in-house sales rep.

It is done to get you to try and sign up with their in house adviser. That is all. Given the lies you have been told to get you in front of the sales rep, what other lies are they going to tell to try and sign you up?

bownyboy

Thanks everyone, we thought as much. We've already spoken to a broker and to our bank and both have said we will have no problem getting a mortgage as we have 60% deposit and the mortgage required is 3.5 times salary.