Mortgage/Making an offer question

legend76

I live in Scotland and just found out today that we have sold our house STCM.
We are going to view a few properties tomorrow. We have had our mortgage agreed in principle up to a certain amount but have not submitted a full application yet.

Is having the mortgage agreed in principle sufficient to allow us to make an offer on a property and then make the full application?
Or should we submit an full application beforehand?

cattie

Not sure about Scotland but in England having the mortgage in principle first is the way to do things. Once you have found a house you then contact the lender for a proper mortgage offer.

Good luck with your purchase & hope it all goes through smoothly.

silvercar

In England you need to have had a valuation, or survey, to get the mortgage approved. You would need to have had an offer accepted before you do this.

lunachick

I'm also in Scotland. In February we put in an offer on a flat and had it accepted. We only had an agreement in principle for the mortgage and did not even have our current flat on the market! Luckily after a couple of tense weeks our flat is now sold and we only received our full mortgage agreement today.
So to answer your question I don't think you need to submit a full application, just the agreement in principle (from our experience).

badfelafel

Offers, mortgage applications and surveys in Scotland...

Here's your options (to the best of my knowledge)

Mortgages:
- You would not be wise to submit an offer without some outline mortgage application having taken place so you know what you should be able to get.
- You cannot complete the full process and have a full mortgage approval until you have agreed an offer on a specific property and it has been accepted.
- Therefore you should go as far as you can down the mortgage path, so that you are ready to complete the application as soon as your offer is accepted.
Dont be shy to ask a broker for advice!

Offers and surveys:
This is the tricky bit and depends how the property is being sold
If its just for sale (and not yet going to a closing date) try to speak to the seller and see what they are looking for.
- You can submit an offer subject to survey which gives you scope to see if the seller would accept without wasting money on a survey if you lose to someone else. I always try this. Plus it gives you scope to back out if you change your mind, as your solicitor will probably word the offer saying that you will make your decision once you have seen they survey and its completely up to you.
- If you are confident your offer will be accepted then an offer with a survey completed is much more attractive to a seller.
- If the property is going to closing date then you can still submit an offer subject to survey, but this will be much less attractive to the seller.

Hope this helps!
Badfelafel