Buying A Repossessed house

lezlee28

Hello

Can any body give me some sound advise, I currently have a mortgage in place as a first time buyer, I have found a property I want to buy that has been repossessed. I contacted the agent which had the house and have ben told they will only accept a mortgage with their advisor and are trying to make me see them, even though I want to put an offer in of the asking price they are telling me this will not be considered. I am in my mind sure this is foul play and are thinking only of their own commisssion. Are they allowed to do this.

any advise would be great.

g_attrill

I am looking at buying a repossession and have a similar issue, in that the agent claimed the vendor wanted buyers to be pre-vetted, and I had to speak to their mortgage advisor, but they haven't claimed I have to use them for the mortgage itself.

If you are nearing the time limit and don't want to use their advisor I can only suggest you put in your offer and ignore their claims and see what happens. If you think they are not telling the truth you could write to the vendor and point this out - I guess the Land Registry would have the name of the mortgage company. edit: This would obviously be too late to get the property, but would call them to account.

ginvzt

g_attrill wrote: »

If you are nearing the time limit and don't want to use their advisor I can only suggest you put in your offer and ignore their claims and see what happens. If you think they are not telling the truth you could write to the vendor and point this out - I guess the Land Registry would have the name of the mortgage company. edit: This would obviously be too late to get the property, but would call them to account.

Check HIP - I think it should say who is the owner and any registered interest (well, we could find the mortgage company for the houses we looked). Why should you pay Land Registry, when HIP is there for your information?

Conrad

I have to say although the agents probably are looking for a bit of mortgage commission, you need to be pragmatic about this. Any good developer will tell you he gets the properties he wants by looking after the agents.

You will be up against established buyers no doubt, that have forged a long term relationship with the agents.

It's called being business minded - the real world.

If you would rather do your own mortgage, fine, but don't expect any favours for EA's, afterall they work for the seller not you. Getting a mortgage is hard. EA'S want to know you are sound, and to be frank an AIP form a lender is worthlless.

happybroker

an estate agent has to be able to be sure that a buyer is in a position to proceed with an offer before recommending that offer to the vendor which is fair enough.

if it's a £100k purchase then the commision (in my area at least) would be £1k to £1.5k. if they did the mortgage also then they would get say £350 proc fee, possibly £250 arrangement fee, £100 referral fee from a solicitor and then any protection on top...say a £40pcm premium for life and ci and you can add £800 to that and another £200 or so for the general insurance (ASU/ BI &C) so the incentive is high for them to get you in front of their "advisor".

All of a sudden it's double bubble for the EA and they get to keep a very close eye on what's going on with the mortgage application (plus renewal commision on the insurance of course).

g_attrill

That's all fair enough, if he had said "We need to check that you can afford it first to avoid wasting everybody's time, and we can see if we can give you a good deal at the same time" I wouldn't be annoyed, but I asked him to confirm and he said the vendor specified that buyers must see their advisor, (who is separate to the estate agent, but working from the same office), which smells to me. I could easily show the agent enough documents to "prove" I can afford it.

I guess I'm a person who doesn't like to be "sold to". Luckily I have found that good sales people (from all fields) spot this type of buyer and adjust their technique quickly and we all get along fine.

Dan_1976

They are not allowed to insist you use the EA's mortgage chap. They will rely on you being a first time buyer and not knowing what your doing. Take what Conrad says and remember it, EA's are a funny bunch.

It is your choice though. As long as you prove your mortgagable you will be accepted by the vendor. The Vendor will be a repo company on behalf of the lender. No chain and a mortgage in place would be better than an investor as B2L's are a so and so at the mo!