Viewing to buy through agents.

phildamb

We are looking at buying our first house so Ive spoken to various areas about mortgages and Ive now got a whole of market advisor via L&C but Ive come across an agency today who say I need to have proof of a mortgage in principle to be able to view. I find this very odd as when I went to both Santander and Nationwide and L&C all said the same thing that they dont give agreements in principle any more as they cant guarantee until they do the full credit check and paper work. Has anyone else come across this before as the guy in the agency didnt seem to be believe me.

MissMotivation

phildamb wrote: »

We are looking at buying our first house so Ive spoken to various areas about mortgages and Ive now got a whole of market advisor via L&C but Ive come across an agency today who say I need to have proof of a mortgage in principle to be able to view. I find this very odd as when I went to both Santander and Nationwide and L&C all said the same thing that they dont give agreements in principle any more as they cant guarantee until they do the full credit check and paper work. Has anyone else come across this before as the guy in the agency didnt seem to be believe me.

Unless all of their Vendors have specifically requested that all viewers have an Agreement in Principle before viewings then he is talking out of his rear end!

delmar39

Agree with the above unless vendor has requested this then you can view whatever. Also, you can get a mortgage lending certificate (or something like this) from a bank or building society before the application and credit check bit. This proves the amount of money you can borrow, but doesn't necessarily mean you can borrow it - this depends on application process going through ok.

ruggedtoast

Agents are getting a lot of enquiries at the moment from people who still think they can get 100% mortgages, or borrow 10 times their income, and its a waste of everyones time them viewing places.

Especially if they get the seller all excited by putting in an offer that gets withdrawn a week later because they cant get finance.

What the agents really want to know is that youre in a proceedable position. When I register with EAs I just tell them that we're FTBs, and that we have appointed a mortgage broker and a solicitor who are ready for our instructions as soon as we have an offer accepted.

That should be more than enough to get your mobile ringing every 10 minutes as they try and offload one of the houses they havent been able to sell since November.

I am with L & C as well and theyve been very helpful. You can have your mortgage adviser call or email the EA if you want, to confirm that - pending an actual mortgage offer, you are in a realistic buying position.

The agents may also be trying to get you to use their own broker.