Mortgage or offer first?

girleight@

Hi

We rang London and County about getting a mortgage and they advised us not to apply until we have an offer accepted (as current offers change quickly and it would be bad for ours to expire and then for us to need another credit check) but then lots of advice states that having an agreement in principle would help us get an offer accepted. What does anyone think?

Squish_21

There is difference between a Mortgage in Principle which is free and just confirms in writing the maximum amount the lender will give you and reserving an actual mortgage.

When you reserve a mortgage theres often a fee to pay and you reserve a certain mortgage interest rate, this often expires and you would lose the reservation fee when it did.

Hope that makes sense.

pinkshoes

Many estate agents won't let you view properties unless you have a mortgage in principal, as there were far too many cases of buyers making offers, offers being accepted, then buyers finding they couldn't get the mortgage they required!

Eric1

with a mortgage AIP, you will be in a stronger position, your offer may even beat higher offers with no AIP

livalicious

We were in the same position as you a few weeks ago, phoned L&C to discuss what mortgage would be best for us, rates available, etc. and they told us to come back to them once we put an offer in. So I talked with another fees-free whole of market broker to double check how much we could afford to lend and the best rate they could come up with. Thereafter, I searched for mortgages myself using comparison sites, compared not only interest rates but also arrangement fees, etc. The best one I found was with Nottingham BS, and I rung them up and arranged a Mortgage in Principle. I did double check with them that no credit check would be done until the actual application stage. So I got the MIP, had an offer accepted and showed this to EA to qualify us being able to purchase said house.

I then rung L&C again once the offer was accepted, and guess what, they offered me the same mortgage with Notts BS that I already had a MIP for!!!

Good luck!

girleight@

Ah I wasn't aware that AIP didn't always involve a credit check. I think in that case I will try and get one before putting another offer in for the house we like. Thanks!

dianah

i got mortgage in principle before even looking at houses, simply because i wanted to know how much money i'd definitely be able to get.

i think it helped when putting an offer it, along with not having anything to sell and having all the fees ready etc.

funkymonkey849

We were advised not to get a mortgage in principle for the same reasons. We viewed about 25 houses with 5 different EAs and they were all happy to show us houses and accept offers even though we didn't have a MIP

We did explain that we had seen a financial advisor and had a 25% deposit and they were happy with that