Estate agent saying we have to use their mortgage deals

DVardysShadow

dan536 wrote: »

... I think I'll suggest that if he has any problems in the future that he speak to our solicitor from now on, after all, I guess that's what we're paying for.

I would not advise you use the solicitor for negotiating with the EA - or even for negotiating - they are not good at it, their primary role is to advise and protect the interests of clients and to implement agreed deals.

dan536

Fair enough - wasn't really aware of that. I'll set my wife on them then - without wanting to sound like a pushover, I am too nice at times - probably why I'm no longer in sales but my wife is!

Just tried calling them, but apparently he's in a 'meeting'. Again.

p.s. I'm assuming it's standard practice to have it in writing that our offer has been accepted? Just we still don't hae one. Nor a link to the HIP we requested 2 times.

DVardysShadow

Agent appears to be playing power games with you. Being 'in a meeting' [and not ringing back] is just wannabe big businessmen showing dominance. I'm not sure exactly what to do as I have not seen your situation first hand.

I think I would get whoever answers the phone to arrange an appointment to see the EA and tell him quite straight that I am not playing games.- my offer is X, my mortgage I will sort out unless it is worth my while to have his mortgage.

As with any property, you need to be prepared to walk away, it is the only clout you have

dan536

Agreed. Luckily neither of us are really phased by this sort of thing having dealt with it for years in both our jobs. We're more frustrated that we still haven't told him what's going to happen, whether he likes it or not. We'll just sit it out and wait 'til we can actually speak to him. Realistically, whether we speak to him or not has no bearing on the fact that the will continue to use our own sols and bank.

As you say, while we love the house, we have now got to the point where we will walk away if it becomes too heavy handed. The irony of the whole situation is that it's due to the estate agent being such a **** (put in there what you will) that he's actually making this deal really unpleasant.

Well, whatever happens, at least we're happier now using our own sols and bank - from what we've heard there really should be no issues anyway.

dan536

So, my wife finally spoke to the EA. Once she explained exactly what we were doing and why, he seems to have totally calmed down. We've told them that the HSBC are aware it needs to move quickly and they also advised us that it is not taking too long anyway. He was also relatively happy that we were continuing to use our own solicitor.

Whether or not he got a call this morning from our sols, which may have given him a shake up, I don't yet know. Or maybe he realised he'd left 2 pretty incriminating voicemail messages and though he just back down, before we got too fed up with him.

Either way, I'm now a lot more relaxed. Hopefully, it'll all go as quickly and as smoothly as possible.

DVardysShadow

dan536 wrote: »

Or maybe he realised he'd left 2 pretty incriminating voicemail messages and though he just back down, before we got too fed up with him.

Oh yes, don't forget to forward the voicemails to the vendor or vendor's solicitor after the contract is buttoned up or dropped.

dan536

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Oh yes, don't forget to forward the voicemails to the vendor or vendor's solicitor after the contract is buttoned up or dropped.

Fear not. They're saved for just such an opportunity.

HRV

When we got our repo recently the EA tried a similar game with us- they insisted I see their mortgage advisor to check I could get the mortgage- fair enough but wanted to charge me this £150 quid that I knew the othe broker wouldnt charge- I told them unless they matched the rate etc and got rid of the fee I wouldnt go with them. They tried their best to tell me the other broker wouldn't be quick enough- it all went through within the 28 days (including full building survey, valuation survey, and 3 mortgage offers (as we had to up the price). So it can be done! Dont let them bully you.:beer:

timmyt

dan536 wrote: »

Hi,

Hopefully someone can answer a couple of questions for us. The situation is as follows:

We are first time buyers who have had an offer accepted on a house. The sellers are buying a repossessed property and so we are the only people in the chain.

We have told the estate agent we are going to HSBC on Monday to sort the mortgage.

He has told us that this cannot happen as the deal must go through quickly (28 day rule on repossessed properties and apparently HSBC are taking up to 12 weeks to sort mortgages) and so we must use their mortgage guy who has found a deal for us. We have been told by HSBC that it should take 5-6 weeks.

Several problems here as far as we are concerned. Surely this 28 day rule on repossessed properties cannot be set in stone - after all the companies involved must know how long some things can take.

We simply don't want the deal being offered by the estate agent, it's a tracker and we would like the HSBC 2yr fixed deal. The alternative fixed from the estate agent is 1% above the HSBC rate, therefore, more expensive.

Now - the questions are:

1) Is the estate agent spinning us a yarn in order to get the deal done quickly AND get us to use their mortgage deals
2) If we don't use them and go with the HSBC AND go past the 28 days, will the sellers lose their repossessed house? This may well mean we don't get theirs I asssume.

We are not happy to be pushed around and will (rather unhappily) pull out of the whole thing if we can't get our mortgage with the HSBC - but would rather we can find a way round the situation. Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks very much, Dan.

you do not need to use their chap. if youroffer is accep[ted it is acepted. however, if you are not using an independent mortgage advisor then you should as how do you know whether HSBC are te best for you. Never use a mortgage advisor from an estate agent, they are tainted with not being independent

repossessions have no magic 28 days.

keep doing what you are doing, as the mortgage that the agent has found (did they have a meeting with you to assess your circumstances...no!) may not be as good indeed

dan536

Been round to the house again today (and luckily still love it as much as before).

The owners are great - totally happy with what we're doing and even said that the EA had been getting a little OTT about it all.

Anyway, it seems that the company dealing with the repossession hasn't even sorted the contract with the sols yet so the 28 days hasn't even started. So...we're with the bank we want to be with, using the solicitor we want to and everything seems to be working out OK.:)

Thanks for everyone's help on this - makes making decisions much easier when you know you're not the only ones thinking the way you are.

Dan.