Estate agents' hard sell on mortgages etc..

moneysavingplumber

luckyfool wrote: »

At the point you are making an offer on a property if you do not have an agreement in principle already in place then it will disadvantage your bid against competitors potentially. How is the vendor to know whether you are someone hoping to get a 100% mortgage with a £20k ccj, vs an ultra creditworthy person putting down 40% at 2 times income who could get a mortgage from any lender on the high street.

It may be that your local independent just happens to do it this way, is keying in off your own opinions (i.e. you aren't keen to get an aip now so he is going with the flow), or they may just think you are a tyre kicker/time waster and want to wait until you have a property in the same way L&C do.

In your circumstances I would be getting your broker to research the entire market and find you the best deal. Then, lender you are leaning towards based on their current products... if they leave a hard footprint then I would look at getting an agreement in principle from a different soft footprint lender (basically any, that you meet the criteria for) which would mean that the aip will not impact on your credit score at all. That gives you a certificate you can wave at the agents when making an offer, and gives you some peace of mind that the mortgage is definitely going to be available (with that lender at the very least). Once your offer is accepted your broker can redo the lender research and you can go forward with a proper aip and then application to the best lender. As per the posts above the agent cannot refuse to pass your offer on, but if there are multiple different offers and you did not have an agreement in principle in place they are perfectly within their rights, and you could argue that they have a duty to(and almost certainly will) make the comparison between your offer and the offer from Joe Bloggs. i.e. Joe Bloggs is a first time buyer, has a mortgage agreed already and on the table and is ready to go, whereas Mr Moneysavingplumber doesn't have their mortgage agreed yet and we could find ourselves 3 or 4 weeks down the road before we find out they can't get a mortgage and have to put your property back on the market. Take my advice mr seller and just go with Joe Bloggs, its the safer option.

This route involves a bit more work for the broker, but it is more likely to get you there in the end and doesn't impact on your credit score. To be honest I personally would not be too fixated on hard footprints vs. soft as long as you're confident your credit history is good and you don't go shopping around getting searches run right left and centre. One search at aip stage, and potentially another in a month or 2 once an offer is accepted is not going to make a big difference on your score unless you are very much borderline anyway, having said that if its the credit searches that you are worred about then doing it the way I've outlined above solves your problem.

Thanks for that.

Actually it was the broker that suggested not doing AIPs as a general rule, but actually said much the same as yourself in that it may be of value in some circumstances, and I may yet go down the route of getting one as a safeguard, and went to him actually asking about the possibility of acquiring one to stick in the agent's pipe for them to smoke. I'm quite happy for the agent to advise the vendor that an AIP buyer has more chance of getting the money together, but the implication was that one from them would be of greater value than one from another broker, all part of the pressure-selling technique.

Thoroughly appreciate such a detailed response anyway, very helpful!

madmish00

if they leave a hard footprint then I would look at getting an agreement in principle from a different soft footprint lender (basically any, that you meet the criteria for) which would mean that the aip will not impact on your credit score at all.

This may be a stupid question but how do you know which lenders leave a hard footprint and which are a soft footprint? The reason I ask is I looked at getting an AIP from Nationwide (current mortgage with them which I want to port but will need to take additional borrowing to move) but was advised to wait until I am ready to make an offer before getting AIP due to it only being valid 3mths and recorded against credit file.

luckyfool

You can ask the lender, or go through a broker who should know. Nationwide definitely leave a hard footprint on their AIP.

Cheers,

Joe