Estate Agent Rant!

phil_51

We accepted offer on house 2 weeks ago and not had survey done on it yet or been told if buyer has a mortgage approved. (FTB)

Buyer getting mortgage through Financial advisor.

Spoke to EA and asked if they had checked to see if the buyer has mortgage promise and they said they "don't ask for them" !

So no idea if the buyer will have a chance of getting mortgage.

Last time I moved 4 years ago I had to show mortgage promise on condition that offer would be accepted.

What are the average time scales to get a mortgage these days?

queenpiggy

Hi

I'm afriad it can take a while these days to get a mortgage offer. We just got ours last week after 6 weeks! Was a total nightmare.

Hopefully it wont be that bad for your buyers though.

madmish00

Spoke to EA and asked if they had checked to see if the buyer has mortgage promise and they said they "don't ask for them" !

When you say 'mortgage promise' do you mean an agreement in principle from the bank that they will be able to lend the amount required or the formal mortgage offer?

I went into Nationwide and spoke to the mortgage advisor who could offer and agreement in principle the same day. All that was required was proof of income and P60 and she then generated an affordability certificate to say they will lend xxx amount. To make this into an 'agreement in principle' they would then perform a 5 minute credit check.

A mortgage offer on the other hand requires the mortgage application to be made and the survey carried out to ensure the value of the property is sufficient to cover the mortgage amount.

tawse57

British banks signalled a couple of weeks ago that they intend to give out less mortgages in the second half of 2010 than in the first.

I suspect some EAs are so desperate for business, and to placate some of their sellers, that they do not care about mortgages now... just want to be seen to be getting you some viewings.

Sorry. Hope I am wrong.

Jojo1daffy

My estate agent does not accept offers from viewers/buyers unless they have verified that they have the finances in place to proceed. I find it poor that your EA does not appear to do the same and I would be querying that with them!

9wizard9

The agent selling the house we're buying wouldn't mark it as sold until we proved a mortgage in principle and remaining funds. I'd expect similar for any agent selling my property.

I'm sure mortgages can take all sorts of different timescales, but to give a balanced picture, it took us just under a week to get an appt with the mortgage advisor, then valuation was done two days later, mortgage offer in the post the day after that. So less than two weeks from offer accepted to mortgage offer.

Fingers crossed!

milliebear00001

I've just done mine via a broker. We are at the stage where we have a firm offer subject to valuation, which is arranged for tomorrow/Thursday.

This took us 1 week to do start to finish, although this was speeded up by the fact I had all necessary docs to hand and scanned/emailed them to the broker as soon as they were needed.

I think lenders vary a lot (as do buyers).

lee636

milliebear00001 wrote: »

I've just done mine via a broker. We are at the stage where we have a firm offer subject to valuation, which is arranged for tomorrow/Thursday.

This took us 1 week to do start to finish, although this was speeded up by the fact I had all necessary docs to hand and scanned/emailed them to the broker as soon as they were needed.

I think lenders vary a lot (as do buyers).

Pretty much the same as us, although should be fully completed including the valuation/homebuyers (by the lender) and offer posted to us within 2 weeks.

I dont think there is such thing as a set time, a number of factors can delay/speed up an application.