EA insists I see mortgage adviser before I can make an offer....

Hoof_Hearted

Now I know that he wants to flog me a mortgage as well but he is insistent that I must see the mortgage adviser before we make an offer. We have a mortage in principle arranged with a letter indicating this. We are well within our budget. I am tempted to talk to the vendor directly. I would like to tell the EA to f off but I guess I need to stay in with him. Any suggestions on strategy? If I make an offer in writing is he bound to communicate this anyway? I just find it annoying and as a first-time buyer I am not sure of the ropes.

bryanb

Make your offer in writing to the EA and send a copy to the vendor.

DVardysShadow

Personally, I have heard enough of this little jape by EA's that I would love someone to actually make an appointment to see the MA and turn up and stand at the MA's desk with their back to the MA, replying 'go to hell' to each question and then demanding that the EA puts the offer forward.

But your best chance is to put the offer to the EA and then contact the vendor and say that there is an offer with the EA, which he has refused to forward. Some EA's do have a strong hold over the weaker vendors who actually buy the line that the EA is doing them a favour by 'weeding out timewasters' with the MA interview.

Ronaldo_Mconaldo

I remember when we bought a house a couple of years ago and went through the estate agent's mortgage guy. It was some of the most irritating times of my life. I remember when we sat down with the guy after we had had the offer accepted so that we could go through the details of getting a mortgage. Now I'm quite computer savvy and all that but didn't really want to leave the borrowing of over £100 grand down to my own computer connection, so we went with this person.

Pretty much all he did was get paid £250 to go looking through money supermarket for us. The worst part, and this is the bit I'll never forget, we gave him all our ID (passports, driving licences, P60s etc) and yet every time he did a new search he kept asking us to repeat our details to him. We kept having to spell out our names (must have been about 12 times) address spelled out (another load of times), just so annoying! He had our passports in front of him!

Anyway that took about 3 hours of the guy searching on Google for us - fun times. The worst part, and here is the bit to look out for, was that he wanted us to come back a couple of days later so he could do his Money Supermarket search for all the different kinds of insurance we can get. No chance was I going to go through all that again just for maybe £200 a year insurance.

Then he really laid it on thick and said the most ridiculous thing to me on the phone regarding life insurance. Because I didn't really want to go back there and do all that again he came up with this lovely little stat about how we needed to be sure to get the right life insurance coverage because 1 in 3 people get cancer "and there was me, you and your girlfriend in the room the other day so...well I'm not saying anything but...well, y'know". If he'd have said that to my face I'd have had some strong words for him. Needless to say we got life insurance from an internet search, pay £5 a month.

Anyway, that's my experience. In short go with the professional for the peace of mind but don't expect them to do anything that you couldn't do yourself.

evoke

Seeing things from the other side of the fence, I had a viewing out of the blue today and basically negotiated a price directly with the viewer. But I told him that he has to make the offer formally through the estate agent. The viewer told me that he was a cash buyer and had the money ready to transfer from a bank account. I've heard all of that before.

My EA is under STRICT instructions to fully qualify a buyer when an offer is made and I won't accept an offer formally until some evidence of ability to pay has been provided by the EA or buyer to me. I've been stung once with a deal that fell through. My property will also remain on the market until a survey has been completed by a buyer.

Too many deals are falling through so buyers must be qualified more stringently by EAs.

To the OP, this simply sounds like a way of the EA confirming you have the ability to pay. The vendor may have had one or more deals fall through in the past and, like me, has instructed the EA to qualify potential buyers better. It could also be a way of finding out how much you can offer and that may be passed on to the vendor so beware of that.

nearlyrich

My DD is a first time buyer with a mortgage agreed in principle of around 3 x salary and a decent deposit available. She found a property last week viewed it on Thursday and had an offer( subject to survey etc) accepted on Friday, the estate agent mentioned they could put her in touch with their mortgage advisor but were not pushy at all. I advised her to make the offer subject to the property being withdrawn for further viewings which the vendor accepted, my experience of estate agents has been pretty dire in the past but the one selling the property DD is after seems to be doing a great job for both vendor and buyer.

Quenastoise

The reality is the EA company is making more money out of arranging a mortgage than from the actual sale. Another nice little earner is to get the buyer to go with the conveyancing company they have an agreement with - Kerrching again, there goes another commission !

I arranged our own mortgage so when the EA insisted we have a visit with their MA, we made it plain to them that they were wasting their time and were as unhelpful as we could be.

I do see the PP's point of view, but EAs are not in the business of looking after their customers, they are in the business of looking after themselves :mad:

Hoof_Hearted

evoke wrote: »

To the OP, this simply sounds like a way of the EA confirming you have the ability to pay. The vendor may have had one or more deals fall through in the past and, like me, has instructed the EA to qualify potential buyers better. It could also be a way of finding out how much you can offer and that may be passed on to the vendor so beware of that.

But we have a full written mortgage offer. We don't need any help from a commission-based MA.

evoke

Hoof_Hearted wrote: »

But we have a full written mortgage offer. We don't need any help from a commission-based MA.

In that case, show the mortgage offer to the EA/MA and get on with it. With the sheer number of sales falling through, EAs are being told by sellers to qualify buyers.

Your seller simply needs to know that you are able to buy his/her property. It's a real hassle when a deal fall through.

I don't think this is a case of the EA/MA trying to flog you a mortgage. I think it's the vendor and the EA simply trying to find a way to confirm that you are able to raise the funds required for the purchase.

Nuttyneddy

Make your offer on the property in writing (the EA is obliged by law to pass it on to the vendor).

Not everybody needs to take out a mortgage to buy a property so insisting all potential buyers see their mortgage advisor before they will pass on your offer is just nonsense :money:

CloudCuckooLand

Of course the EA is trying to flog you stuff. Go along, if you can spare the time. Once in a while they might have a deal that surprises a punter.

Then proceed to make the offer. And check their affiliation with any industry body - NAEA or similar - and search for the section of their code of practice which says they must not allow marketing of other products to influence the process...