Agreement in principle?

keepsaving!

Thanks kingstreet, that's exactly what I meant...terrifying that someone knew 6 credit searches in one day were being undertaken and thought he'd done nothing wrong!! Thanks for the advice on EAs' advisers, friends have already warned us how pushy they can be which is in some way why 1 AIP seems helpful to prevent their pestering.

KateLiana27

Don't get too worried by the article - I just put it out there because I had no idea when I started my FTB search. I did get an AIP from one provider and it didn't seem to affect anything. However no estate agent or vendor asked to see it until after we had an offer accepted (at which time I realised it had expired 6 months previously - not a problem as we just applied for the actual mortgage and the cover letter they send with the application pack serves as an AIP).

If you're worried about EAs and vendors not taking you seriously, that's not a huge problem in today's market (they're mostly grateful to get any buyer with a pulse and treat you as such), or if they do judge your seriousness as a buyer, it's based much more on how you present yourself overall and how seriously you seem to be taking the process (turning up on time for viewings, appearing interested, etc).

So, what I'm saying is you don't NEED an AIP, and you can get the same information about what you can borrow by just talking unofficially to providers, without incurring any risk whatsoever. As you rightly say, you won't know for sure until after the full application anyway.

And I'm afraid having an AIP will not deter EAs from pressuring you to see their mortgage advisers. We really were on the receiving end of the hard sell through the whole search process, and had to be very firm in saying no :mad:

sunshineband

KateLiana27 wrote: »

And I'm afraid having an AIP will not deter EAs from pressuring you to see their mortgage advisers. We really were on the receiving end of the hard sell through the whole search process, and had to be very firm in saying no :mad:

We were the same. We were actually tricked into going to visit them! They said they needed to see our income proof and passports as the vendor had asked them to check we were "serious buyers" but they promised once this had been seen the property would come off the market. We found out when we got there they wanted to sell us every product on the market! We kept telling them no and left the EA's very frustrated with the property STILL on the market until we showed them the AIP and gave them the solicitors details.

So be very firm with them! It didn't hurt us not having the AIP!!