Am i being played by the EA - or paranoid?

Kynthia

Do you have to get an AIP yet? As long as your genuinely independant broker advises you on how much you could borrow based on his/her knowledge of the lenders, you could put in an offer and get the AIP immediately after it's accepted.

wondernick

the broker reckons we should get an AIP sorted in a few hours on monday (my appointment is 9am) and i'm viewing the house at 5pm.

i've spent the last few hours looking at the threads on the mortgage forum, i'm now getting a sense of what a big undertaking this all is, but i'm still keen to crack on (if not with this house, i will carry on looking).

the agents has already mention two offers (one on this house, one on another) falling through because of finance so i think i would wait for an AIP before making an offer.

simplymegreg

I was speaking to a broker today who advised to never get an AIP before an offer being accepted. The rationale apparently being that if you get an AIP which lasts a month or so that is a credit search against your file. If your offer isn't accepted then you have to find another house to offer on which may mean you need to get another AIP.

I thought, however, that AIPs last for about 6 months and not 1?!

wondernick

Thought i'd give a quick update to wrap this thread up (in case anybody cares!).

i got a phone call just before my second viewing to say that somebody had made a cash offer that the vendor was likely to accept. I went to the viewing anyway, but it transpires that the offer was for 145, and he was offering to pay a nonrefundable deposit of 5k!

the house was very desirable and i was probably being a little over paranoid, although i guess that's better than naive.

as for the AiP, apparently the one i'm getting will last for 3 months, but could be extended if need be, i guess it could be different for different lenders?

thanks everybody for their comments and help. i've spent hours on this forum and feel much better prepared. onwards and upwards!

ruggedtoast

People get tied up in knots about this but at the end of the day they can't make you offer more than you want to pay based on what you think the house is worth.

I could pay £500 for a Mars bar if I wanted to, but I'm not going to just because the news agent points out that I can technically afford it.

At least if they show you a property that is above your maximum budget you know they know they wont be giving the vendors any unrealistic hopes about your offer.