EA asking for proof of mortgage before taking my offer

Sponge

I want to make an offer on a house, but the estate agent will not forward my offer to the seller until I have been in to see them, shown them some ID, provided proof of my mortgage and seen their financial advisor.

I have a mortgage agreed with my current lender and they have said they will telephone the EA and tell them so, but I don't know what they'll exactly say. My worry is they will tell the EA we have a mortgage agreed of up to £xxx,xxx therefore 'showing my hand' to the EA and them rejecting any lower offer.

They're on commission and obviously going to want as much £££ as possible. If they know what I can go up to, they'll simply tell the seller to reject all lower offers.

How do I satisfy their need for proof I can afford an offer, without letting them know all my financial details and using it against me whenever I submit an offer for a house they're selling?

malcolmffc

Show them proof of your income and deposit, which should convince them you will get a mortgage for the required amount.

grifferz

They are most likely trying to get you to use their mortgage services and to find out about your financials as you suspect.

Tell them that you have your mortgage already sorted out through your broker, if they need to have proof of that they are to contact your broker, you will provide the ID they require, you are not interested in seeing their mortgage advisor, and you expect your offer to be passed on to the vendor.

Sponge

Thanks for the replies.

I appreciate an EA may want to know someone isn't going to waste their time, or the vendor's, but I can't help but regard this need for specifics and proof as just a sly way to get financial info on a buyer and use that info to force higher sale prices. I'd like to combat it.

The house we want is up for offers over £175k and they have told us the vendor will not entertain offers below £170k. They apparently have a family member interested in the house and if they can't get at least £170k they would rather sell to them.

We offered much less and it was rejected immediately. We can go to £170k, but don't want them to know it and don't want to pay over the odds (we accepted 5% less than our asking price and wanted to get at least the same on the house we bought), even though we really like the house.

We're slightly rushed as we finally accepted an offer on our house and the FTB are all ready to go and asking how soon we can find somewhere.

Mozzanov

You could just tell them flat out "no" and that the mortgage is your business and their only concern is to pass on your offer to the seller. If they want commission, it's in their interests to pass on the offer to the seller. In fact, they are obliged to do so and would be failing in their duties (unless they have been instructed by the seller to reject bids below x amount).

TheKeymeister

I had this with a house I had made an offer on, they wanted to see an AIP and proof of deposit, and wouldn't take the property off the market until they got a call to arrange a mortgage valuation... It later fell through due to structural problems!

One agent wouldn't even let me view any houses with them until I sat with their mortgage adviser. As per this site, I asked first if they were whole of market and did they charge and they said they are whole of market and its free. Turns out they aren't whole of market (and apparently nobody is?!) and they wanted a few hundred quid....so I left.

Mobeer

If you tell the EA your income, agreed mortgage etc then the EA can tell their buyer how much you can afford to pay. Sounds like a bad plan.

Tell the EA that your finances are your concern.

TheKeymeister

Forgot to add, my AIP was up to about £140k, house in question was up at £120k and I had an offer accepted at £115k so they can't have paid too much attention to it, though if I offered a massive amount under I imagine it would have been different

mandi

Mobeer wrote: »

If you tell the EA your income, agreed mortgage etc then the EA can tell their buyer how much you can afford to pay. Sounds like a bad plan.

Incorrect .

amcg100

I assume you know the address of the property? If so pop into the estate agent and tell them that you are going to write to the occupier of the property and tell them that their estate agents are insisting on you seeing their financial adviser ( so they can sell you a mortgage and insurance ) before they forward on a legitimate offer. Hopefully this will do the trick - if not do it. There are no regulatory bodies for estate agents but there are plenty for mortgage advisers - so you might like to advise them of this also - What estate agent was it ?

amcg100

Oh forgot about the other thing - just get the bank/ building society to provide you with a mortgage certificate to the value of your offer -