Book survey or wait until we have mortgage offer?

Emilymay86

So we had offer accepted Thursday- now Tuesday. I am wait for a letter from my employment for my financial advisor who can then submit the full application to mortgage lender. We have an agreement in principle already. Should I order my home buyers survey now? Or could I potentially be wasting that money in case mortgage doesn't come through? I'm worried the sellers will get itchy feet if nothing is happening 😞 and I know we both want to move quickly

PerpetualStudent

Whereabouts are you? If you're London, I would wait - I've heard of several people getting into issues recently because the mortgage valuation is significantly lower than what they've offered, I guess due to the market going up so quickly. So if you spend anything before you've had the mortgage green light, it could be wasted....
I'm half way through the boring dealing-with-solicitors bit of buying. Probably going to exchange before xmas, but not complete until after. It does feel like a maddeningly slow process, no matter how quick you want to move (I've been advised 6 weeks in the minimum time a sale can go through in) but the advantage is it should give you plenty time for the mortgage people to OK you, and get your own survey done, before you're at the point of exchanging contract.
We had to wait a little while for the mortgage people to come look at the property - if you've got a financial advisor I'd try getting them to encourage the mortgage people to book a date for that asap.
But this a first time purchase for me - so be really interested to hear what others have to say!

StuC75

The mortgage company will be needing the Survey prior to the offer being released (as they would be agreeing that the property is suitable security for the mortgage)..

Unfortunately some things have to run in parallel. After all what if you got the offer but then the survey undervalued or highlighted a lot of work is required..

Yorkie1

StuC75 wrote: »

The mortgage company will be needing the Survey prior to the offer being released (as they would be agreeing that the property is suitable security for the mortgage)..

Unfortunately some things have to run in parallel. After all what if you got the offer but then the survey undervalued or highlighted a lot of work is required..

The OP seems to be saying that the lender will do its own valuation survey, and that the OP will be doing their own, independent, HB survey.

Assuming this to be the case, the lender only needs its valuation survey in order to finalise the offer, and there's no need for the OP's HB survey to run in direct parallel.

japmis

Emilymay86 wrote: »

So we had offer accepted Thursday- now Tuesday. I am wait for a letter from my employment for my financial advisor who can then submit the full application to mortgage lender. We have an agreement in principle already. Should I order my home buyers survey now? Or could I potentially be wasting that money in case mortgage doesn't come through? I'm worried the sellers will get itchy feet if nothing is happening �� and I know we both want to move quickly

If you have an AIP already, then I would go ahead and get your survey done. If the survey finds something critical/deal breaking, then you haven't waited 6-8 weeks to find out whilst the mortgage people are crunching numbers. Also, you may want to revise your offer after the survey. Whilst the mortgage application is in progress, it is simple to revise the numbers; not sure how easy it is once the mortgage has been approved and all the paperwork has been issued.

Good luck!

Kynthia

I have waited until my broker confirmed the lender's valuation went well and the mortgage offer is on it's way before confirming my surveyor and allowing my solicitor to start searches. It's a risk to spend money in these beforehand, but it might be a risk you are willing to take if you're in a rush. It doesn't mean I've been sat idle. I booked a solicitor, signed a contract with them and have given them info on the origins of the deposit monies. I also got quotes from local surveyors, picked one, gave them the property and EA details and had them on standby. Plus I was in constant contact with the broker and updated the EA weekly.

Gordon_Hose

We waited until we heard back from the underwriter before paying the solicitor for the searches and the bank for the survey.

dominoman

Personally I would go ahead, and accept the small risk of losing the money if you don't get the mortgage.

The alternative is worse. A week's delay could result in you being gazumped (it happened to me) and that is a lot lot more expensive!