Estate agent keeps asking me questions...

Eejay

Had a call from the estate agent this morning about a house 'we' are in the process of buying. I say 'we' because in actual fact it's only going to be in my husband's name - I'm fairly sure we've told the EA this so I don't know why he keeps ringing me and asking me questions because I don't have a clue what the answers are to half of them.

He wanted to know how our mortgage appointment went - I told him my husband had some paperwork to send off (which he's done) and then I know he was deciding which mortgage to go for the other day but it might have been sorted now - the woman at the bank said she was going to get in touch with him to confirm, which she may have done already (she told him to think about it because the rates would possibly be changing on Monday so she didn't want a definite answer on Saturday, but I don't think they did in the end). The EA didn't seem very happy about this: "Well we need to get a move on with it all, you haven't had a survey done which isn't a surprise if you haven't decided which mortgage you're going for. Usually this is done within a week of an offer being accepted, but it's now been four weeks."

Is he just being a drama queen? Last time he called he accused my husband of not submitting his paperwork - it turns out he had submitted it but the solicitor was away so hadn't had chance to do anything with it. I can't work out if we're genuinely doing something wrong and risking the sale falling through, or whether he's just being horrible to get us to hurry up. My husband works full time and Saturday was the first mortgage appointment he could get so I don't think we could really go much faster, despite what the EA seems to think.

ACG

4 weeks and you have not decided on a lender...

I dont like estate agents in the main, I dont trust them and you will very rarely see me sticking up for them. However to give you an example, I went to see someone in september last year, from seeing him to picking up the keys it was done in under 4 weeks.

That was an exception rather than the rule but 4 weeks since making an offer I would expect you to have had an application in, survey done and it being with the solicitors. At the very least up to survey stage.

I am actually surprised the EA have given you this much time.

If you dont know the answers, give them your partners number?

princeofpounds

Normally people have an agreement in principle before they even start househunting, so I do have some sympathy with the EA here. If you had made me, as a vendor, an offer without one I would not have seen it as proceedable.

Unless I have misunderstood where you are in the process?

And yes, I would have ordered the survey in the first week, but it obviously takes longer than that to get the results in.

Initially I thought the EA was just hustling you to choose their mortgage broker, but it seems you are being slow.

jjlandlord

If you haven't applied for a mortgage after 4 weeks, I can understand that the vendor and his agent are starting to lose patience.

Do you want to buy the property, or are you wasting everybody's time?


It can be useful to use a mortgage broker in cases like this: They deal with the lender and even do house calls.

Unitoons

Maybe you could check out the "Waiting to exchange" thread on here and see how frustrating it is for buyers when nothing seems to be happening.

The general consensus is to chase the estate agent who will then chase the seller - seems like your EA is trying to "encourage" you to move faster in order to keep your buyer from becoming frustrated!

Bantex_2

I would be remarketing if I was the seller. OP sounds like a tyre kicker.

Eejay

He had an agreement in principle, but he didn't realise at first that it had expired about a week before he put the offer in. He told them when he made the offer that he'd get another sorted but we have a family member who was willing to put any money in that we needed, so there was never a concern about us not being able to afford it and they were happy to accept it. We got another agreement in principle then had to wait about three weeks for the mortgage appointment (we booked it the same day and ended up going to a different town to get an appointment - it's not like we were being fussy). My husband had decided on the lender right from the start. All he needed to do was wait for the woman from the bank to call him this week and let her know whether he was going to go for a fixed rate or tracker mortgage and she'd submit the application.

I've sent a message to my husband and he replied saying that he asked the EA last time to stop calling me. Maybe if they had hassled the right person (i.e. my husband) we'd be further on by now, or he could have at least informed them of what was going on.

We are very keen to purchase the property and were hoping to get it all sorted as soon as possible - the seller wants everything done so that we can't back out before giving his tenants two months notice. I actually think we've been fairly reasonable in a lot of ways since this is likely going to be the biggest delay - the longer we hold him up, the longer we'll be held up in the end.

P.S. Thanks for the useful comment, Bantex. He is welcome to do so if he wishes - perhaps it'll be sat there for another five months.

Could somebody please clarify at what point have we been guilty of holding this up, because I genuinely don't get it? My husband received paperwork, he submitted it a day or two later. He arranged the soonest appointment for the agreement in principle, and then arranged the soonest appointment for the mortgage (even though it meant travelling). The woman at the bank told him to wait until this week before submitting the application. It's not like he's sat around and done nothing for weeks...

suziqqq

you can back out right up to exchange , you can't exchange while tenants are still in the house so at what point will the vendor be giving notice as 2 months will delay this even further

Eejay

suziqqq wrote: »

you can back out right up to exchange , you can't exchange while tenants are still in the house so at what point will the vendor be giving notice as 2 months will delay this even further

I don't know, maybe I've misunderstood his reason but I know that he won't be serving them notice until we're pretty much done - so there will be a delay either way.

jjlandlord

This is going to be a long thread...

Tell them that you'll spend money on mortgage application and survey once they confirm notice has been served on the tenant.

benjus

Eejay wrote: »

We are very keen to purchase the property and were hoping to get it all sorted as soon as possible - the seller wants everything done so that we can't back out before giving his tenants two months notice.

:eek:

This doesn't sound good - the seller wants to delay giving notice to the tenants until after exchange?!? As you've said, 2 months' notice is required, and it could take several more months to get vacant possession if the tenants aren't feeling co-operative.

I would not recommend exchanging contracts until the tenants have left the property.