Shared Ownership + Mortgages

Lillys_mum

Hi, can someone please give me some advice.

We are looking at buying a shared ownership property and phoned the estate agents to arrange a viewing of the property. They told me first we would need to have a meeting with their mortgage advisor ( bring in payslips P60 etc) I am now a little confused. Ithought they were just an estate agent?

Do we have to have a mortgage with them or can we look for our own one?

I just found it a little strange that we cant even view the property without speaking to their mortgage advisor.

Anyone have any ideas or opinions.

Many Thanks
Hazel

weston_2

Just had exactly the same thing from Foxtons.

I rand them up and asked to view a property that I had seen on the site.

He then told me that the property was 30% shared ownership, a fact conviently left off the property advert. He also told me that if was under offer, another fact left off the site.

Then he asked if I had a mortgage and went on and on about their mortgage advisers and asking if I want to be put through, I said "no I know a good mortgage adviser", he said would only take a minute, I said no again and he said "Thanks for the call" and hung up on me! If you can belive that. I still had questions for him, but he had no interest in dealing with me if I had no mortgage and did not want to talk to adviser.

They get money from selling mortgages and sometimes (estate agents in general, I'm not accusing Foxtons of this), they also talk to the mortgage guys to see how much you can afford. So the push you to take properties that are above what you want to spend, but what they know you can spend.

My advise, get a mortgage underway first, then when they ask do you have a mortgage, you can say yes, and get on with just looking at properties. See Martins tips on mortgages.

Good luck.

terese

If the estate agent is selling on behalf of the housing association they might need to assess your suitability for the property such as, income, status etc.


If you directly to the HA they will do the same thing.

Mine was the other way around, I did the viewing first and then the assessment

homer_j_3

When will people understand the role of the EA correctly? I see a lot of moaning going on about EA mortgage advisers and the way EA's operate with the pressure to see their adviser.

Where a shared ownership property is involved there will be some form of formal assessment to get onto the scheme. They were probably going to ensure it was worth your while applying, you would be able to borrow enough to get the property and then help you move towards getting the property that you wanted.

Where it is a normal sale (if there is such a thing) the EA has a responsibility to the seller of that property to ensure that the prospective buyer can proceed and is likely to be able to complete the transaction. The only way an EA can really do this is via site of proof of cash, an agreeement in principal (AIP) or by seeing the in house mortgage adviser to be qualified.

Where an AIP is given, there are usually 2 types the EA will get - A "mortgage promise certificate" from the adviser dealing with no details of mortgage lender or one direct from the lender. As I am sure you will appreciate the lender one should be good enough for qualification but the advisers own could have been typed up by anyone and that will often result in a good agent wanting more information.

Yes it does give them an opportunity for making a bit more money but ultimately, it is so they can ensure they are not sued for negligence for not fully checking the financial status of the buyer before advising them to take the property off the market and potentially miss several genuine and capable buyers.

The only way an EA can do that properly is by going through the details with the buyer to sense check that the information will allow that person to buy the property. It will also give them an opportunity to see if they can beat the deal but its down to the client to understand that they will not lose the house by not going with them, as much as it may be implied by some of the less scrupolous advisers out there.

Anyway, apologies for my rant but it annoys me that EA advisers get a tough time and the EA when the main aim of qualifying a buyer is to ensure they dont get sued for not abiding to the rules in which governs them. Its almost like me saying, "its alright, I will trust you that you can afford to repay a 500k mortgage" without even checking that the person has an income.