Estate Agent & their Mortgage Advisor

Pebbles220619

Hi all,
I haven’t posted here before so sorry for errors. I tried to book an appointment to view a house today. All seemed straightforward initially. Agent took my details, explained COVID viewing rules and then said the vendor had asked them to verify people’s financial position before they had a viewing. I didn’t have a problem with this and it seems sensible to cut out speculative viewings during the current times. The agent said I would HAVE to have an appointment with their own mortgage advisor before they could confirm the booking. I have a mortgage in principle with my current provider so I asked if I could send that as evidence. To me it’s as good as anything their advisor would do and it seemed like a waste of time for them to just replicate something that’s already been done. The agent told me that they weren’t prepared to accept my mortgage in principle as evidence and I would have to have a meeting with their own mortgage advisor to discuss my financial situation before they were prepared to discuss a viewing with the seller.

Something about this seems off to me. Is this normal practice? 

I told the agent that I wasn’t sure that this was correct, I said it all seemed a odd and I reiterated that I was more than happy to provide my mortgage in principle to prove I wasn’t a time waster. Again they said they wouldn’t accept it and started trying to book an appointment with their mortgage advisor. I then said that I was going to speak to the other agent the property is listed with to see if their policy is the same and confirm that they also wouldn’t accept my mortgage in principle. By now I was very annoyed and the whole situation had become about the principle of my mortgage in principle not being good enough. They then majorly backtracked and said that as I seemed to feel so strongly about the subject they would accept my document on this occasion. Why is it suddenly ok to accept it now when it wasn’t before? Am I right to find this all a bit suspicious? I just feel like they’re already going to get commission from the sale whenever that takes place and they’re trying to further increase their profits by implying people have to speak to their mortgage advisor first “just to check your status” but that will actually involve hounding and a hard sell.

steampowered

Unfortunately, it is legal for agents to take commission from mortgage brokers for referrals. The agent just wants the commission. It's a shame they are more interested in trying to scrimp a few quid from a referral fee than doing the job the seller is paying them to do.

I would go straight to the other agent.

As you suspect, there is no good reason for the agent to refuse to accept your "mortgage in principle". Seeing their mortgage adviser would be a total waste of time. Their mortgage adviser wouldn't do any due diligence on your income or savings anyway - the bank will do that.

Marvel1

Go with the other agent, they had their chance.

kingstreet

House sale commission
Mortgage sale commission
Insurance sale commission
Survey referral fee
Legal referral fee
Your typical national EA is trying to milk every drop from every sale/purchase.

princeofpounds

It's normal practice for EAs to 'qualify' buyers' basic ability to proceed on a transaction. That's a duty they have to their vendor.

It's not normal practice to convert that into a rock-hard sales pitch into the mortgage advisor. Yes, they can and should ask for your AIP. Yes, they can ask you to send it to the mortgage advisor, or any other relevant staff member. But requiring a full appointment and all the disclosure that goes with it to book a viewing, that's not normal.

There's always a risk that using a gossipy MA compromises your negotiating position with an EA, but the prime motivation is going to be commission - on a lower value house sale, the commission for the mortgage can be almost as large as the profit from the house sale itself, after you take the time investment of the EA into account.

I agree, use the other agent (if they don't play the same game). They won't learn unless there is pushback.