Why are estate agents asking mortgage brokers questions?

teachfast

Seems to crop up a lot. Post a note through the door of the house telling them what has happened and you have a DIP. The estate agent will get short thrift from the homeowners I expect. 

steampowered

When you use an EA's relationship mortgage broker, the EA gets paid a referral fee. 

This has everything to do with the EA getting a referral fee. Nothing to do with vetting you as a qualified buyer. 

lookstraightahead

Also if you tell them you can go over they will try to negotiate upwards.
The fact that anyone can time waste prior to exchange makes it all a bit of a nonsense, except that a) they want more money and b) they want a referral fee.
I've walked away from viewings based on this. 

lookstraightahead

DIPs are also nonsense to be honest, anyone can get one in 5 mins.
DIPs can actually be the biggest time waster of all.

seradane

When we were looking, our Mortgage Broker (through which we'd gotten the DIP, but hadn't yet given full financial records to) actually said to us, look, if any estate agents want to know your financial situation, just give them my number and I'll assure them that you are fine.

So maybe have a chat with your broker, see if they'd be willing to help and give the agent some assurances?

In our case it wasn't needed as the estate agents were fine (and in fact the house we bought, the agent didn't even ask for proof of deposit funds when we made an offer, because in her words "Well, just because it's there one day doesn't mean it will be the next day so there's not much point asking really.")

Wes121708

Our EA wanted to see dip and deposit but and we thought that they wanted to see our 10% deposit but it turned out that they only wanted to see the difference between our dip and the amount we offered. We thought we were going to have to wait until a work bonus was in our account but we had the difference without it. So dip showed 270k offer was 285k so we only had to evidence of 15k. 

csgohan4

I had a broker at the time and I simply gave them their details to confirm my affordability. Showing them your hand prior to  negotiating is not great for the buyer

KK90

csgohan4 said:

I had a broker at the time and I simply gave them their details to confirm my affordability. Showing them your hand prior to  negotiating is not great for the buyer

I’m not too worried about them seeing our MIP, as my husband is very stubborn- if we/he thinks it only worth a certain amount to us- he won’t go any further 🤦🏻‍♀️ Some times it works in our favour, sometimes it doesn’t 🤦🏻‍♀️

AnotherJoe

csgohan4 said:

I had a broker at the time and I simply gave them their details to confirm my affordability. Showing them your hand prior to  negotiating is not great for the buyer

I was looking at houses between £550k and £750k cash* , didn't mean i ended up paying full AP on the £650k house i bought or would have paid full AP on any under £750k.

If your only excuse for not going higher is "i cant afford more" that could put you in a difficult position vs other buyers, plus  knowing you can pay more when you are getting a mortgage gives more assurance you can swallow a down valuation  from the lender.

* inc equity from my sale

newbuildbudget

Most EAs we spoke to before buying asked about our affordability. Our broker said it was more and more common due to the market and covid, but all EAs were happy with us showing our MIP. They can only show a smaller number the house so don’t want time wasters and those who are able to proceed should they make an offer.