Estate Agent wants to see amount I've been approved for

Breezer

I've had an offer on a house for a while and (finally) received mortgage approval today, happy days! I forwarded the letter to the estate agent as requested but blacked out the amount, as frankly it's none of his or the seller's business in my view and the advice I've previously received is not to reveal it as it could be used to up the price if they know I've more funds available. He's insisting on seeing the amount as he needs to know I have sufficient funds available.

Surely the fact that I paid for a survey, am still following up on the house a month later, and am sending him an approval letter should be enough for him? I'm hardly going to pretend at this stage and waste everyone's time including my own.

The offer hasn't been formally accepted yet. Apparently I'm "well in the running." Supposedly there's one other interested bidder who I suspect is made up, but has already been used to pressure me to up my offer once while waiting for mortgage approval.

I'm considering saying that I'll forward the letter to my solicitor once the offer is accepted and we're at the contract signing stage, and he can share it with the seller's solicitor. Not keen on giving it to the EA or seller. What do people think?

silent_spark

I've heard of people on here getting a letter from their bank confirming that they have been approved for €x amount offered. Might be worth asking your bank to do this.

sozbox

silent_spark wrote: »

I've heard of people on here getting a letter from their bank confirming that they have been approved for €x amount offered. Might be worth asking your bank to do this.

Do this. Bank will usually be happy to email over a note stating that you are approved for funds matching the current bid amount. that's as much as the EA needs to know.

endagibson

Let me look into my crystal ball. I see your future...the price of the house will rise to meet your approved purchase amount...the rise will be driven by one or two mysterious bidders who will almost be able to pay what you can. You will get the house, but you won't get any change. :pac:

Breezer

Oh I know, believe me.

The thing is, I'm actually approved for well less than the offer, and am making up the difference in deposit. So in this scenario, even though it's none of their business, have I anything to lose by providing the information? This crowd are awkward to deal with and I'm fed up with the whole process and just want to move it along at this stage.

Ayuntamiento

I've never heard of anybody getting a survey on a property that they haven't gone sale agreed on. That could end up being 400quid down the drain. Did the agent push you to do that too? He's completely playing you. Good advice from the posters above.

sozbox

Breezer wrote: »

Oh I know, believe me.

The thing is, I'm actually approved for well less than the offer, and am making up the difference in deposit. So in this scenario, even though it's none of their business, have I anything to lose by providing the information? This crowd are awkward to deal with and I'm fed up with the whole process and just want to move it along at this stage.

Awkward or not it's in their interest to make the sale.

When I was asked the same I had the bank send an email which said "X has the funds available to him, from mortgage and his own savings, to purchase the property at the price of €xxx"

This covers your scenario and the bank shouldn't have an issue with it. None of the EAs business what your financial situation is as long as you can fund your bid. Tell him so.

Parchment

We never told any EA what amount we were approved for. We got a generic letter from our mortgage advisor that said " mrs .x and mr. x are approved for the amount sought".

ThisRegard

The EA is acting in the sellers interest, not necessarily looking to see if they can get more from you based on knowing what you're approved for. From the sellers point of view, if there's a couple of bidders in and around the same amount they may want to sell as quick as possible and go with a bidder they know is ready to go with the funds and a lower risk of the sale fallen through. I still wouldn't be giving them the exact amount though.

A2LUE42

Had a discussion with each about this when buying/selling. The Ea got this info from the bidders on the house we were selling to ensure they were genuine as there are lots of messers and idiots who bid and then apply for mortgage when bid is accepted.

CreepingDeath

Ayuntamiento wrote: »

I've never heard of anybody getting a survey on a property that they haven't gone sale agreed on. That could end up being 400quid down the drain.

+1

Not only that, it's showing that you are totally hooked on that house, ripe for pushing up the price. Not a good purchasing tactic.

I'd say you should respond that if they accept your offer, you can provide them with the mortgage approval letter and evidence of the rest of your funds.

On the other side of the coin, I can understand the vendors point of view.
The estate agent has to perform due diligence on the bidders, so that the vendors can start house hunting and putting in bids themselves. The curse of the house buying/selling chain.

So even if your offer is accepted, the vendors may not have a house lined up for themselves and will delay the purchase as much as possible until they do. So you should ask if the vendor is in a chain, or whether they're available to move out after the 6-8 weeks or so conveyancing process.

Tigger99

I was in the same situation a few months ago OP. Initially I sent it a blacked out aip but the EA insisted on a full copy. I wasn't going any higher with my offer so I made a call to send the full thing. It smoothed the way for my offer to be accepted. And another mysterious bidder did not appear

Breezer

Tigger99 wrote: »

I was in the same situation a few months ago OP. Initially I sent it a blacked out aip but the EA insisted on a full copy. I wasn't going any higher with my offer so I made a call to send the full thing. It smoothed the way for my offer to be accepted. And another mysterious bidder did not appear

Yeah I decided to just send the thing in the end. I'm not going higher and if it hurries the process up and takes the stress out of it I don't care really. I'm not going to create a load of stress for myself just on point of principle.

Hope you're enjoying your new house Tigger99!

Thanks everyone for the advice.

ted1

Breezer wrote: »

I've had an offer on a house for a while and (finally) received mortgage approval today, happy days! I forwarded the letter to the estate agent as requested but blacked out the amount, as frankly it's none of his or the seller's business in my view and the advice I've previously received is not to reveal it as it could be used to up the price if they know I've more funds available. He's insisting on seeing the amount as he needs to know I have sufficient funds available.

Surely the fact that I paid for a survey, am still following up on the house a month later, and am sending him an approval letter should be enough for him? I'm hardly going to pretend at this stage and waste everyone's time including my own.

The offer hasn't been formally accepted yet. Apparently I'm "well in the running." Supposedly there's one other interested bidder who I suspect is made up, but has already been used to pressure me to up my offer once while waiting for mortgage approval.

I'm considering saying that I'll forward the letter to my solicitor once the offer is accepted and we're at the contract signing stage, and he can share it with the seller's solicitor. Not keen on giving it to the EA or seller. What do people think?

What would you pay for a survey before you go sale agreed?

average_runner

Breezer wrote: »

I've had an offer on a house for a while and (finally) received mortgage approval today, happy days! I forwarded the letter to the estate agent as requested but blacked out the amount, as frankly it's none of his or the seller's business in my view and the advice I've previously received is not to reveal it as it could be used to up the price if they know I've more funds available. He's insisting on seeing the amount as he needs to know I have sufficient funds available.

Surely the fact that I paid for a survey, am still following up on the house a month later, and am sending him an approval letter should be enough for him? I'm hardly going to pretend at this stage and waste everyone's time including my own.

The offer hasn't been formally accepted yet. Apparently I'm "well in the running." Supposedly there's one other interested bidder who I suspect is made up, but has already been used to pressure me to up my offer once while waiting for mortgage approval.

I'm considering saying that I'll forward the letter to my solicitor once the offer is accepted and we're at the contract signing stage, and he can share it with the seller's solicitor. Not keen on giving it to the EA or seller. What do people think?

When we were selling our house, two people got into a bit of a bidding war. Anyhow we accepted the highest bid if they could prove they had mortgage approval for it. The highest bidder didn't so we went with the lower bid.

Breezer

ted1 wrote: »

What would you pay for a survey before you go sale agreed?

Two reasons really. I didn't have approval (but knew I'd get it) and wanted to show I was serious. And I was pretty sure I liked the house and wanted to make sure it wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg before I spent more time on it. I thought it was normal to do it to be honest. Oh well, live and learn, and so far so good.

Alkers

Breezer wrote:

Two reasons really. I didn't have approval (but knew I'd get it) and wanted to show I was serious. And I was pretty sure I liked the house and wanted to make sure it wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg before I spent more time on it. I thought it was normal to do it to be honest. Oh well, live and learn, and so far so good.

Normally the survey is after you go sale agreed. It really should be that the seller gets the survey for all to see

ted1

Simona1986 wrote: »

Normally the survey is after you go sale agreed. It really should be that the seller gets the survey for all to see

No it should never be the seller that does the survey.
It's up to the buyer to do their due diligence, why would you trust someone to do a survey when you buy something from that can cost hundreds if that millions of euros

makeandcreate

ted1 wrote: »

What would you pay for a survey before you go sale agreed?

I did on 2 properties I was interested in - they both required total renovation and in both cases I was glad I did - the renovation estimates ended up at 80k to 180k more than the builders estimates before survey. Better to be out a few hundred than an albatross of a house I could never afford to finish renovating.

Michael D Not Higgins

makeandcreate wrote: »

I did on 2 properties I was interested in - they both required total renovation and in both cases I was glad I did - the renovation estimates ended up at 80k to 180k more than the builders estimates before survey. Better to be out a few hundred than an albatross of a house I could never afford to finish renovating.

What ted was getting at is Sale Agreed isn't binding and nearly all buyers do the survey after going sale agreed. This allows for renegotiation on the price if there are major costs involved in rectification works.

Renovation would be another thing though. If it isn't structural in nature, then you're buying what you see. Nonetheless, you could still do this survey after going sale agreed and pull out with no penalty if the results were too cost prohibitive. It doesn't make sense to do a survey on a house which you haven't won the bidding on yet.

Parchment

ted1 wrote: »

No it should never be the seller that does the survey.
It's up to the buyer to do their due diligence, why would you trust someone to do a survey when you buy something from that can cost hundreds if that millions of euros

?? No - once you go sale agreed the prospective buyer instructs an engineer to do a survey on their behalf.

ted1

makeandcreate wrote: »

I did on 2 properties I was interested in - they both required total renovation and in both cases I was glad I did - the renovation estimates ended up at 80k to 180k more than the builders estimates before survey. Better to be out a few hundred than an albatross of a house I could never afford to finish renovating.

You go sale agreed then get the survey, if the survey reveals faults you walk away. You won't be left with alabatross.

What you did was spent a couple of hundred you may have had no chance of buying anyway.

You need to read my post, where did i say don't get one done ? It's the timing that matters.

ted1

Parchment wrote: »

?? No - once you go sale agreed the prospective buyer instructs an engineer to do a survey on their behalf.

Are you making a question or a statement?
No the seller doesn't do a survey as the poster above suggested

As I said it's the buyer that does it he survey, once they go sale agreed.