Is this normal procedure viewing houses?

[owl89]

After recently having our second child, my partner and I have decided we need to upgrade to a bigger house.
We have taken the steps to have our house valued to prepare to put on the market and we've started looking at houses.
Found a perfect house that seems to good to be true so I've booked a viewing. The estate agents have said we need to go to their office first and then we can view. I've just received an email about my meeting with a mortgage consultant at the estate agents and a list of documents to bring.

Is this normal procedure? I don't want to have to do this just to view a house. I want to view the house first and then decide whether I want to take the next steps.

I saw loads of houses during the spring. I was only asked if I was ready to proceed once.

You pack up and move out in the morning. Normally it’s goes through at midday. Otherwise you sit and wait in your car with a removal van behind you.

Also, another question because it genuinely baffles me how moving house works logistic wise. If we buy a house and sell ours, how the hell do we get our stuff out in one go? Do we get the keys to a new house and give ours up at the same time? Is there an overlap? It's giving me a headache just thinking about it. I hope that makes sense

Basically, yes. Book your removal people who should be able to advise you about logistics, pack as much as you can in advance, removal people come in on completion day and empty the house, as soon as you get told you have completed you give up your own keys and pick up the new keys and move in. Though if you want to do anything else, e.g. put stuff into storage in the meantime, of course you can.

You don't need a mortgage in principle or anything like that to view a house. Until you know that you might like a house, there's no reason to do much about thinking about buying (and selling your current house).

The agents are trying it on. Sellers don't want hundreds of people coming round just for something to do (or because they are nosey neighbours) but they can't push that too far else no-one would view and nothing would sell!

On moving day you pack your van and there can be a lot of waiting around. The time you get your keys depends on where you are in the chain. We moved a week ago and we didn’t complete until 5pm but our buyer completed around 3.

Such stupid attitudes by Agents sometimes. Although they have to go with what the seller wants, if someone has their house for sale and hasn't yet sold, chances are it could sell even that week and they would come back to you. Very short sighted.

I used to work for a solicitor and sometimes helped out in the EA office. I would always encourage people to view and would also suggest other properties they perhaps hadn't considered. After all, your job is to sell the property fgs. I used to see so many lazy, disinterested staff who would just ignore customers coming through the door.

My dd and her colleague were asked by a friend to pose as viewers when their lovely house had failed to sell. The owner of the EA office carried out the viewing and they posed as a same sex couple who were fostering. They said she was absolutely hopeless beyond words, didnt know anything about the property and incredibly snobby with them. She kept hinting about who the owner was. He was a television personality, who was friends with my dd's colleague. They already knew who he was because he asked them.

Op, your plan is a good one. They are just trying to get you to use their mortgage advisor.

You do not need to give them confidential documentation to view a house. If you make an offer then you should provide proof of funds.

Explain to them you only wish to view. If you proceed to offer you will provide proof of funds, you have your mortgage sorted. And ask them to give you dates to view.

As for moving. You pack up in advance. You then have a date to complete, it's usually about 1 o clock on moving/completion day. You need to be out and keys with the agents by then.

You then collect the keys from the next agents for the new house and proceed to move your stuff in.

I don't think it's wrong for an estate agent to check that the buyers are serious.

No vendor wants a stream of cheeky fuckers having a nosey around a house they either have no intention of buying, or can't afford. So it's absolutely right for them to ask for financial information. Arranging an appointment with a mortgage advisor is a step too far though.

I might just email them back and say we are using our own mortgage advisor but that we can offer them a mortgage in principle and see what they say

Good idea, but if you want to offer on a house this agent's selling, you might consider telling the vendors themselves that you're doing so

It wouldn't be the first time an agent's prioritised only those buyers who'll sign up to "their" additional services ...

Or you can take the lower stress (but admittedly more expensive) route of moving out the day before completion, getting the removers to keep your stuff for a night or two, going to an AirBnB and moving in after completion the next day or day after.

In past completions I have experienced 1. my stuff was slower to pack than the movers thought and we had some very cross buyers and their movers jumping up and down and breathing down our necks and 2.
completion was delayed because someone in the chain's funding was called in by the receiving bank for a random security check and we did not complete until late afternoon so no-one was actually able to move in on the day of completion (that was very tense for the other people in the chain because of course their removal firms had other bookings the next day - no idea what they did in the end).

I think most completions go more smoothly though!

If we buy a house and sell ours, how the hell do we get our stuff out in one go? Do we get the keys to a new house and give ours up at the same time? Is there an overlap?

no overlap. The contract usually stipulates what time you need to be out of your house (usually between 12 and 2). You need to have packed, loaded the removal van, cleaned and taken final meter readings by that point. Once your sale has completed you are not entitled to remain in the property and you can be liable for costs incurred should you cause our buyers to be delayed.

What this means in reality is that once you are pretty certain the sale is going through you start decluttering and packing boxes. The night before the moving day you essentially camp in your house and live out of a suitcase and have takeaway for tea!

When you get the keys will depend on when your vendors solicitor receives your money. Once they have the house is legally yours and you can enter (even without keys). There can be several hours between you moving out and being able to empty the van in to the new house.

Our estate agent checked that people were ready to.proceed before arranging viewings. This involved seeing a mortgage offer in principal and documentation to.proce they had a deposit in place. No time wasters.

Well, we're just finalising our completion date on our new house. We have had ideas of moving, but within very small parameters - a very small search area, and quite specific needs within that area. We'd only seen 3 houses in 2 years, only 1 of which we offered on, and hadn't listed ours yet, as we were not moving unless the right house was available.

We saw the new house and were first to view (thank goodness EA allowed us to view judging by comments upthread), put an offer in next day (asking them to take off market, which they wouldn't as we weren't on the market yet, fair enough). Put ours on the market the following week, and had 2 over-asking price offers within 2 days, so we became proceedable very very quickly.

I guess it depends on the market, and nobody likes a timewaster. We were always very upfront with EAs that we were only moving for the right house, we weren't looking at very many, and in all cases knew of the house before it came to the market anyway (as our village is small, we know all the houses). Maybe that made a difference?

I used to work for Connells Estate Agents a few years ago and we were heavily targeted to get customers to see the mortgage adviser so they could win the business. They obviously can not make you do this and they can't stop you from seeing the house. They used to offer incentives like being placed on a 'premium buyers list' ect which was all a load of rubbish as there are strict laws about favouring buyers.

Nah they’re just trying to sell you mortgage services from their financial advisors. Tell them you don’t need their services and if they won’t let you view the house you’ll
Put a note through the vendors door telling them that

Tell them you’re a cash buyer. Why should they see your private documents?

EA's will want to check you can afford the property before viewing, this is to save them and the vendor time. A lot of the time they will sell this to the vendor, that they will check all buyers can afford the property before viewing it, and that is how they may get them signed up. But it's also true, and if I were to sell my house I would want a guarantee that the person viewing did have a mortgage agreed in principle.

But they are also trying to get you to commit to using their mortgage advisor. You do not need to see theirs, but once you do and have spent 30-60 mins with them, you're more likely to not bother going elsewhere. You do not need to do this, but you should get a mortgage agreed in principle to show them/any other EA's so you don't have to go through it each time.
If you are a cash buyer you can just say this, it's not for you to prove it, but they also may call other buyers first if you can't confirm your buying status.

As an ex-EA (eeek!), although 15+ years ago, we were targeted to get a certain number of people per month to see the mortgage advisor, and would be paid commission if we did this. I believe it was 15 people/couples per month, so there is definitely a reason they are wanting you to do this!

Mortgage in principal... To view a house? What bullshit! Do they actually want to sell a house or what? Why put a prospective buyer off like that and make it hard to sell their clients house. Unbelievable! I'd tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine.

You could probably get a Mortgage in Principle if you used your own bank or someone like London and County within the next couple of days.

Tell them you’re a cash buyer. Why should they see your private documents?

At some point they'll need to as they are selling house which is a huge financial transaction. As well as the solicitors, EAs have an obligation under Anti Money Laundering laws.

But like everyone else has said, no need at all to use their Mortgage advisor at this stage. Their rules on who they let view are their rules though and the vendor signed up to them.

EAs don't have a great reputation and it seems OP has run into a particularly dodgy one.

I can see why they'd want to see an agreement in principle. When I was viewing one vendor wouldn't allow viewers who didn't have an offer on their own place. Seemed short sighted as if I'd loved it and wanted to buy I'd have done everything I could to get an offer - reducing price if necessary etc. I could've got an offer the next day etc so I think that was shortsighted. A good agent should be able to tell who's in a generally good position - there are some out there! - but often they are not very competent in the soft skills required.

If we buy a house and sell ours, how the hell do we get our stuff out in one go?
With difficulty, with stress and a big lorry (a temporary storage unit for a few weeks can take some of the pain out of it)

Do we get the keys to a new house and give ours up at the same time?
Yes. We had to give ours up on the day of the move before the money went through. This meant we were sat around for several hours waiting for it all to go through and were effectively 'homeless' during this time.

Is there an overlap?
No. Not generally. If you are very lucky you might get a buyer or a seller who will give you keys early/let you stay a little late but this is highly unusual and not something a solictor would recommends for their clients own protection, as much as that sucks for you.

Its really fun and games and it will make you swear "I'm never doing this ever again" at least once before you get through it all.

We got told when selling and buying a new house we could view anything till - ours had sold (had offer accepted) and we had a decision in principle!

We had that when selling our first house - thing was it was a 200 + mile move and when we did get a buyer it was a fast sale - pressure from their buyers - or it wouldn't happen.

So we got offer and worked on getting second viewings with us all. So if DH hadn't been able to do first veiwing while he was down in new area prior to offer then there wasn't time to consider that house.

Several of the houses which had denied us viewings were still on for sale months after we'd moved in new house.

Other side I did get fed up with time wasters trying to sell our house - people who clearly weren't serious or hadn't even decieded on the area.

I am in the process of selling my house and it has been sold subject to contract twice and fallen through and has just sold subject to contract once again. So it has been up for sale for over a year now, although for much of that time not actively selling due to above.

The very first people to view hadn't sold theirs and it wasn't up for sale. They put in a low offer and wanted me to take it off the market before they would even consider putting theirs on the market. They got told where to go.

After that I was wary of allowing people to view who hadn't given some evidence that they were serious about moving.

The people that have just bought it hadn't got their house up for sale but already had the EA booked to go and value (and booked a company to come and do a deep clean before photos and viewing so it was obvious they were serious. They made an offer straight away which I accepted in principle but said I wasn't cancelling already booked viewings and that I wouldn't take mine off the market until theirs had sold. Luckily theirs sold very quickly and we are now in a short chain of 4 with all properties sold STC. So hopefully this will all go smoothly this time.

Don't offer them a MIP - they usually state how much you are good for and I wouldn't want the EA to know how much I could afford because it might not be what I'd offer for a particular house. You get a MIP/AIP when you're offer has been accepted based on the agreed figure then do a full mortgage application.

In response to a pp - no, a prospective buyer does not have to go through the AML process in order to view as they are not the EA's client. The seller is the EA's client.

The EA will have targets, including for referrals to the in-house mortgage adviser. That doesn't mean you have to meet with them though. They won't want to lose a viewing so just, as advised already, say you have a broker you are using, etc and you'd like to view on x day.