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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Aibu to expect an estate agent to sell a house rather than a mortgage broker?

25 replies

Rainer · 01/10/2018 18:48

Long story short.

It has been suggested to us that a rejected offer might be reconsidered if we used a major high Street agents own mortgage broker.

The idea being that we would come with financial verification and that they may then take our offer more seriously.

Surely this is just them pressuring us to use their broker for a commission?

And how ethnically will they take our information - if we could afford more than we offer then how would we know this information wouldn't be shared and used to push us to pay more?

OP posts:

MissMudskipper · 01/10/2018 18:59

I'm Am estate agent (please don't hold this against me!) and what they are asking you to do is what is termed as conditional selling. They can get in a huge amount of trouble for that from the Property Omdusman.

Original poster

Rainer · 01/10/2018 19:09

So if I say that phrase to them they may well back off? Without obviously threatening the ombudsman!

OP posts:

lifecouldbeadream · 01/10/2018 19:14

I’d shove a note through the sellers door....

MissMudskipper · 01/10/2018 19:17

I'd definitely say to them that it sounds like conditional selling and that's not something you are happy with.

As long as you have seen a broker and have an Agreement in Principle (where you have sat down with someone and gone through all your ingoings/outgoings - not just an online calculator or quick sit down with the Bank then that is as good as the person offering through the broker.

Stick to your guns they are bang out of order for doing that.

Original poster

Rainer · 01/10/2018 19:19

We have an agreement in principle - but done via HSBC online. We have been cautious with our calcs though.

OP posts:

donquixotedelamancha · 01/10/2018 19:26

Surely this is just them pressuring us to use their broker for a commission?

Yes, it is. An AiP from HSBC is fine. What they are doing is unlawful.

Explain to them that you have made an offer which must, by law, be passed on to the seller. If you have reason to doubt they passed the offer on, then I think a note through the seller's door is a good suggestion. If the seller has rejected your offer, then changing mortgage company will make no difference.

Under no circumstances have anything to do with such a dodgy mortgage broker. As PP, I would recommend complaining to the property ombudsman either way.

LookAtMeLookAtMoy · 01/10/2018 19:31

Is it the Sequence Group? Our vendors used them and they were a nightmare.

MissMudskipper · 01/10/2018 19:32

I'm going to sound all estate agenty now but the agency I work with the mortgage advisor actually get a better rates with HSBC than going direct because the company (It's a large national) gives them so much work.

It might be worth seeing their mortgage advisor as long as it's a free appointment (there will be fees if you take anything out with them) to see what they can do for you.

But again that's up to you. At the end of the day they can't tell you it will look more favourable you using them as again that's conditional selling which they can get fined if caught doing.

Maybe ask them to put what they've said in writing and that will scare them off!!

greenlynx · 01/10/2018 19:38

Do you want to buy a house they are selling?

greenlynx · 01/10/2018 19:38

Also is it a popular area?

Original poster

Rainer · 01/10/2018 20:11

@LookAtMeLookAtMoy

Just googled - yes it is.

@greenlynx - it is in a nice enough area, several houses on the same estate have spent a long time (months) on. I think they are overpriced.

OP posts:

Original poster

Rainer · 01/10/2018 20:12

And yes we do want to buy the house!

OP posts:

StartingGrid · 01/10/2018 20:18

@MissMudskipper the agent doesn't give a fig about the rate the OP will pay though, and isn't even trying to "sell" the service in that way, they're literally holding the offer to ransom and not only is it unlawful it's also potentially a waste of the OP's time. I'd want to give as little business/commission as possible to such a lazy, sneaky EA.

MissMudskipper · 01/10/2018 20:23

@StartingGrid fully agree with everything you said. Just because I'm an estate agent don't tar me with the same brush.....some of us actually care....maybe it's because I've not been doing it for long!

greenlynx · 01/10/2018 20:31

We are house hunting for a while at the popular area. We had agreement in principle like yours and also got an advice to see their own mortgage advisor in one agency. I decided not to and then we lost at best and final so with the next house I've booked their morgage advisor even before viewing a house. We didn't like the house but to be honest an advisor showed us a few better deals than we could find online so probably it's not so useless.
I didn't understand actually how seeing an advisor will change your situation ? Do they push you to increase your offer?

in our case it was mentioned that they prefered a buyer whose funds were checked by their mortgage advisor.

StartingGrid · 01/10/2018 20:32

Im an ex-EA myself so no judgement on my part

greenlynx · 01/10/2018 20:41

And of course they will use these information to push you more but it’s always up to you to resist. The problem is that if it’s a popular area with not enough houses there is nothing you can do against estate agents. I also saw quite a few houses were taken off the market rather then to accept less than asking price.

Dreamingofkfc · 01/10/2018 20:42

Our estate agent tried this, wouldn't confirm that our offer had been accepted until we had a meeting with them about our finances....we'd gone to a high street bank and the guy was amazing so we didn't want to not go with him. He warned us about them trying this and said for us to give his details and he would confirm we had a mortgage and they would have to leave us alone.

FullOfJellyBeans · 01/10/2018 20:45

Wait so you had a mortgage agreed but they wanted you to go through their broker?

Original poster

Rainer · 01/10/2018 20:47

Greenland - that's the agent feeding you a line. They get commission every time you see a broker - the broker may well then share your financial position to the agent and so your negotiating position is undermined.

They suggested to me that I either see their broker to get our finances verified and the vendor may reconsider my existing offer or offer a higher amount.

I don't believe a vendor is suddenly going to accept an offer previously deemed too low just because I see a broker.

OP posts:

user1471426142 · 01/10/2018 20:54

We had this with a new build we were looking at. They wouldn’t accept offers unless we went through their mortgage broker. We had the conversation and they just said they couldn’t beat the deal we already had. We didn’t make an offer in the end but it was pretty irritating all the same.

greenlynx · 01/10/2018 20:58

Yes, of course, I understand all of these, but would it be my dream house I would see even 3 of theirs mortgage advisors to please them. (I wouldn’t change my offer though but it’s a different matter.)

Tropaz11 · 01/10/2018 21:00

Happened to me with Sequence and Manning Stainton. Got a better rate going through an independent (and free!) broker.

LookAtMeLookAtMoy · 02/10/2018 10:30

I'm guessing that next they'll push you to use their conveyancers too.

Original poster

Rainer · 02/10/2018 12:42

We already have ours in place as we have sold so they are bang out of luck there.

It's really made us have second thoughts about buying the house. They were terrible when we brought here 12 yrs ago so we were already reticent and now dh especially has got serious misgivings.

OP posts:

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