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Original poster

Is this normal for an Estate Agent?

26 replies

Hamishandthefoxes · 18/09/2015 16:28

asking for my DB Smile

DB and his wife are trying to buy a house at the moment as FTBs. They have. Mortgage agreed in principle with proof etc but it's tricky as DB is s junior Dr on s short contract do limitations on lenders etc.

One national chain of EAs will not allow them to look at any of the houses or flats in their price range until they've had an interview with their financial advisor. These interviews can only take place between 9 and 5.30 Monday to Friday so can't be done unless shifts work out okay.

Is this normal practice?

OP posts:
wickedwaterwitch · 18/09/2015 16:30

Don't use that agent, no, it's not normal practice IME

wickedwaterwitch · 18/09/2015 16:30

Or, be firm and say "no thank you we don't require advice but we do want to view x house"

WhoTheFIsJeff · 18/09/2015 16:30

No.

Original poster
Hamishandthefoxes · 18/09/2015 16:34

Thank you and sorry for typos. Glad to know - it seemed weird but I haven't done this for ages so thought I might just be out of date!

OP posts:
snowgirl1 · 18/09/2015 16:36

I would never ever have an appointment with an estate agent's financial advisor after an estate agent we were selling through once said "we know how much the buyer earns, so we know she can afford to offer more than that" about someone who made an offer on my property!

BovrilonToast · 18/09/2015 16:53

I'd tell them to fuck off and then knock on the door of the house I wanted to see and tell then what the agent they are paying is doing. Angry

Original poster
Hamishandthefoxes · 18/09/2015 16:57

Ah, well apparently there aren't any houses available until they've seen the MA. The fact that there are at least 10 on rightmove and more in the local property paper didn't matter they'd all gone but it hasn't been updated Hmm

OP posts:
Sallyhasleftthebuilding · 18/09/2015 17:01

I would report them. And yes pop a note through a few doors of properties on the market. Sod. Out them here!

BovrilonToast · 18/09/2015 17:07

Definitely report them fuckers

FruSirkaOla · 18/09/2015 18:34

I bet it's Haart?

Your DB and SIL should tell 'em to FO.

Shakey15000 · 18/09/2015 18:38

If the financial advisors are Cuntrywide then I'd run a mile. Worse than useless.

colley · 18/09/2015 18:39

Halifax did this to us.

Original poster
Hamishandthefoxes · 18/09/2015 18:41

Wow - it sounds quite widespread. Bastards. It's chancellors in this case. I'll tell them to report...

OP posts:
FruSirkaOla · 18/09/2015 18:42

at "Cuntrywide", Shakey, Grin

DontDrinkandFacebook · 18/09/2015 18:48

That is outrageous, and no not normal or acceptable. They may want to see some proof that you are in a position to afford a house before they show you it, maybe they'll ask to see evidence that you have an agreement in principle or something but they simply cannot insist that you agree to see their financial advisor so he can try to get business out of you.

If I were the vendor who had placed my house with them to sell I would be absolutely furious.

DontDrinkandFacebook · 18/09/2015 18:52

In fact you should name and shame on this thread. It might make people think twice about placing property on their books.

FruSirkaOla · 18/09/2015 18:57

The OP has named-&-shamed : Chancellors

Original poster
Hamishandthefoxes · 18/09/2015 19:17

Thank you all. That's what I'd thought but wondered if I was just getting old and that's how it's done nowadays. I'll tell DB or DSIL more to the point to complain!

OP posts:
PDQProperty · 19/09/2015 07:03

This practice is unlawful. Please take a few minutes to report the firm to trading standards and, or, The Property Ombudsman Scheme. Agents have an obligation under Property Ombudsman rules to make reasonable checks on a buyers ability to finance a purchase but a buyer is under no obligation to provide this information.

Andcake · 19/09/2015 07:19

We had a similar situation we viewed a place wanted to put an offer in but even though ea had seen my offer in principle etc they wouldn't put my offer forward until I had taken their financial advisor chap through it- delayed things and we knew other people were viewing the property. V stressful - that was Mann who are part of countrywide...

TheCrowFromBelow · 19/09/2015 07:26

Please report to Trading Standards.
They are not allowed to do this. More and more agents are trying this to meet referral targets and it is wrong.

It's poor practice to advertise properties for sale if they are not available, again trading standards would be interested.

DontDrinkandFacebook · 19/09/2015 09:12

I can understand why they might want the FA to 'go through' your mortgage offer to make sure it's legit, but that quite honestly takes two minutes and the apparent need to to do that is probably just an excuse. What they really want is the option to try to better it/match it to get the business off you. They really have no right to demand that you let them do this. An mortgage offer is a mortgage offer.

Alonglongway · 19/09/2015 10:27

I'm buying and selling at the moment.

On your point about Rightmove - I am find there are circumstances when the EA will leave the property showing as available because an offer is not fully secure for some reason. This just happened in my sale and when the buyer withdrew it was very helpful that there were a bunch of Rightmove enquiries for the EA to move straight onto

I also just saw an instance where the estate agent reopened a house on Rightmove in order to put a slow buyer under pressure to get on with things

But yes I've also seen some where they keep it up to date - not sure if that's capacity issue or more about keeping up their RIghtmove presence

DontDrinkandFacebook · 19/09/2015 11:09

But they also leave houses on that are well under way with their sale, just because they want to generate enquiries that may lead to sales elsewhere, and to keep their profile raised and make it look like they have a larger share of the market than they currently do when their available stocks are low. That pisses me off - it wastes so much time phoning round after houses that aren't available. If a house is under offer they should be obliged to say so on the ad, even if they don't remove it until completion.

RingDownRingUp · 19/09/2015 12:09

Not normal.

If I were them I'd put notes through the doors of any houses that they were seriously interested in so that the vendor knows.