estate agent being pushy re mortgage application

[confusedbumbo]

hoping someone with more experience can tell me if this is reasonable or not as I am clueless, having never done this before. DP and I have just had (on Monday) an offer accepted on a flat and have immediately started the ball rolling with our solicitor, mortgage broker etc. We had an agreement in principle from London & Country before we started searching and are now in contact with them to start our application - DP had a long phone call with our broker there yesterday. He sent through some options for us to consider and we'll be starting the application process once we've looked at them together tonight.

However our agent seems to be being massively pushy with getting this all done insanely quickly - ie he said the next step was to get the mortgage valuation survey booked in, 'probably next week' which I thought was massively unrealistic given that we haven't even applied for the mortgage yet!

I am a very quick person and I am a PA so I like to think I am both reliable and organised, and want to get this done as quickly as we can but this seems a very unrealistic time frame. Particularly given we made it very clear we couldn't actually move until mid-April at the earliest, as we can't get out of our current tenancy contract earlier than that, and can't afford more than a couple of weeks overlap at the most. The EA said the vendors were fine with that. They haven't found anywhere they want to buy yet either, and before we came on the scene they were going to take the flat off the market and put it back up again after christmas, so I can't imagine they're insanely desperate to move.

How assertive (or not) do I need to be here? What is normal? I thought the normal timeframe for applying for and being accepted for a mortgage was 2 weeks at the very quickest. I thought 4 weeks was more normal.

Any advice much appreciated!

I think you should stand firm, remind them you can't move until April and the vendor is aware and happy with that

I wouldn't be surprised if they 'announce' there's another potential buyer very soon.... Do you have direct contact with the vendor at all instead of having to deal with the EA?

sooper yes we are prepared to be gazumped or whatever....just think it's a bit pointless as I told him explicitly there was no room for negotiation with us on the completion date (we could go later as the landlord wouldn't mind this, but not earlier) and that the offer needed to be accepted based on that.

The sellers have already had one lot of buyers pull out and like I say I do know they're still looking for somewhere themselves so I don't see why it would all need to move quite so fast...

In any case I've just sent the EA quite a firm email telling him we're still looking at mortgage options, and as we're away from now until the end of this week the earlier we'll be sending off our application paperwork is next week.

Sadly no direct contact with vendor, it's all done via EA. He's quite friendly and communicative but I am worried as we are FTB he will think he can bulldoze us.

If you want the property and they have agreed to delay completion until April it is in your interest to exchange asap - and then sit back and relax.

EA job is to meet the needs of the seller - and in every case it is clearing the exchange hurdle. This is done by nudging the sales process along - EA will not let weeks drift by and then ask have you applied for your mortgage. They want key milestones in the diary asap so that the sale doesnt fall over and if it does more time is not lost on remarketing - eg mortgage applied for, survey booked, survey back, mortgage offer out .... d you know why the sale fell through before ? did something come up in the survey?

All you can do is fill out the L&C paperwork as soon as it comes in. My experience is that they are very efficient.

I assume the mortgage company, depending on which one, will suggest the valuation surveyor. Again all you can do is ask for it to be done quickly. SUsually it can be, though sometimes there is a backlog.

Be firm. You are moving as fast as you can. All things being equal you expect to meet his deadlines. His pressure is only adding to the stress of what should be a straightforward transaction.

TBH with the length of time taken for searches and mortgage offers, you could easily take five months to get this through!

anyway, completion and exchange can be a way apart, and you shouldn't give notice to your landlord until you have exchange. So I'd guess exchange by mid-March maybe, and then you set completion with a short overlap with your rental.

nothing will happen from Dec 18 to early jan anyway.

Pretty much echoing what all the above said. We're actually moving at the moment, and had I been quicker, and chased Santander, I could probably have got to the point where the mortgage valuation survey was put in place within about two and a half weeks of the initial application to port our mortgage. In practice, it took longer for all kinds of reasons, some of them my fault. My point is that I can see how that might have been achievable.

I understand why the EA is being a bit pushy, though. Everyone relaxes a bit about potential time-wasters once a mortgage valuation survey has been paid for. It's the first tangible evidence that someone's committed to the process, and if vendors had one offer fall through, they may be anxious. It may also be that the EA isn't very busy, and he's overdoing the efficiency to keep himself busy. Where the EA is correct, going by the process as I have experienced it, is in implying that the mortgage valuation survey seems to be done fairly early in the process, the next step after the mortgage has been signed off by the underwriters. As I understand it, it has to be at this point, as you can't get your mortgage offer without the mortgage valuation survey.

Exchange of contracts doesn't need to be delayed at all, and in my view if a buyer is wanting the completion to be a longer time than might otherwise be achieved then all the more reason to hurry things through to exchange as quickly as possible. The EA doesn't want to risk losing the sale and until contracts are signed that's a bigger risk in a case like yours than it would be with someone who is keen to move ASAP.

I'm just worried that once we've exchanged contracts, if we do it too quickly then they'll try to push us into an earlier completion date.

Sorry if that's a stupid thing to think, I'm finding the whole process very confusing. Being 25 weeks pregnant doesn't help!! That's another reason I don't want to move earlier aside from the fact we can't afford it - I'm already booked into my local hospital which is right round the corner, and is very good, and don't want to have to change (which I would have to do if we moved before baby gets here).

The completion date is set when you exchange - it cant be changed.

thank you! I didn't know that.