How long can it take to book a valuation?

[Honey1975]

We agreed sales & purchases almost 4 weeks ago. In that time we've had our valuation & buildings survey booked in and carried out, mortgage offer received. All sale & purchase paperwork done & sent to solicitor.

Our first time buyers still haven't even booked a date for a valuation on our property. When we spoke to EA the other day he said they hadn't decided on a lender yet. Surely you would do that before agreeing to buy somewhere? We're getting a bit fed up that we've achieved alot in 4 weeks but they seem to have achieved very little & don't even have a house to sell! How long can it take to actually book in a valuation?!

I guess they won't get a valuation until they have a mortgage offer ?

Sometimes it's not a matter if choosing a lender but finding a lender if that makes sense...

And different lenders want different levels of information for mortgage offer, guess that can take time?

Sorry also A valuation will not be booked until a mortgage is secured with the lender

Four weeks seems a really long time. I'd be concerned they aren't progressing quicker. Could there be issues with them getting a mortgage? As others have said they won't get a valuation until the mortgage application is well underway. I'd probably be starting to apply the pressure a bit for them to get a move on.

We just don't know what is going on. We phoned the EA for an update on Monday and now it's Friday and we've heard nothing. We just want to know how they're getting on but no-one seems to know!

Our EA said they check that a buyer has a mortgage agreed at the offer stage so why would they not be able to get one now 4 weeks down the line?!

I guess we'd better get back on the phone to the EA today, it's starting to become irritating. It just seems rude that they won't let us know what's happening.

HSBC messed around for 2 weeks with my mortgage application, with my mortgage adviser being on leave, not taking copies of all our documents etc and then took 2 weeks after agreeing the mortgage to do the valuation. And I was chasing them every step of the way.

We had this and it turned out she'd changed her mind but didn't want to upset people in the chain so said nothing. Hopefully not the case you you. The whole process is horrible. Good luck.

Having been messed around horribly by our first buyer who then demanded a huge amount of money off last minute at the exchange of contracts, I would be tempted to give them a deadline for progress or the house is going back on the market. It doesn't sound like they are very invested in the purchase.

Our mortgage company agreed in advance but needed to do the full checks before giving us a mortgage offer and scheduling the survey. We had lived in the US and had no credit cards. It took weeks to figure out what they needed to understand about us - and once they received copies of 5 years of US tax returns they pulled their finger out. But our seller was, understandably, getting nervous and threatened to remarket.

It's hard to understand the inner thoughts of mortgage companies.