Offer first, mortgage second?

[MrsWhirly]

I spoke to my current lender today who gave me some figures about borrowing more to move.

However, they have said they will not run the proper checks and make an actual mortgage offer until we have had an offer on a property accepted.

It seems strange that I would make an offer not knowing 100% I have the money I need from them?!

Is this normal for a big name high street bank?

We also have the name of a broker as a plan b, but will they do the same?

I am confused.com

As far as I know an offer won’t be considered unless you have an agreement in principle.

A mortgage offer is an offer to lend on a particular property. They do a valuation of the property etc beforehand. So no you can't get an offer without having an offer accepted on a property.

A decision in principle will be an agreement to lend a particular amount subject to the usual underwriting checks and valuation (and after a credit score.) That's what you need.

Ahh, so the decision in principle being the figure they gave me - based on what I told them about our earnings - without full credit checks etc.

Agree with PP. They can't make an official offer without an offer price, you can't even at this stage say x is the exact amount you are paying, however a MIP is a rough guide on the approx value you want to spend and what & how they will lend and although it is not a formal offer it is assurance to any perspective seller that you are financially capable to commence the process.

I would definitely go and speak to a broker to see what deals are available to you. You do not know if your current lender is the best lender in your current situation and it may give you leverage if you go bk to your current lender.

You need an agreement/decision in principle first, once we or have this you can offer on houses. It's possible that when you actually apply for the mortgage offer against a particular property that they may offer to lend less than is on the AIP, although I think it's unusual. It happened to us with the ur current lender, they told us they could only give us £10k less than on the AIP (despite the fact that the payments would be lower than we're currently making, their affordability checks determined we were too big a risk). It was a deal breaker for us so we had to start the process again with a broker, it ended up taking us 10 weeks to get a mortgage offer.