UGH!! Feel like we are going round in circles with our buyer

[Bleambx]

Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Already had enough of the process and we're not even really over the first hurdle!

Accepted an offer on our home 8 weeks ago. Buyer mortgage declined 4 weeks ago due to bad credit. EA really cagey about the whole thing but offers buyer their in-house broker - we're told it'll be sorted in a week or so.

Each week has gone by, 'broker is busy' or 'we just need a few more days' and suddenly a month has passed and they still haven't submitted a new application. Told yesterday an application would be submitted latest this morning but yet no application submitted.

All in the middle of this, our onward purchase refuse to take the house off the market and we expect to be gazumped any minute. We haven't applied for our mortgage, searches etc yet as no idea if we even have a buyer!

Tbh we're absolutely kicking ourselves for not remarketing from day 1 but we wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. EA advised us to not remarket and 'they'll come good'. Booked another valuation with a different EA for Friday to get the process moving again.

Please tell me it gets easier than this!

As soon as a buyer had a mortgage refused for bad credit, I’d have told them no thanks. Cut your losses and remarket ASAP.

Your EA doesn't seem to be acting in your best interests.

I would tell them to put it back on the market immediately

I know. Totally kicking ourselves tbh. EA said it's because they went with 'an inexperienced broker' but seems just like they can't get a mortgage.

Remarketing today!

Just put your house back on the market. It doesn't need to be this difficult but it won't get any easier with these buyers.

Do what your sellers are doing:

Keep viewings open etc until your ‘buyers’ are actually able to demonstrate that they can buy!

Tell them their offer stays on the table which currently means they are first in the queue but if a proceedable buyer makes an offer first they will lose that place.

This. There are better buyers out there. It does not need to be this complicated.

Our buyers, using a broker, had their mortgage approved within a week of us accepting their offer.

Our mortgage, no broker, direct to the lender, was approved same day of application.

Remarket it immediately. If a mortgage gets refused for bad credit but EA keeps saying its fine - makes me wonder if family/friend of EA is your buyer which could result in a lowball offer at exchange of contracts time. Your EA isn't looking after you despite you paying them.

Thanks all. We're back on Rightmove as of today with current EA and just trying to draw a line under previous buyer - if they sort it, they sort it.

Also going with a new EA, valuation booked Friday as we feel like we have no trust in current EA. This is the second buyer they've got us who haven't been able to sort a mortgage!

Can you not stipulate that anyone making an offer needs to have a mortgage in principle in place? I remember most of the houses I viewed needed this.

Exactly. Some financial due diligence should be done before coming off the market at least. So in our case our EA would ask for not only the mortgage in principle but details of other sources of funds (equity, gifts, savings etc) after we agreed the offer but before taking off the market. This will then give you a sense of how likely it is they can afford the house ahead of full application.

Mortgage in principle takes about 5 minutes online.

Aren't you tied into a contract with your current estate agent?

It is odd that your EA took it off the market without seeing a mortgage offer from them

Yep, both our buyers have had AIP before offering! Not sure what else we can do as they're already doing their due diligence.

did they show evidence of that?

Yep, EA received AIP from both buyers (both also had huge deposits which they showed proof of too)

Argh, sounds so stressful. Well done for sacking off the useless EA. That said, you haven't applied for your mortgage yet either so gotta hope you get approved first time when you do. Your vendor is taking a leap of faith waiting.

AIP and DIP are VERY different.

An AIP can be done online with a broker immediately. Ours told us we can borrow 59k more than we can.

DECISION in principle is where a broker gets an agreement directly from a lender and should be taken a lot more seriously.

AIPs aren't worth the paper they are written on in the current economy. Ours gave us a range of 250 to 523.

Just.. what?

They do not take enough information from you to be anywhere near accurate.

The DIP is the precursor to the actual mortgage application; ours was valid at that rate for three months, becomes an application when you hit the 'go' button with the broker.

I'm not sure this is true. AIP/DIP/MIP all seem to get used interchangeably by brokers/lenders. What varies is who you do it with and how comprehensive they are (eg what credit checks they do).

Yes, perhaps. The DIP we asked our broker took him five minutes to apply for online with Nationwide and he had the results two hours later. It was almost as good as a mortgage offer; that's how we found out we had to take me off the mortgage to be able to find the house in the first place.

The AIP we plugged into in that broker's website before going through that process said no such thing.

But, perhaps the terminology crosses over.

Yep but we’re borrowing less than 4x our household income with a 25% deposit so can’t see why we’d get rejected. Plus our vendor isn’t waiting for us so they’re not missing out on anything - just us!

This isn’t true. Buyer got a DIP with their broker and application was rejected a few days later.

either way, I’m not an EA so has nothing to do with me. They said they did their due diligence.

Hope the remarket comes around fast. Spring is the best time of year eh?

Our buyers had a MIP, house that was sold subject. Then came the best part of 8 months of torture as their mortgage company worked through their list of everything they needed 1 item at a time.

Then when they came to the last thing being submitted their mortgage company told them as it had taken so long to get everything together some of the things were now out of date and they needed updating. Apparently it happens to everyone according to someone they spoke to at the mortgage company

(We have had this type of thing when we bought the house)
Our buyers were also asked to fax something. Email or post wasn’t accepted. They had to go to a branch of their bank and they would fax the copy over. I swear it was the same fax machine we had to use to buy the place 20 years before . (Fax was archaic then)
If that fax machine ever breaks then the whole mortgage arm of this bank will come to a grinding halt.