How do you make an offer if AIP isn't guaranteed?

[SaturdaysSundays]

I'm a first time buyer and I recently started house hunting. I spoke to a mortgage advisor to see how much I could borrow and he confirmed that some banks would lend up to 4.5x my salary even though I have a personal loan with Tesco. I've heard lenders normally reduce the amount they will borrow if people have debts, but he declared the loan when completing the AIP form and the bank didn't reduce the figure. Is this unusual? I've seen threads on here where people have said AIP's are useless and not worth the paper they're written on which is slightly worrying and has made me wonder how people make offers if the figure isn't actually guaranteed, as presumably I would have to make up the shortfall, but how would I do that if I don't have the extra cash?! Do they normally knock money off once you've gone through the full application process?

Interested to hear other people's experiences. Thanks!

Anyone?

Gonna be different for everyone. For example, whilst you might have debt, you might not have kids, which are a big financially liability as far as banks are concerned.

You might have debts but the bank can see you are trainee lawyers whose salary may skyrocket in the future.

You might have debts but you might only be 25 with lots of earning years ahead of you.

So the banks underwriters consider all these things carefully.

AIPs generally are pie in the sky, but the ones your broker get from an actual lender rather than the ones the broker churn out can be taken far more seriously. Just be really careful if you are looking at the top end of the amount they will lend, because there are risks: a) banks down valuing as they become more risk adverse and you can't borrow that much anyway and b) they get to the underwriting stage and there's a spanner in the works, idk, let's say you have to take out a payday loan just before applying (because I can't think of other examples due to being half awake).

Ones properly done through a broker and from a bank are usually fairly decent I've bought and sold a few times and never had more than a few k knocked off even this summer with super tight assessments cause of interest rates. Don't offer at the very very top of your budget and you'll be fine

Oh and if you do have a shortfall and no means to make it up, it's then down to the EA to recommend to the seller whether they should lower what they are prepared to take, which depends on many factors: the £ difference, the number of offers or complete lack of interest a house may have had, how serious and prepared they think you are, which way the wind is blowing. You just tell them 'mortgage offer came back 14k lower and we can't do anything about it', then they have to work to stop the sale falling through.

It will be pretty common these days.

You also have the option to shop around for another lender with less stringent criteria if one bank can't give you what you want (but be wary of doing it too many times, many mortgage applications will affect your credit rating).

I believe what FTBs normally do is get an AIP to get a ballpark figure of what they can borrow and then start house hunting.

Once they find a property they like they work with a mortgage broker to see which is the best lender for them given their individual circumstances. At that point they may find that more detailed checks reveal they can't borrow as much as they originally thought. But lenders have different criteria so a broker is usually well placed to find one that will lend roughly the same amount as suggested by the AIP. Sometimes there is a shortfall and that can be a reason for a Sale not getting to Completion, because the buyer can't borrow as much as they thought (especially if rates change during the process).