Is this EA just being cheeky?

[narmada]

We are currently looking to buy a house in the SE and one particular estate agent is slightly getting my goat. I've rung a couple of their branches up to view houses through, and when registering my details they've both asked me how much of a deposit we have to put down, explaining it's 'company policy' to do so.

I think thisis really cheeky, and strongly suspect it is at least partly so they can try and flog me a mortgage through their allied mortgage advice company. So, I've declined to give them this information. I'd be happy to discuss it with the vendor at offer stage, but not prior with the agent. Do you think that's reasonable??

For what it's worth, our deposit would be around 1/3 of the value of the houses we are looking at, so should be affordable, and we are first-time buyers.

Yes it is cheeky...they will want to flog you a mortgage (and loads of insurance too probably) and they will doing that thing where the promote the best buyer to the vendor, so if they think you are less likely to get a mortgage or be a slow sale they could make you look worse in the eyes of the vendor, it's naughty (not ALL estate agents are like that but a lot of them are).

It could be to do with mortgages.

Or it could be because they've had a bunch of buyers (esp FTBs) who have made an offer but then not been able to get a mortgage as their deposit is too low. So they are now trying to weed out those.

I would tell them that your deposit is over 25%. (ie you will have no trouble getting a mortgage). They shouldn't need to know any more specific details.

I'm not sure it's that cheeky - as mortgages have become harder to get, the EA has to know that any offer from you could be proceeded with and, if you only had a very small deposit, that might not be so easy. Ultimately, he can try to guide you towards the agency's financial arm but you can just say no, your mortgage is already in place (if it is).

We have just bought, and the EA wanted to know roughly how much of a deposit we had - and as far as I am aware it was simply to confirm whether we were serious buyers. They asked if we needed any financial advice and I said no. there was no pressure.

Having had a potential purchaser pull out as his 10% deposit wasn't enough in this climate, I thought it was fair enough.

I think it's partly to sell you their services and partly to make sure you are a serious buyer. If you don't want to hear their mortgage schpeel then you can answer vaguely (say 'we'll have about 1/3 down') and then quickly say 'and we've already got a mortgage lined up/have been speaking with a mortgage advisor, blah blah blah'.

It's maybe a bit cheeky of them, but in the grand scheme of what EAs do, I don't think it's that big a deal.

thanks everyone for your answers. I think I must be more cynical than most.... still not telling, though!