ESTATE AGENTS


BEWARE TO FIND YOUR PROPERTY

Estate Agents can make extra money from you - the buyer - by offering to arrange your mortgage for you. Remember that they actually represent the seller not you so that's a grey area to start with.

However the real reason to be careful is that they can coerce you into accepting "their" mortgage by threatening at the last minute to give the property to someone else. So you might end up panicking and taking a much more expensive homeloan than necessary. OK most Estate Agents aren't that bad but apparently it has been known to happen.

If offered this "service" by the sellers agent you're probably best off making it very clear that you already have an independent mortgage broker on the case. You could innocently query the legality and their Trade / professional codes of your accepting this service from them - ie don't alienate them early on by putting them on the defensive: Put it in terms of mightn't you get into trouble...

Note that from January 2003 anyone selling mortgages, including Estate Agents, needs to have taken an exam and be "CEMAP qualified".




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