On the other hand
I'm currently trying to sell my house and received a piss-take offer, which was refused, then a slightly better offer, which was refused, then an acceptable offer which was accepted. The estate agents then got the prospective purchasers in to arrange a mortgage only to find that they couldn't afford the house anyway. So "investigating to see whether" a "budget was realistic" first sounds good to me.
( stopmeandslapme Cometh the hour, cometh your mum, Thu 27 May 2010, 13:34, 1 reply)

????
The system in the UK must be more fucked-up than I thought. Here in France the estate agents will flat-out refuse to deal with you if you haven't already been to the bank to get a mortgage estimate, thus preventing much wasted time all round.
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Thu 27 May 2010, 13:44, closed)

The problem with UK estate agents is that they're dealing with vast sums of money, lots of red tape, and countless mortgage options. Unfortunately these are usually the thick people that left school but didn't become hair-dressers, air hostesses or join the army.
(tinpixel, Thu 27 May 2010, 18:23, closed)