Aggressive Lender Email

[Eliot Smith]

Our offer on a home was accepted. The next day, we asked the lender who issued our pre approval letter to match another rate we found. We received this email in response:

“I pass. We need to have started this morning to be able to meet deadline. The listing agent is going to be very upset she accepted your offer because I was the one doing the financing since she knows/trusts me. Shopping around was not an advisable move. I'm sure the listing agent is going to be all over you and your realtor to make the dates or there may be penalties.”

What is going on? I found the lender online who happens to know the listing agent. I am getting pressure from both of them to get with this lender. The contract only had a pre approval letter so Not sure why listing agent assumed I would go with them. Why did the lender indicate he could not process the loan and that it was not wise to shop around the day after an offer was accepted?

[Kyle J.]

Originally posted by @Eliot Smith:

 

This listing agent indicated this particular lender who provided the pre approval letter was a very strong reason that they went with our contract. Why would listing agent be upset who I go with as long as I can close in time. That would mean the listing agent already talked to this lender about my contract.

Probably because they have worked with this particular lender before, perhaps many times, and have confidence that they will do two important things:  1) close 2) in time. 

It seems now that your offer was accepted, you are just beginning to shop for the lender you actually want to use.  So essentially you're going to start the loan process from scratch, which of course is going to add more time to the whole process. 

Ultimately, you're entitled to get a loan from whomever you want.  However, if you want to know why the listing agent might be upset, it's probably because they feel like you did a bait-and-switch.  You presented a pre-approval letter from a lender they had worked with before and had confidence in and that likely factored into their decision to accept your offer.  However, immediately after they accepted your offer, you moved away from that lender and are just beginning to shop other lenders and now the listing agent will have zero control over who you end up with.  You might even end up with a lender that they've seen fail to perform before, and had they known in advance you were going to go with that lender, they would have rejected your offer. 

Can you see it from the other side's perspective now?