An agent finds a good opportunity. Genuinely good, not just dressed up to look that way. The comparables stack up, the numbers work, the condition report is thorough, the strategy is sound. It's presented well, because the agent has done the work properly.
The investor is impressed. They agree the price. They verbally commit.
Then the deal moves into the finance stage, and it stalls.
There's no agreement in principle. Proof of funds was never actually confirmed, just assumed. And when it finally gets checked, the investor's real borrowing position doesn't match what the deal needs.
By this point the agent has put in real time. The vendor is expecting to proceed. And the deal starts to unravel, not because it was a bad deal, but because the buyer was never properly qualified to do it in the first place.
No Finance. No Deal.
Material information about a property means nothing if you haven't verified the buyer's ability to complete. Proof of funds and finance qualification should be step one, not something checked somewhere in the middle once everyone's already invested in the outcome.
It's an easy trap to fall into, because gathering material information feels like doing the job properly. It is doing the job properly. It's just the wrong order if the investor was never going to be able to act on what you've found.
What to check before you take the deal any further
When an investor first approaches you, put the finance questions before the property questions:
Do they already have an agreement in principle?
Have they invested before?
Ask for proof of that agreement in principle, and what it was based on. A £75,000 offer built around a single buy to let doesn't tell you anything about whether they can raise £250,000 for an HMO with no prior experience.
Have you asked for proof and source of funds?
If the deal involves buying through a limited company, which most portfolio and HMO purchases now do, this is exactly the kind of thing worth checking before you or the vendor invest any more time. Send the investor's position alongside the deal details to a finance broker, such as SPV Mortgages and Finanze Property, and they'll tell you honestly whether it stacks up before anyone goes further.
What the agent should have done differently
The finance conversation needed to happen before the property conversation went any further, not once the vendor was already expecting to proceed. Checking the investor's position with Finanze Property or SPV Mortgages at first contact, rather than assuming it, would have surfaced the mismatch in days instead of after real time had already gone in on both sides.
This story highlights the kind of gap NAPSA membership is built to catch. Your first review looks at what's already in your process and what's missing, so you get a clear plan against the national minimum standards rather than finding the gap the way this agent did.
If deal vetting and investor onboarding is one of the areas you know needs work, it's also covered in full in the Complete Property Sourcing Programme.
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