Dear DiS Hivemind:

On Saturday I made an offer on a house.

Today, the in-house mortgage adviser from the estate agent rang and told my partner that to put the offer forward, he'd need to see our agreement in principal (have one, but don't really want to volunteer to the vendor's representative how much we've been offered from the bank, as then they'll know where the top of our budget is).

He's also said we'd need to give them the details of our solicitor.

He's chatting all sorts of shit about them needing to know we can afford the property before wasting the vendor's time etc.

I get the sense that this just some scummy sales tactic, but am I right?

Is it normal for an estate agent to try to check out a potential buyer's finances before putting an offer in?

I know for a fact that the offer has gone in, because someone else at the agency has told me so, so he's lying on that front.

Is this standard procedure or am I being gamed?