Why do real estate agents always ask me whether I am buying property to live-in or as an investment?

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: A.L. Verminburger Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/133944 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. Trying to buy a house. Along with -- what is the maximum you are willing to pay -- this is the most frequent question. Why do they care whether I will live in it or rent it out? The two are not mutually exclusive. Update: this is for UK