Ungaro&Co

The Home Buying Process

April 23rd, 2009

Everyone’s journey is a little different, but below is a rough outline of the process that you will follow when buying a property.

1. Get pre-approved

   Know how much you are able to borrow before you buy. This gives you the confidence that you need to bid/negotiate on properties. Especially if there are special terms and conditions from the lender - this way you will find out before there is a problem. Getting pre-approved also speeds up the home buying process, which can often put you ahead of your competition.If you are bidding at an auction, you are bidding on a ‘cash, unconditional basis’, and so need to have all of your questions answered before the auction.

   To get pre-approved, please arrange a meeting with us – an application form will need to be completed on or before this meeting (this can be downloaded here). Supporting documents will also be required such as:

   • 3 months bank statements,
   • Evidence of deposit to be used
   • Income verification

   Usually the arranging of finance takes two meetings with us to complete – the first meeting involves getting you pre-approved to buy – the second meeting takes place once you have found a property and are ready to discuss the finer points of your home loan structure.

2. Start House-Hunting

   Once we arrange a pre-approval for you, we will provide you with login details for the client section of this our website. Here you will find a lot more detailed information regarding the home buying process such as:

   1. Buyer’s checklist. A form that you can print out and take with you to open homes, recording address of properties visited, number of bathrooms, car parking etc etc.
   2. Video Blogs
   3. E-Books. Download mini-books on how to structure your home loan in the most efficient way, tips for property investors, etc

   It’s strongly recommended that you contact us prior to going unconditional on any property to confirm whether your offer of finance will be honored by your bank for any particular property you are looking at.

   Once you have a contract on a property (conditional or unconditional), then it is time for meeting #2, to discuss the loan structure and your options with the various lenders. Our job at this meeting is to recommend a custom loan structure to you at this meeting, so you can repay your mortgage in as little time as possible. Once the loan structure is determined, we will investigate the various lenders and present you with options

3. Do Nothing!

   This is where you really begin to benefit from our services. Once:

   • the lender is chosen
   • interest rates negotiated and secured

   We follow up with your bank and your solicitor to make sure that loan documents arrive in a timely manner and they are correct.

   We will also keep you informed at this stage of anything else that you should be doing. Taking out a mortgage will change your risk profile dramatically, so at this stage-

   We will be advising you on your insurance options (please refer to the Risk Management Strategies section of this website for more info on this).

4. Move in!

   Now it’s time to arrange the moving trucks and take a day off work to move. Our role does not end here however.Every time you need to re-structure your lending or you decide to buy something else, come back to us.

Loyalty – it means something with us. If you have come this far with us already, we have gotten to know you and you have gotten to know us – it will be so much easier next time you need to arrange your next home loan as we will actually remember you!

Our goal is to be your adviser for life, not just for one transaction – we value continued business and we show you this by taking the time to get to know you, not just your numbers.