Be Prepared & Increase the Chances of Getting the Outcome You Want!

Whether you’re looking to secure a mortgage for your first home, your next home or another home, you can increase your chances of getting the outcome you want by being prepared.

If you know that purchasing a home (no matter what your reason) is on the cards, being organised and doing some leg work up front, may mean the difference between hearing the words ‘Congratulations you’re the new owner!’ or not.

We suggest you look at the following three areas:

Get Your Finances in Order

When you’re applying for a mortgage, your finances are obviously the main consideration. In particular, things like your income (make sure you have recent payslips or end of year financial reports if self-employed) deposit amount (and proof of this) and expenses (this also takes into account any other home loans or personal loans you may have, credit cards, student loans, hire purchases, Buy Now Pay Later facilities etc)

Make Sure Your Paperwork is Sorted

As outlined above, preparing your finances requires you to have some paperwork organised. In addition to this, once you find a property you want to put an offer on, you may need to provide the lender a draft sales and purchase agreement at this stage.

Also, documentation such as proof of your identification such as a passport or driver’s licence is required.

Loop in your Solicitor Early

If you know you’re planning on purchasing a home soon, make sure you have found yourself a solicitor/lawyer. This means when it comes time to putting in an offer and if accepted, going through to signing a sales and purchase agreement, you have the right resource on hand to oversee the legal side for you. Some lenders, as part of their pre-approval conditions ask to see evidence you have already appointed a solicitor.

Once you’re comfortable you’ve done the prep work in these three areas, then contact your financial adviser/mortgage broker or bank and submit your application for a pre-approval. A pre-approval, also known as an approval in principle or conditional approval, is when a lender agrees to extend you a home loan up to a certain limit, subject to meeting certain conditions.

Once you have your pre-approval, you can begin house hunting and have some confidence when you find the home you’re after, you can move forward with putting in an offer and ultimately securing the property (ensuring you adhere to the lender’s conditions).

By doing some work up front and being as prepared as you can, means when you do find the property you’ve been looking for, you’re all sorted and able to progress forward quite quickly (rather than being delayed by having to work on these three key areas) and that means you can be ahead of the game!

Our Director and Financial Adviser, Brooke Reynolds sheds some light on this.

“The more prepared you are when you’re putting an offer on, the more likely for a positive outcome. I recently helped a couple purchase their first home; they were worried about the availability of their KiwiSaver funds being accessible in time for the unconditional date. I helped them to negotiate a different amount until the KiwiSaver funds were available. We had everything else organised, including having the bank accept the property they were putting an offer on. This meant they were able to be aggressive and get the property for less than any other offer presented, because their offer was clearly organised and most likely to go to settlement (which it did).

This is what I love about my job! I have my clients’ best interests in mind and with years of experience I know a lot about getting successful results for my clients. No two customers are the same so getting the advice from professionals is the way to go”.

If you’re looking for expert advice and someone to help guide you through the process to achieve the outcome you’re looking for, please speak to one of our trusted financial advisers. We’ve been helping people like you since 2007

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