5 things you check when looking for a home loan lender.

Going in for a home loan is a huge financial decision but your choice of lender is equally important. And considering that you will be transacting with this financial institute for up to 30 years, it’s important you pay close attention while comparing your options and choose wisely.

However, since opting for a housing loan is a once in a lifetime choice, most borrowers aren’t well-versed in how to choose the right lender. Fortunately, this article will give you a rough gist of the things you should be looking for.

1. The home loan offering.

Of course, one of the first things you want to compare is the kind of financial aid on offer; the loan to value ratio, the interest rate charges and the tenures available to you. Usually, you can expect up to 90% of the property’s value as the loan amount. As far as interest rates are concerned, you can expect to pay anything between 8.35 and 9.65 percent as the interest rate with tenures up to 30 years!

2. The charges.

A home loan comes with a long list of charges, the extent, and nature of which changes from one lender to the next. Some of these charges, such as the processing fee, administrative fees, technical evaluation fee, legal fee, etc. are chargeable before the loan amount is even sanctioned. In fact, the processing fee, which could be as much as 2% of the loan amount, will be taken even if your application is rejected.

Therefore it is of utmost importance that you compare the list of charges levied by your lender before finalizing. Compare important fees such as late payment fees, prepayment charges, and cheque bounce charges in addition to the above-mentioned charges.

3. Check reviews of the various lenders.

What others experience with a lender is most likely what you will experience with the lender. Therefore, before you finalize on a particular lender, it is important you go online and read the reviews of the various lenders. There are numerous housing finance aggregator websites that will have enough and more reviews from existing customers; they will also have ratings which you can compare different lenders against.

4. Value additions.

Some lenders provide you more than just a home loan and go a long way in helping you with your homeownership plans. Leading finance companies will provide expert legal and technical counseling to help you make better borrowing decisions. Some take it even further by providing you with property search services that help you make the right home buying decisions. In combination, services like these ensure you never make a wrong decision and can be very helpful to the first-time-homebuyer.

5. Service levels.

You should look for a home loan lender that provides the highest level of service. They have quick, easy and convenient application processes, ideally online. They should provide doorstep services and come home to pick-up the documents. Their customer service should respond to queries quickly and comprehensively. Try looking for a lender that has online chat support as this is easier to access when in need.

Your home loan lender should be a good partner as your journey through and out of debt. Keeping these things in mind should help you choose a lender that does so.

Hope this article has been helpful, good luck and all the best!