Monday, May 20, 2019

Saturday, April 6, 2019

Check your CIBIL Score

Banks check your CIBIL Score before approving your loan.*

CIBIL Score
Unlimited access to your CIBIL Score,Score History & Score Analysis.
Credit Report
Unlimited access to your CIBIL Report & Credit Summary.
Loan Offers
Customized loan offers tailored to your needs.
Credit Disputes
File disputes on incorrect data online quickly and easily.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Apply for Company Credit Report from TransUnion CIBIL Limited (Formerly: Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited). (CIBIL)

A CIBIL Company Credit Report is a record of your company's credit history.
This report is created from data submitted to CIBIL by lending institutions across India.
It is important to understand while the Company Credit Report is not a credit rating it is heavily
relied on by loan providers to evaluate and approve loan applications.
The past borrowing behavior of a company is a strong indication of its future behavior.
Company Credit Report plays a critical role in the loan approval process.
This report is used by the lender to make informed lending decisions - quickly and objectively.
You can also use the Company Credit Report to negotiate better credit terms while doing
business by providing this report potential business partners as confirmation of your
company's financial strength.
HOW TO GET YOUR COMPANY CREDIT REPORT (CCR)?
  • Complete Form Below
  • Payment -  3000/-Via Credit Card / Debit Card / Cash Card / Net Banking
  • Registration IDYou will be mailed a unique CIBIL Registration ID & Transaction ID on your email id upon successful completion of your payment transaction.
  • UploadPost payment, upload your KYC documents
  • DeliveredCCR delivered

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Loan Evaluation Process

Taking a loan can be a complicated process for most people. The illustration below indicates what to expect at every step during the loan evaluation process. It helps understand how the credit decisioning works in banks and the steps they take before deciding to accept or reject a loan/ credit card.
750 IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED A GOOD SCORE
79% of the loans or credit card disbursed are to individuals with a CIBIL TransUnion Score greater than 750.

WHAT DO THE BANKS BROADLY CHECK FOR?

  • Suit filed or written off cases reported in the Credit Information Report [CIR]. This is indicated in the 'Account Status' section of your CIR
  • Payment history trend - if there has been any default or amount overdue. This is indicated in the 'Days Past Due' [DPD] field of your CIR
  • Company profile where you work - the banks generally have an approved list to whom they extend loan / credit card.
  • EMI to Income ratio : if your current total EMI exceeds your monthly salary by more than 50% then chances of getting loan are reduced. Let's take the help of an example to understand this further.
 
DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY

 
 
Case 1 *
  • Income :   50,000
  • Total EMI's being paid :   10,000
  • EMI to Income Ration : 20% [10,000 / 50,000]
  • Rule of thumb EMI to Income Ratio: 50% [lenders assume you will need half salary for living expenses].
  • Total Borrowing Capacity : 50% *
      50,000 =   25,000
  • Total Incremental EMI that individual can afford :
      25,000 -   10,000 =   15,000
  • Basis this EMI, total additional loan that may be sactioned at an interest rate of 10% over 20 years =   15,00,000
LOAN APPLICATION IS LIKELY TO GET APPROVED
 
Case 2 *
  • Income :   1,00,000
  • Total EMI's being paid :   50,000
  • EMI to Income Ration : 50% [50,000 / 1,00,000]
  • Rule of thumb EMI to Income Ratio: 50%
  • Total Borrowing Capacity : 50% *
      1,00,000 =   50,000
  • Total Incremental EMI that individual can afford :
      50,000 -   50,000 =   0
  • Basis this EMI, total additional loan that may be sactioned at an interest rate of 10% over 20 years =   0
LOAN APPLICATION IS LIKELY TO GET REJECTED

What is CIBIL Xpress Acquire?

Xpress Acquire is an online platform that enables you to choose from multiple offers across products and from across participating lenders all in a single view. What is unique about the CIBIL Xpress Acquire is that the offers are customized basis your CIBIL TransUnion Score, income and other parameters. These offers are best fit as per your eligibility from across the participating lenders.
How does CIBIL Xpress Acquire operate?

Apply for Company Credit Report from Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd. (CIBIL)

A CIBIL Company Credit Report is a record of your company's credit history. This report is created from data submitted to CIBIL by lending institutions across India.
It is important to understand while the Company Credit Report is not a credit rating it is heavily relied on by loan providers to evaluate and approve loan applications. The past borrowing behaviour of a company is a strong indication of its future behaviour.
Company Credit Report plays a critical role in the loan approval process. This report is used by the lender to make informed lending decisions - quickly and objectively. You can also use the Company Credit Report to negotiate better credit terms while doing business by providing this report potential business partners as confirmation of your company's financial strength.

https://www.cibil.com/online/Company-credit-report.do

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

How to get a Land Loan for purchasing a Plot?

Sukanya Kumar - RetailLending.com

The best investment on earth is earth." 
- Louis Glickman.
“The land is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for, because it's the only thing that lasts".....Gerald O'Hara, Gone With The Wind.
"Our land is more valuable than your money. It will last forever. It will not even perish by the flames of fire. As long as the sun shines and the waters flow, this land will be here to give life to men and animals."
 - Chief of the Blackfeet.
 Buy Land. They are not making it anymore.".......Mark Twain.
We have not inherited the land from our ancestors, we have borrowed it from our children.".....Old American proverb
"It's tangible, it's solid, it's beautiful. It's artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate." 
- Donald Trump
Everyone always write about ready or under-construction home purchase and one of the most important purchase rurally as well as in urban India is purchase of a plot of land is generally not talked about.
PSU and private lenders do substantial volume of loans for funding land; wherein most MNC lenders do not indulge. Though the personal credit documents for applying for a land loan is same as any other home loan, there are major number of differences which one needs to be aware of before applying. Here are the differentiators:
1. Type of land to be funded:
Land parcel only with residential or commercial conversion can be funded. Agricultural land in green or orange belt can not be commercially funded by regular lenders.
2. Type of Plot:
The plot of land can be an independent one or in a gated community. Lenders prefer plot in gated community as it will be more secure from encroachment and will also have basic required development work done like electrical cables laid, roads developed, proper earmarking and numbering of individual plots, sewerage and water pipes laid underground, proper filling and leveling of land.
2. Geographic limitation:
Lenders are specific about the actual location of the land. From the risk-perspective for the collection team, it is important since there is hardly any land available in the middle of any city and most of the lending in this category are on outskirts.
3. LTV
A very important note in this is the lower loan to value ratio(LTV) for funding on land purchase. For an independent land it is a max of 70% of the agreement value and can be maxed at 75% for the ones in gated community where the lender approved the land developer as well as the entire property.
4. Tenure
Loan tenure is mostly restricted to 15/20 years in land purchase loans. Some lenders who have more branch network and can absorb more of land loan product give flexibility till 20 years too, with some deviation, based on the profile of the borrower.
5. Rate of interest:
Rates are same as in home loans during some scheme floated by the lenders for specific period of time, but may be a tad higher otherwise.
6. Construction timeline:
Be sure that the loan you are opting for is a pure plot loan & not linked with a 'condition' that you need to start construction within agreed timeline. Unless you have plans to construct a house on it soon, and if you opt of a composite loan which means loan for land as well as construction, the lender might choose to increase your rate of interest in the event of not starting the construction.
7. Investment or self-use:
Lenders might want to know your purpose of purchase during the credit appraisal and discussion. If the property is for investment, they might want to know your plans for sell-off to understand your seriousness on this investment.
8. Lenders' view on Risk aspects:
Land loan is construed as a riskier investment. Not only it has the risk of encroachment, it can have more chances of litigation and at the end of day, a piece of land is not the priority investment for the borrower if he is not planning a construction and if the value of the land does not increase as expected by the owner, it might even default of the EMI payment and never mind losing it too! This has happened historically and many lenders have burnt their fingers and had to write off the portfolio. Many lenders have stopped lending on lands.
9. Bright side:
However, some experienced lenders have shown us the bright side of lending against a land too. Yes, that means you can mortgage your land and get funded for usage of the money elsewhere. LAP(loan against property) for land is a fairly new concept with mere one or two lenders only and with very low LTV of 40%, but at least the silver-line shines.

Hope the above points help you invest in the most sought-after investment in the world.
"Real Estate can not be lost or stolen, nor can it be carried away. Purchased with common sense, paid for in full, and managed with reasonable care, it is about the safest investment in the world."
----Franklin D. Roosevelt

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

5 Reasons Why your Loan Rate is not Reducing

Sukanya Kumar - RetailLending.com
After recent drop in the repo rate by the central bank, several banks have reduced their base rate, such as- Kotak Mahindra, ICICI, Axis and Citibank. However, sometimes you feel that your loan rate isn't reducing when the lenders seem to be reducing rates for all others. You wonder- 'Why?' The truth is, you will never know for sure. But I am listing down the possibilities here for you through some case studies, which might help you identify with yours.
1. It is a fixed rate you have opted for:
Shyam Bihari was in a hurry to pay the builder immediately after the purchase. There was an urgency from the sales executives of both lender and builder. In a way it was good as his loan got done smoothly. Shyam was always busy with office work- late hours, weekend conferences, tours etc. These had taken away most of his time and he was under stress. He had no time to read the loan application form and sanction letter from the lender and even the sale agreement of his flat and lastly the loan document that he signed. As a result, the application got logged, sanctioned & disbursed under 'fixed' scheme, which he was completely unaware of. When he realised that his loan rate isn't going down at all, he enquired and discovered it !
2. There are issues in your repayment:
Sumati Narayan bought a small two-storied house jointly with her brother ten years ago in Mysore. Two years ago her brother moved out to stay with his immediate family and since then stopped contributing to the bank's EMI. When the loan was done, her income was more than her brother's and she became the first applicant and the monthly EMI was going from her account. She never apprehended this situation and now started defaulting due to lack of funds. No wonder she isn't getting the benefit of rate reduction. She can't even check with the lender given the current situation.
3. Yours is a difficult loan and not easy to switch. Your lender did a lot of structuring while extending the credit to you, hence the margin they kept is high:
Nick(Nikhil) Barucha is an architect who is passionate only about his work. He never bothered much about his bills, payment receipts, tax return filing. One day he had to buy a home for his aged parents in hometown and all lenders declined even looking at his application! Through a banker friend of his, he managed to get a home loan, but with high fees and high rate of interest with lock-in conditions. No way his rate is going to go down!
4. The lender hasn't reduced their base rate(Banks)/prime lending rate(NBFC):
All lenders keep their borrowers attached to a base rate or prime lending rate with a margin. Dilip Banerjee had no clue about what was it all about. He always thought, that is the petrol price is going down and inflation is reducing then why will my loan rate not go down? Understanding the logic for rate reduction was important, which no one at the inception did explain to him. Banerjee's first home loan remained at the same rate from 2013 to 2015, though he borrowed from the lender every one said is the 'best'! Other lenders reduced base rate and his friends' rates went down though.
5. You have asked for a reduction mid-term when it wasn't scheduled. So, during the scheduled cut, yours may have not been done.
Rajit Neogi felt hostile when his colleague borrowed at a 50 bps lower than him from the same bank. He immediately called the bank demanding the same reduced rate. His reason was justified-"How can the same bank offer lower rate to my friend, keeping me at a higher one?" The bank kept the matter unresolved for some time and then upon being threatened by Neogi that he will switch to another lender, took a fee of 25,000/- plus taxes and reduced his rate too. But what is this now! There is a rate cut when everyone's rate went down and his remained the same! He frantically called the call center, but did not receive any proper justification for that & trying to find out time to visit their branch to seek one.

Now...... my dear readers, it may not be so that all lenders will act as above. Some of them may not even practice any of the methods. However, point #4 is true for all lenders. Please use your discretion before you judge your lender. They are here to do business of lending and earn interest. But from the borrower standpoint, there will always have to be a clarification if the rates are not being reduced.
If you do not receive that support from your lender, do not wait and switch your loan to another who cares for your business. But of course, after giving a chance to your lender to justify.
Happy Borrowing!
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Wednesday, July 1, 2015

How to Maximise Returns on your U/const. Property Investment

Sukanya Kumar - RetailLending.com
With 6 or 7 digit monthly pay-package and loads of perks which generate an envious amount of surplus cash, one has to be inclined towards investing in property market in India today. Every weekend, big flashy full-page advertisements by the developers in the property section of the newspaper attracts the eyes of the family too. Friends call on weekends for a group-visit with family to check out the ones with attractive schemes and if the sales guy at the builder's office is good at his presentation & persuasive enough, you land up buying a property!
Now, you always want the best. Hence, the want of a higher floor, garden-view, an extra bedroom, a patio, planter-box on the deck, big club-house in the complex..... a little better than what you bought earlier and way better than what your colleague just boasted about buying last week, is what you book. Isn't it?
Most probably, you try to explain to yourself after buying it, as to what was the purpose of making that high value purchase. Hence you now start thinking rationally.'My office is far away from this newly acquired home, my child is already settled in the school & wife has her friend's circle. Hence, this new buy wasn't definitely for self-use.' What else, now you have the ANSWER. 'This buy was for an investment.'
Easy answer to suit yourself, isn't it?
Now, let me ask you a few basic questions.
Q1: What other investments do you have & what is an average return you are getting from them?
Q2: Why did you buy an under-construction apartment which will take three years to be ready to occupy for an 'investment'?
Q3: Why did you buy a 4 crore worth home when at the moment you have only about a crore to invest?
I possibly know your answers too:
A1: "I generally invest in Mutual funds through SIP-s, bonds & FD-s. I'm a medium risk-taking personality and if my investments give me an average return of 14-15%, I am happy."
A2: "I just liked their concept. My friend bought it too & I think the builder is good."
A3: "Why not? I can always take a Housing finance. Any bank will give me a loan!"
My dear 'investor', none of your answers justify your buying that property. But now that you have bought it already, I will try to see that you make some profit out of it. I am listing down some DO-s & DON'T-s hereunder:
DO
DO #1. Negotiate a deal with the builder on the floor-rise and premium facing rates. Though these are some of the USP-s the builder has, it really doesn't cost him anything. If you try, you may strike a bargain there. If it doesn't work, try to come 4/5 floors lower to save a few lacs. Trust me, it will matter when you sell/rent out. Nobody will pay you that much extra to be on the 15th floor. The 10th floor guy will sell/rent at the same price you will.
DO #2. Restructure your payment schedule instead of agreeing to the standard one. While booking the builder is interested in the sale & if you are not asking for something which they really can not accommodate, they will. Remember, the later and the smaller amount you pay at the beginning your cost of fund will be lower & you can defer interest-bearing borrowings like loan from banks, relatives, parents etc.
DO #3. Check if CC(Commencement Certificate) has already been received on the particular phase, tower & floor. No bank will give you loan without CC in place but you are liable to pay the builder as per agreed schedule of payment.
DO #4. Check which lenders have already approved the property(your specific block, floor etc.). Double check with your Mortgage Adviser/banker directly. Sometimes, the builder wouldn't know the exact status so well. And without this, your payment plan could really get stuck.
DON'T
DON'T #1. Borrow immediately unless you are opting for an overdraft kind of loan which enables you pay nil interest too.
DON'T #2. Opt for a Pre-EMI(interest payment only) option as the project may get delayed and your cost of acquisition will keep jumping leaps & bounds every month towards the possession. Let me explain how. Say, you have taken a sanction of 2 crores and drawing down a 15 lac tranche' from the bank in March. If you opt for Pre-EMI, then your simple interest will be levied on 15 Lacs till you draw down next. When you draw again in say, May, of 15 Lacs more, your interest payment will now be on 15+15=30 lacs. This means you have drawn (30/200)*100=15% of your loan amount. Like this, once the project is about to be ready and you have already drawn down 95% of the loan, i.e., 1.90 crores and your simple interest(Pre-EMI) is around 1.90 Lacs a month, this isn't going towards principal repayment at all. So, for every month's delay in the project, your acquisition goes up by 2 lacs. If the project gets delayed by 6 months, you shell out 12 Lacs extra!! Imagine, where will your profit come from!
DON'T #3. Delay your payments unnecessarily to the builder. The penal charges once accrued, will make your wallet lighter when you take the possession. No amount of being surprised or defiance will help. Please understand that the sole reason the builder sells it to you at a cheaper price during inception is to get the money from you quickly to avoid external borrowing. So, he will be just, if asking for delay penalty.
DON'T #4. Panic if the prices have really not appreciated as much you expected. If the property price appreciates by 60% in 4 years, i.e., 15% p.a. you should exit. This has actually given you the same return on your MF/Bonds etc. So, this wasn't really a greater investment, but you saved yourself. If it is lesser than that, then you may have to keep biting it for longer & hold on for a couple of more years. In the scenario when the same project is having further phases & new towers still upcoming, you can look at it in two ways-(A) Bad way--'How will I sell when my builder still has so much of stock left?' & (B) Good way--'Since the builder has already pegged his price and that is considered the 'market rate', I can safely sell at a 100-200/- per Sq. ft. cheaper and exit. I don't have to justify the cost.'
So, final formula is simple. If : Y1 or Y2 > X, then your investment was just.
Legends:
Acquisition Cost(X)=Cost of the apartment+Bank interest & processing cost+Time cost(as against the other investments)+Your worry-time
Benefit(Y1)=Tax benefit+Future security+Rental income
Benefit(Y2)=ROI(Return on Investment) via Sale proceed
At the end, my view is, do not make a property purchase decision in a haste. There are multiple concerns to be addressed before you want it to be called an 'Investment'. May be, in my next article I will write about it too.
Till then, happy investing !
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How to get a Loan for Shop/Commercial Space

Sukanya Kumar RetailLending.com
"Can I get a loan if I buy an office space?" heard this many times from borrowers who had taken not less than three home loans, but calls me to enquire on this. Getting a loan against residential property is a piece of cake these days, but raising funds for purchasing a commercial space isn't so. Most importantly, the public know-how on this matter is really poor. 
Hearing this basic question several times, I understood that it is time for me to write about it. Hope it helps.
Commercial purchase can be broad-based into two types- (A) An office space & (B) Retail outlet. And again these two can have subsections like (i) Ready to occupy & (ii) Under-construction.
Lenders are more skeptical on funding in commercial property, and moreso for under-construction ones. Most commercial property purchasers are 'investors' and that may be the reason. Though a few buy for running their own business and if that's the case, a lender feels more comfortable too. A lot of top lenders do not fund commercial properties and a few of those who do, funds only the ready ones and avoid under-construction types. So, before locking yourself on any project, please check with your loan adviser to weigh the funding option.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FUNDING A RESIDENTIAL and COMMERCIAL PROPERTY:
Though the financial documents required by the lender to ascertain the loan eligibility of the borrower is same, following are the differentiators-
1. Lesser Loan to Value(LTV) ratio- For residential funding, it ranges between 75-90%, however, the funding percentage is restricted to 55% for commercial purchases. This means more self-contribution by the borrowers.
2. Higher fee- Processing fee for residential purchases are standard fixed fee of 10,000/-. During some schemes, even lesser fee as low as 'Nil' are offered to borrowers. However, for commercial purchase, it is standard 1% of the loan amount and with certain lenders, if they like the profile of the borrower as well as the property, they reduce it to a minimum of 0.5%.
3. Higher ROI- Rate of interest(ROI) is a pivotal factor while borrowing and in commercial type, it is at least 1-2% higher than the residential ones and it can go to even 4-5% if the financial documents have lesser strength and some surrogate product is offered. 'Surrogate' could be like, some other loan track or healthy bank balance etc.
4. Builder category- Lenders are very specific about the builder's profile if the property is under-construction. Whether the commercial property will be ready on time is of utmost importance. Generally a commercial property will take much lesser time to be constructed and the number of occupants in one building will be lesser than that of a residential. For example, there could be one buyer for one complete floor plate, or, say, the number of toilets to be constructed in a commercial setup is much lesser with no bath-area etc, which makes the construction easy and lesser time-consuming. Lenders will look at the previous delivery-schedule maintained by the builder to decide whether to lend in this builder's property or not.
5. Technical evaluation- The building needs to have all proper technical specifications complied with. Be it shafts, lifts, escalators, fire-extinguishing arrangements, emergency exit, double staircase etc. The authorised technical evaluation team of the lender will verify every detail. It isn't so that residential property is not verified well, but commercial properties do have more aspects to inspect.
6. Obtaining all statutory approvals- The builder will have to have all clearances such has approved plans, clearance from different departments like fire, forest etc. to be in place. There should be no demolition risk on the property due to any pending approval. It is the same in case of residential property too, but as mentioned in the previous point, it is stricter and more in numbers in commercial buildings.
7. Loan Tenure- Loan tenure offered in residential property could be as high as 30 years, but in commercial purchase it is mostly restricted to 10 years. This means higher EMI outflow for the borrower again.
8. Capping Exposure- If someone is buying a commercial property worth 10 crores, the lender may decide not to lend more than 3 crores on the transaction, even if he is eligible income-wise and there are no issues on the property front either. This comes from the fear of the loan going bad and the hit the lender will have to take in case of any eventuality like building demolition(fire, earthquake etc.) or demise of the borrower. Since insurance is a matter of solicitation and the borrower in India may choose not to opt for it, the risk remains.
9. Valuation- Purchase cost if inflated by the builder/seller to enable the borrower to take more funding from the lender, it is shot down by the expert evaluation team outsourced by the lender. Almost all of them have multiple experienced valuation-agents who submit report independently and the lender considers lower or the lowest of all, to hedge risk.
10. Residual age of the property- Very old properties do not get funded not only due to the risk related to the age of the building, but also due to not having proper sanction plan or fire-exits or many other things which have been made mandatory in new policy of the lender. So, have a quick check with your adviser. Even if it is a famous commercial building which houses large corporates, it may not get funded by some/all lenders. On another hand, retail spaces are more expensive in terms of rate per square foot than office spaces in same commercial building. Lenders do recognise that fact. So, the same building a office space may be valued at 20,000/- per sft., but retail at 30,000/-. One shouldn't assume that since retail is 30, then so will be the office.
11. Minimum area- Lender will want to fund a minimum area square foot. In retail outlets, there are small spaces called 'vanilla' where generally bank ATM-s etc. are made. These can be even smaller than 100 sq. ft. The lender may refuse to fund any space if it is lesser than 250 sq. ft. or so. Different lenders will have different policies on this matter, so better to check with your loan adviser again.

At the end of it, though acquiring a commercial property works out to be more expensive for you in terms of monthly outflow, since the tenure is less and rate of interest is higher along with more self-contribution to be paid; nonetheless, the 'return' on the investment in commercial property has always been on the higher side. So, if your property is 'eligible' for a funding, then why not?
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10 Secrets on How to get a Perfect Home Loan

Sukanya Kumar - RetailLending.com
There are as many as 50+ lenders in India who will be willing to give you a Home Loan. But whom should you choose? Pretty easy, if you follow the simple path & do not get distracted by what your colleagues say or go by your friends' experiences. Also remember that a credit card service with the same lender could be way different than their mortgage. So, do not tread the easy way of taking it from whosoever arrives first.
Here are the 5 most important things you should ask to know whether it is your match:
1. Do not chase the cheapest rate of interest. Find out a competitive rate and focus on the other aspects of the loan. Cheapest is not the best deal. I keep repeating it in my various comments. Look beyond it.
2. Choose a floating rate of interest over Fixed, even if fixed has an attractive rate offer. There will be twists in fixed products. Many of you miss to note that there's a foreclosure penalty applicable within the fixed term. And moreover the margin changes after the fixed period is over, if the offer rate was for teaser period.
3. Make sure you opt for a lender who offers daily reducing balance and not monthly. It will not make any difference unless you plan a partial repayment. In a monthly reducing balance plan, even if you partially close an amount in between two EMI dates, they consider the repayment only from the next EMI date, thus making you pay interest even on the repaid sum for those days! You will not know, but it will cost you heavy.
4. Do not get biased by your previous experience with another product, or what your friends & colleagues preach, or your relatives feel for. This is finance, a pure mathematical product. No emotions attached. Do your maths & decide. You experience with the lender's credit card or your colleague's irritation with a lender or your uncle's comfort with certain type of lending institutes mean nothing to you. It's your loan.
5. Read all online remarks, which you will anyways do. But 99% of them are otherwise motivated. You will find that those who are badmouthing a lender probably uses dummy ID-s like kingpin, lisahayden, bigboy, greatguns etc. funny ones. You can take their comments as seriously as their identity suggests.
6. Your wealth manager, bank relationship manager, chartered accountant, tax-planner and your finance controller or CFO in office are great. Take their help to get guided to the right mortgage broker. Since you trust them, their reference will matter. But, don't let anyone else handle the transaction, negotiation with lenders etc. unless you find the right mortgage adviser. Mortgage is a specialised product. Ever heard a heart surgeon treating patients for skin rashes? Similarly, a mortgage broker selling mutual fund and insurance will be as good as a real estate broker selling tour-tickets and running an STD shop with photocopy machine! Chose the best in industry.
7. Try opting for a new-age product which saves you money. Standard vanilla home loan are cliche' and won't work for most of my clients who has surplus funds and taking the loan for tax-savings or waiting another property to be sold and pay off the loan. These days, borrowers have various requirement rather than just borrowing for the need of money. Borrowers may not identify it, but a mortgage adviser must & counsel accordingly.
8. Look at the service perspective carefully; you are getting into a long-term relationship. Don't jump on the first lender approaching you or the lowest rate of interest or may be, what your friend's father suggests. You will need a lot of services like- tax certificates, provisional amortisation, list of documents, part closure services, reduction in the tenure/EMI upon partial repayment. There will definitely be requirement of change of address if you are gong to continue the loan for long term. You might shift city or even country. Do not compromise on the aspect of post-sales service.
9. Always ask for a comparison between at least 6 major lenders from your mortgage adviser. And, again..... do not decide on basis of the lowest rate. Look at the base rate, the margin offered, whether any other product is being pushed, how many times the lender has reduced rate in past two years, what is the maximum tenure offered, and how is the eligibility calculated and most importantly whether your property or similar has been funded by this lender earlier.
10. Time taken for processing the loan. This may sound unimportant, but my noting it last, doesn't indicate that at all. When the builder start sending you delay-penalty notices or the seller withdraws from the deal or increases the sale value, trust me, this becomes the top priority on the chart. What will be the point of checking out so many lenders and settle for the one who can only offer, but can not execute?

If you can look beyond cheap interest-rate, you will see an ocean of options. There is a difference between 'price' and 'value'. Identify the need first.
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