First Home - A 5-part series of our experience as a first-time home buyer

PART 4

Although with no dearth of information, in this 5-part series on being a first-time home buyer, I share my thoughts and experiences of buying my first house. Click on the links to check out  the earlier posts in this series.

Know Your Objectives

Setting Budget

Do Your Research

Bank Home Loan

This is one of those most important and deal-breaker facts. We later realised that a although we may be paying interest for no reason, a pre - approved bank loan tended to speed up the process and was a good bargaining chip for the builders. The experts are right! But as we were yet to approve the loans based on the house, that was a little speed-bump on the road.  We finally decided to go through SBI or PNB. However, the process was lengthy with no guarantee of availing a loan and PNB did not provide the amount we required. So we opted for ICICI and though we are paying a premium, it was a guaranteed loan sanction at this late stage. We would have lost a good deal for want of a loan sanction. 

I strongly recommend that, if you are opting for ANY nationalised bank, you should start the bank process for a PRE-APPROVED LOAN rather than wait for after you have finalised the place, saves you heartaches at a later stage. But if a pre-approved loan is not a possibility, it is a good idea to check if particular banks have provided loans earlier in that building. This is of tremendous help as the properties are verified by those banks, the process is speedy and positive. Another aspect to understand is that in re-sale properties, often the seller may also have taken a loan. It is also a good idea to enquire with that bank for a loan which allows easy transfer for the bank and helps reduce a lot of stress for you. However, take into account the interest rates and compare with your previous researches.

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