The home buying and financing process

Purchasing a home and registering a home loan can be a stressful and lengthy process. It helps to know the processes and parties involved and the steps required for home loan registration.

Parties involved:

•  Seller
•  Estate Agent
•  Buyer
•  Mortgage Broker
•  Transferring Attorney (appointed by seller to transfer the property to the buyer’s name)
•  Home loan Attorney (appointed by the bank granting the home loan)
•  Cancellation Attorney (appointed by the bank cancelling the home loan of the seller)

A single attorney can perform the bottom three transactions, but often there are at least two different attorneys involved.

1. Initiating the purchase
The buyer and the seller negotiate and sign an Offer to Purchase (OTP). The OTP, or Agreement of Sale, sets out the specific terms of the agreement between the two parties including details such as purchase price, deposit, date of transfer, occupational rental, etc.

2.  Mortgage home loan application
The buyer, usually through the services of a mortgage broker, applies for a home loan with various lenders. There are four basic stages to the home loan application process:

•  Submission – the mortgage broker submits your application to various lenders
•  Approval in Principle – the bank approves the loan subject to a property valuation and sometimes with other conditions attached
•  Valuation – the valuation takes place either physically or through computer aggregates based property description and recent sales in the area
•  Final Approval – the bank officially grants the loan

The application usually takes between three and seven working days.

3.  Home loan Approval
Once all, or some, of the lenders who received the application have approved the loan, the client will choose which lender they wish to do business with. The financing bank will then instruct the relevant Home loan Attorney to proceed with the home loan registration process. This can take up to three days. The mortgage broker will cancel the application at the other lenders.

4. Property Transfer
The seller advises the Transferring Attorney to transfer the property into the buyer’s name. The title deed and cancellation figures are requested from the bank that currently has a home loan over the property (if applicable). A statement of rates and taxes is requested from the local authority.

5. Home loan Attorney contacts Transferring Attorney
The Home loan Attorney advises the Transferring Attorney of the amount available for guarantees and requests the draft deed of transfer and guarantee requirements.

6. Cancellation Attorney
The Cancellation Attorney is requested to cancel the seller’s home loan upon receipt of a guarantee for the amount owing.

7. Transferring Attorney
The transferring Attorney receives the title deed and cancellation figures and sends a copy of the deed of transfer and the guarantee requirements to the Home loan Attorney. The Transferring Attorney requests that the buyer and seller sign the transfer documents. The buyer pays the transfer costs and the Transferring Attorney then pays the rates and taxes and the transfer duty.

8. Home loan Attorney
The Home loan Attorney prepares the home loan documentation and the relevant account. The buyer signs the documents and pays the costs. The Home loan Attorney prepares and issues the necessary guarantees, forwards them to the Transferring Attorney and prepares the home loan documents for lodgement with the Deeds Office.

9. Transferring Attorney
Once the Transferring Attorney has received the guarantees, they are forwarded to the Cancellation Attorney.

10. Cancellation Attorney
The Cancellation Attorney obtains consent for home loan cancellation from the bank which holds the seller’s home loan.

11. Documents prepared for the Deeds Office
After all the documentation has been signed and the costs paid, the transfer, new home loan and home loan cancellation documents are prepared by the respective attorneys for lodgement in the deeds office.

12. Deeds Office
All the documents are lodged in the Deeds Office by arrangement with the attorneys concerned. The Deeds Office takes approximately 2 – 3 weeks to check the documents before they are ready for registration by all the attorneys on the same day.

13. Bank pays out the loan

On the day of registration, the bank pays out the loan in accordance with the guarantees issued.
Allow at least 3 months for the registration and transfer of the home loan.

Please contact us if you require any further information or would like to apply for finance:

Complete this short form online

011.327.4489 / 0861 1111 93

morne@mortgagepluscc.co.za

www.mortgagepluscc.co.za

The mortgage origination value chain consists of the home buyer, estate agent, mortgage originator, attorney and the lender (bank).

1. Seller
The seller is the registered owner of the property to be sold. The seller could:
• Approach an estate agency to sell the property on his/her behalf
• List the property for sale through a direct selling mechanism on the Internet
• Sell the property directly to a prospective buyer.

2. The buyer
The buyer of a property enters into an Agreement of Sale with the seller of the property and could pay the purchase price to the seller in cash or by obtaining a home loan or mortgage through a bank. A buyer is also a person buying a stand and building a dwelling on the stand.

3. The estate agent
The estate agent is the starting point within the value proposition to the homebuyer. Although appointed by the seller, and primarily looking after the interests of the seller in terms of listing the property and finding a suitable buyer as close as possible to the seller’s asking price, the estate agent is compelled to operate and advise homebuyers within the guidelines and policies of the Estate Agency Board, the Regulatory Body for Estate Agents. The estate agent adds value to the homebuyer in finding a suitable property to satisfy the needs of the homebuyer.

4. Banks
The bank is also referred to as the lender. When the originator submits an application on behalf of the homebuyer to the bank, the bank will assess the application based on the creditworthiness of the applicant, the affordability of the loan for the applicant and the security that is offered for the loan in terms of the value of the property to be mortgaged. Based primarily on the risk the mortgage loan represents, the bank will offer the home buyer a suitable interest rate. The normal repayment period for a home loan is 20 years. After registration of the home loan, the applicant becomes the client of the bank.

5. The attorney
By law a conveyancing attorney is the only person who may register property transactions in the Deeds Office.
When there is a mortgage bond registered over a property, and the purchaser has procured a loan secured by a mortgage bond to pay the whole or part of  the purchase price, three basic types of transactions are applicable:

• The cancellation of the seller’s existing mortgage
• Simultaneously, the transfer of the property into the new owner’s name
• And also simultaneously, the registration of the purchaser’s bond

There is a fourth possibility – that the property transactions may be  in the sense that, for example, the purchaser has sold another property, and the proceeds of that sale, or part thereof, are used to pay the purchase price of the property he/she is now buying.

6. Mortgage originator
A mortgage loan originator or mortgage broker is a licensed professional who arranges mortgage financing for potential homebuyers. While a loan originator usually represents a particular mortgage company, the mortgage broker may possibly represent more than one lender. In either case, the job is to assist the borrower by beginning the borrowing process through the completion of a loan application, and gathering of the necessary documentation, such as income statements and credit reports.

Please contact us if you require any further information or would like to apply for finance:

Complete this short form online

011.327.4489 / 0861 1111 93

morne@mortgagepluscc.co.za

www.mortgagepluscc.co.za