Buying a house is once in a life time decision for most of
us. Buying a house can be a fun and exciting experience. But finding the right
home is just one step in the process. Most of the us ignore choosing the right home
loans and see set of surprises later. Mostly we will refer the builder or
friend who had recently taken home loans. Here are some tips to help make
finding the right home loans as easy as possible.
“When I took the home loan I compare home loans interest
rates of loan products. While I was sanctioned a loan for 15 years, I
foreclosed my loan six months ago, that is within ten years,” said Gopi
Krishna.
What are the right things he did? Read on to learn a few
useful tips from him.
Tip 1 – Good research:
Do not go as per what your loan agent says. You do your own
research of the best terms available in the market. “While taking a loan, my
agent did everything to stop me from going to a specific bank. I later on
realized why, specific bank was paying less commission to agents, so they earn
less. Hence the agents never encourage few banks,” said Srinivas. “I went and
choose the bank that gave me the cheapest rate of interest,” he added.
Tip 2 – Get your financial documents in order:
When you apply for home loans you need to provide your
lender with number of financial documents. Having these documents already
assembled will help accelerate the processing of your loan application.
Tip 3 – Park your additional funds:
A couple of banks have a facility, which allows borrowers to
park their additional funds in the loan accounts. “This will reduce the
interest proportionately from the principal amount for the time that the amount
was parked. This is an interesting option. This was not there when I took a
loan,” said Sandeep.
Tip 4 – Learn what is floating or fixed rates:
There are two types of interest rates that banks offer:
floating and fixed interests. Floating interest rate is linked to market. It
moves in tandem with a base rate. Where
as fixed interest remains fixed for a few months defined in the loan agreement.
It is important to understand that in most cases floating rates work out
cheaper than fixed rates in the long run.
Tip 5 – CIBIL Score:
It is important to have a score of 750 plus to get
attractive rate of interest on your Home loans. CIBIL data indicate that 80% of
the home loan approvals are given to customer who have a credit score of 750
plus. Low CIBIL score could possibly reject your Home Loans
application or you may have to pay a higher interest rate.
Tip 6 – Understand foreclosure norms:
Recently, RBI banned foreclosure penalties. So make sure you
do not pay anything extra while foreclosing your loan.
Tip 7 – Save up to foreclose:
If you can save Rs 1 lakh in the current fiscal, do not use
it on a dream holiday abroad. Instead use it to foreclose your loan. “My advice
to every borrower is that learn to foreclose your loan as soon as possible. The
sooner you free the amount you pay for equitable monthly installments (EMI),
the earlier can you enjoy the freedom to spend that money on luxuries of life,”
added Sandeep.
Tip 8 – Compare processing fees:
Whether it is for a fresh loan or for a balance transfer.
Enquire in all the banks before you finalize. Also make sure you give a cheque
for processing fee instead of adding it to the loan account. If we add
processing fee to home loans, say Rs-10,000 fee on 20 years loan with 10%
interest rate, then one would end up paying Rs-23161.
Tip 9 – Read the documents:
Read everything written in the loan agreement before you
sign on the dotted line. It is very important to be aware of terms and
conditions. “I have to pay Rs-5000 every time I take a home loans provision
certificate for tax saving” said Ramesh.
Tip 10 – Increase the down payment:
Every borrower has to pay some money from his own pocket
while buying a house. Try to pay as much as possible as down payment. This will
reduce your interest paid on the principal.
Tip 11 – Spend conservatively:
Keep a tab on your spends during the home loans tenure. The
old adage “A penny saved is a penny earned,” holds true in case of home loans
too. When you save money, you could actually use it to foreclose the loan.

