We spend a lot of time and effort encouraging clients to 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗻 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. As it is often the case, when you are NOT prepared, you can miss out on the best opportunities.

Banks do not place great importance on pre-approving loans and they tell us up to 70% of those loan pre-approvals do not proceed with a purchase. In fact, some major lenders do not even fully assess loan pre-approval applications, and it is something that concerns me greatly.

The big issue when not fully assessing loan pre-approval applications, is that clients can assume they can rely on the approval, purchase a property at auction, and when they apply for the formal approval, it could be declined or a reduced loan amount offered.

How can you put your hand up at an auction without really knowing if you have the money? If that happened to you, it could cost you the home or leave you short in settlement money.

My philosophy is that we encourage all clients to have a fully assessed loan pre-approval so that we minimize the risk of something going wrong. We have heard plenty of tales from clients, where other brokers/banks have come back at the last minute with a problem, causing great distress.

The other thing is timing - it can be very hard to convince a bank to place a pre-approval application ahead of clients who have purchased and need the formal approval. It places great stress on the system and on clients who want to buy but are stuck and can't make offers or attend auctions with approval.

So when you first start looking to purchase, make the first stop seeing a broker and get the loan pre-approved. Get in touch, we're here to help.