Google, Home Loans - How we get them here?

Came across a very interesting article yesterday, but before I post it, let me say I'm all for privatization of the local home loans market!!!!!!

Tight credit markets have been the single biggest factor behind the downturn in the overseas property industry. Lack of home loan finance has killed transaction volumes and large numbers of buyers have had to put their plans on hold, damaging cash flow and putting agents and developers out of business.

One side effect has been a rise in “timewasters”, people who are on the surface committed buyers but without the access to the funds or lines of credit necessary to follow through to sale. Hence the introduction of the NCR. Part of the problem is related to a lack of education and awareness of credit limitations and it is in this area that Google’s home loan service could help improve things.

Google’s home loan comparison service – coming to a country near you!In the US, Google’s new mortgage comparison service is different because it dramatically increases the speed and ease at which buyers can get a quote. Significantly, buyers can search anonymously for the best deal based on their personal circumstances, including their deposit and credit rating.

Google no doubt has global ambitions in this area and it won’t be long before you see the service launched in Europe and Asia. The logical step would be for Google to offer property portals a cut of the commission they are generating in return for integrating the service into their sites.

It may be some time coming but the result should be better educated property buyers and more serious enquiries from portals.When Google launches this home loan service in the UK, I would put my bond (no pun intended) on it being a better service that the current comparison sites like http://www.moneysupermarket.com/. It could be painful for shareholders in these businesses but it might just improve the quality of the sales leads you receive.

AS ALWAYS, Google releases this service offerings in the US and UK before they even onsider expanding the market. What I'd like to now, who is with me on trying to get a servce like this here is South Africa?

2010 - Accomodating the GLOBE!

It's been such a long time since I managed to chat to my audience that I actually forgot to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY 2010.

May 2010 be the year that everyone makes a success of their personal and business lives!

In an attempt to globalise our business, Wizard home loans (http://www.wizardmidrand.com/) have now introduced translation software for the website. This translations software allows our GLOBAL audience to translate our home page into over 40 languages.

Surf to http://www.wizardmidrand.com/ and check out the translation software in the TOP right of the website. It's a service offering from GOOGLE but it's awesome. This will be replicated across our entire site to assist our GLOBAL audience in understanding what we're talking about.

CHAT SOON!

New SARS updates

Is your house currently held in a Company, Close Corporation or Trust? Then it could be very beneficial to you to be aware of the current “SARS given” opportunity to SAVE a lot of money if you would like to transfer it into you own name?

The Taxation Laws Amendment Act, promulgated at the end of September 2009 gives you until the end of 2011 to transfer residential property that you use mainly for residential purposes into your own name free of transfer duty, capital gains tax(CGT), secondary tax on companies (STC).
This saving will be available to you if:

you (or you and your spouse) are the holder/s of all the interest in the Company or Close Corporation that owns the residential home in which you are ordinarily resident; or,
you (or you and your spouse) transferred such residential property into a Trust and financed the Trust`s acquisition of the property or serviced the mortgage loan repayments, if the property is bonded; provided

you (or you and your spouse) have ordinarily resided in the home and have used it for normal domestic purposes (and not merely as holiday house) since 11 February 2009; and
you transfer ownership in the property into your name, or in both you and your spouse’s names jointly before 31 December 2011.

Homeowners Insurance

We know that home insurance is a grudge purchase, so we have partnered with the leading Insurers to save you some money and make that monthly payment an easier pill to swallow.

As South Africans, we need to protect ourselves against theft and property damage, which means that partnering with the right company is key! Our partners are a mix of Direct and Traditional Broker insurers ensuring that you are provided with a choice between two different ways of doing business.

Homeowners insurance, is in fact the correct term for this product, which falls under the category of life cover. Homeowners insurance is also referred to a bond cover, bond insurance, property insurance, house cover and bond protector plans.

To give you a brief understanding of what this is, it's life cover for your bond. This cover incorporates various different insurance policies, some protecting you from personal cover such as ill health and loss of employment, other plans cover you incase of damages incurred due to lighting or floods.

No one likes to think that they might loose their home if they lost their employment or good health. The harsh reality is exactly that.

We offer over 7 independent quotes from different insurance brokers.
We also have contracts directly with ooba for the cheapest insurance on ooba buildings protector plan and ooba bond protector plan. For more information on these products please contact us directly on +27 12 341 2223.

OR GET A HOMEOWNERS QUOTE NOW:

What are the banks doing?

OK people it's time for me to freak the @#$% out again!!!

I've been trying to figure out why we can work out affordability ANYMORE. By we, I mean bond originators in South Africa. I put these applications together work everything out according to plan, submit the application and we get declined on affordability (WHEN ON OUR SIDE, affordability is so evident you could by 3 places on the same salary).

BUT WAIT, what the banks are now doing is scoring you according to what rate they would give you. Rates at the moment, PRIME and PRIME PLUS!

So the point of this blog post is twofold:

1. For those of you applying for home loans ensure that you factor in at least a PRIME +1% into your affordability to ensure the accuracy of your affordability and to ensure your SANITY :)
2. Banks - Nedbank especially, please can you advise bond originators and the public when you decide to change scoring policies so that we all know what to do when applying for a bond.

We're not here to trick the banks we're here to work together with you!

Wizardman OUT!