As an estate agent, a customer’s satisfaction and swift closing of a sale are key to a successful transaction. For a buyer, the traditional home loan application process is perceived to be tedious, overwhelming, and time-consuming which can exacerbate feelings of stress during what should be a happy milestone.
In a move to make the homeownership journey smoother, online bond aggregator platform MortgageMe has partnered with Lightstone Pty Ltd, a provider of comprehensive residential and commercial property intelligence and reporting solutions, to create an innovative referral service for agents. Using Toolkit V2, real estate agents can now assist clients through the most critical step of the home-buying process by referring them directly to MortgageMe to wrap up the application for finance. This partnership aims to empower home buyers to become their own mortgage originators through a digital application process that has been considerably simplified.
“Our straightforward application process takes the angst out home finance for home buyers. And for estate agents looking to wrap up the sale, the referral process is quick and easy. Once the referral has been done through to MortgageMe, all the buyer needs to do is complete a single application online, which is submitted to four leading banks,” says Andrea Tucker, Director of MortgageMe.
By utilising Lightstone’s Toolkit V2, the benefits to real estate agents are numerous – the most important of which is keeping the home buyer happy, which is critical to a successful transaction.
Here’s how the MortgageMe and Lightstone partnership ensures a seamless referral and finance application process:
- Using MortgageMe’s cutting edge technology, it is easy for an agent to initiate an affordability check for a prospective buyer, allowing them to target their sales efforts towards properties their client can afford. This bond certificate takes a home buyers bank statements as input to calculate how much additional credit they can responsibly take on.
- The agent can start a home loan application on behalf of a buyer immediately after acceptance of an offer to purchase.
- It takes less than two minutes to refer a buyer to MortgageMe so they can complete their home loan application.
- The process is fully digital, keeping paperwork to a minimum, and providing buyers with privacy as they are sharing their details with banks only and not a mortgage originator. It allows the buyer to complete the application from their own home with no face-to-face engagement necessary.
- Real-time tracking of the progress of an application is possible for agents – when offers are made, and a buyer has accepted the best one, the agent will be the first to know that the sale has been concluded.
- MortgageMe pays commission to estate agents upon registration of a successful home loan application. There is no cost for an estate agent or home buyer to use the platform.
Finalising the application for a home loan quickly and ensuring a hassle-free process is essential and in the interest of both the buyer and the agent. “By creating Toolkit V2, we have made the process less complicated and scary, far less time-consuming, and, in doing so, empowered both home buyers and estate agents to get the finance sorted without a hitch,” says Hayley Ivins-Downes, Head of Digital at Lightstone Property.