"While there are a number of home loan origination services in the market, we looked at how we can provide a fresh new approach for consumers. With a home loan, it is all about savings, finding the right home loan product, and having a home loan expert to assist you in securing your dream home". So says Remondé Grobbelaar, head of the new Home Loans Division at MyProperty.
Adriaan Grové, CEO of Entegral who operates the portal, says that it is easy to make empty promises with a new product launch. We're taking a cautious approach and know that the proof is always in the pudding, the real work starts now. Our plan is to constantly iterate our processes through technology with the same principles we apply to the new
MyProperty portal and our
other real estate products. We need to ensure that we can improve the customer journey and help save buyers more.
Giving a little back to buyers with direct bank links
The new home loans service has a direct link to all the major banks, so when consumers apply for a home loan with us, we get banks to compete for your business. A better rate means more savings for buyers. A handy tool will show you the difference a 0.5% lower rate can make on your home loan, not only in monthly savings but in overall interest too.
Once you move in, we will send you a small Yuppiechef gift voucher to say thanks and provide the opportunity for constructive feedback to serve the next buyer even better. We believe in paying it forward and will introduce more innovative rewards for consumers heading forward. If we can help more home owners pay their bonds off quicker and save money in the long run, we will achieve one of our main goals.
A new home loan starts with educating buyers
The reality that we face in South Africa today, is that most people cannot afford their dream of owning a home. Income inequality and a culture of non-saving doesn't help either. What we found is that a lot of people struggle to understand the basics of home ownership and overall costs involved when they start their search. For this reason, we've modified our property listing display to start showing the
overall cost of owning a home with new modules in the works.
We've also just launched a
real estate FAQ tool, which will help to address answering basic to more advanced questions and will be tied into the rest of our portal over time.
Our home loans division aims to
promote pre-qualification in the home buying process as a critical first step. We want to help people understand what they can afford before they start house hunting with a thumb suck figure in mind. Buying the best and biggest home is not always the best option either, so our
bond calculator shows home owners the benefits of buying something more cost-effective and putting extra payments into the bond to reduce the overall interest and home loan term.
Promoting pre-qualification we feel, will also help estate agents in a big way to optimize time management and spend it on the people they know would be able to make an offer.
A better bond origination service for agents
Grové says that they are bringing a fresh approach to bond origination services for estate agents on Monday (2 September 2019.) We are launching an industry-first model and something quite special to help agents not only reduce their overall operational costs but is also geared to partner with them to improve their marketing strategies. Our
Base CRM system will, for instance, allow agents to track their client home loan applications, but all will be revealed on Monday.
In a real estate market dominated by large bond originators and franchises who have mutual shareholding agreements that benefit a select few, change is required, and we are bringing this change for all forward-thinking estate agencies.