And as we get increasingly used to this 24/7 culture, it comes as a bit of shock when we come across some product or service that can’t be provided right there and then.
So, the fact it takes weeks, months, even years to buy a home, does not seem to fit with our high-speed world.
The mortgage industry is doing all it can to speed things up, with some lenders now promising to get mortgages signed off in 24 hours.
But is there actually much point in hurrying the process?
Mortgage not the hold up
I don’t know about you, but rushing a mortgage application, one of the biggest financial commitments you will ever make in your life, just to be able to say it has been done in 24 hours does not seem very sensible to me.
Plus, is it actually the mortgage part of the house buying process that is causing hold ups? Will being able to get a mortgage approved in a day actually help speed up buying a property?
No.
In the vast majority of cases, it is not the mortgage process that is holding things up, it’s the conveyancing.
You are never going to make buying a house a quick, slick process until conveyancing speeds up.
Yes, there are some things that conveyancers could do – email instead of snail mail is one thing that immediately springs to mind – there are other areas that just cannot, and probably should not, be rushed.
Get it right
First of all, solicitors will not even start the process until they have money from the client to cover the cost of a local and utilities search and even then, they won’t process the search until the sellers’ solicitors have provided them with a plan.
It can take up to eight weeks for the council to return the search and then it needs analysing, researching and so on.
Then there could be issues with title deeds or leaseholds, and remember, this is going on with every property in the chain.
So, I take on board that, with all this to contend with, the last thing a buyer needs is for their mortgage application to hold things up even further.
But as I said before, isn’t it better to get it right than do it quick?
Incorrect information on mortgage forms and mortgage offers expiring are two of the biggest contributors to delays.
So, there is no point getting a mortgage turned around in 24 hours if it ends up expiring because conveyancing hasn’t caught up.
Due care and attention
There is no point dragging the process out, but no-one wants to get their mortgages agreed in double quick time only to be waiting around for weeks, with the chance the mortgage offer could expire.
Or that by the time it gets to it, the form is wrong and you need to start all over again.
It is far better to take the due care and attention to ensure that everything with the mortgage is right, so that when everything else catches up, it does not cause any unnecessary issues.
