How it works

Our procedures, start to settlement

A HomeSec loan runs through seven steps: you apply and send three documents, a Lending Manager assesses it and issues a Letter of Offer, you accept and pay the assessment fee, a local agent appraises the property, our lawyers draw contracts, you sign in front of your own lawyer, and we lodge a caveat and advance the funds by real-time payment.

Why this is short enough to print

Most lending processes are long because the lender is trying to answer a question the documents cannot settle: whether the business will be able to repay out of trading. We are not asking that question. We lend against equity in property you already own, with a defined exit, so the file we need is the file that establishes the property and your identity — and that is three documents, not a data room.

A person decides every loan. Every application is read by a Lending Manager and every credit decision is signed off by a person. We do not use artificial intelligence to assess, approve, decline or price a loan.

The seven steps

1. 1

   You apply

   The online application, then three documents

   You complete the application form and send us a rates notice for the security property, three months of recent statements for the mortgage over it, and a clear copy of photo ID showing your home address. That is the whole file. We do not ask for financial statements, tax returns, BAS, cash flow records or a trading history, and we do not ask for them later either.

2. 2

   We assess it and issue a Letter of Offer

   A Lending Manager reads it — no scoring, no queue

   If it works, you get a Letter of Offer setting out the costs and any conditions that apply. Attached to it is an authority allowing the bank that holds the first mortgage to complete a one-page loan information request and return it to us directly. That step does not apply if the property is unencumbered.

3. 3

   You accept, and pay the assessment fee

   Signed electronically or returned by email

   If the offer is acceptable, you sign it and pay the assessment fee, which covers our searches and the cost of establishing what the property is worth. The amount depends on how many security properties are involved and is set out in the offer. Paying by bank transfer adds a day, because we act when the funds arrive.

4. 4

   A local agent appraises the property

   Hours, not days — and not a sworn valuation

   We instruct a real estate agent local to the security property to prepare a market appraisal on our behalf. This is the step that makes the timeline possible. A sworn valuation takes days to book and days to write; an appraisal from an agent who sells in that street comes back the same day, and for lending against equity you already hold it answers the same question.

5. 5

   Our lawyers prepare the contracts

   Usually within three working hours

   Once the appraisal supports the offer — generally the same day the signed offer arrives — we instruct our lawyers to draw the loan contracts. They are normally ready within three working hours and are emailed straight to your lawyer.

6. 6

   You sign in front of a lawyer

   Independent advice, and verification of identity

   You sign the contracts in the presence of a lawyer and complete verification of identity at the same time. This is not a formality we could skip to save you an hour. It is the step that means you have had the documents explained to you by somebody acting for you, and it protects both sides.

7. 7

   We lodge the caveat and send the money

   Real-time payment — available immediately

   Your lawyer returns the signed contracts. Ours check them, we lodge the caveat on the title to secure the debt, and we advance the funds to your nominated account by real-time payment, which means they are available immediately rather than the next business day.

What we never ask for

This list is as much a part of the process as the seven steps, because it is the reason the steps are short.

• A sworn valuation. A market appraisal from a local agent, on our instruction.
• Financial statements, tax returns, BAS or cash flow records. Not at application, not before settlement, not afterwards.
• A trading history. A business that started this year is assessable on the same basis as one that started in 2004.
• A clean credit file. Defaults, arrears, judgments and an ATO debt do not automatically disqualify you. They are things a person reads in context.
• The first mortgagee's consent, where the security is a caveat. That is the one step in a second-mortgage settlement nobody can control, and it is the usual reason a "24-hour" loan somewhere else takes three weeks.

Where the time actually goes

On a clean file the whole thing runs inside a day, and the parts that take the longest are not ours. The appraisal depends on an agent picking up the phone. The contracts depend on your lawyer being available to witness your signature. If you have a settlement date or a deadline that is already running, say so on the first call — we cannot make a lawyer answer, but we can make sure nothing is waiting on us.

Amounts run from $20,000 to $5,000,000, to 80% of value on residential security and 70% on commercial. The term is open — no minimum, no maximum, no fee to extend and no penalty for repaying early.

Reviewed by Jason Brockmuller, Joint Chief Executive