Does anyone know any lenders that will process mortgage applications without a signed contract?
From what I've heard, in the ACT it's common practice to obtain unconditional finance approval prior to exchanging contracts, and that finance clauses are uncommon/not generally accepted (can anyone confirm?).
All the lenders I've spoken to want to see an exchanged contract before valuation and approval.
Cheers!
This is common in NSW and ACT.
Any decent lender who has dealt with these states previously would know.
I'm talking from personal experience as I work for a financial institution.
Did you tell them that the property is in ACT when you made the enquiry?
in the ACT it's common practice to obtain unconditional finance approval prior to exchanging contracts
It is not just common practice, it is will be strongly recommended by all solicitors to obtain this before exchange, because:
that finance clauses are uncommon/not generally accepted (can anyone confirm?)
subject to finance clauses are extremely rare in the ACT.
Are you using a broker/bank from Vic or QLD by any chance? As mentioned above, there should definitely be no issue finding a lender to do this.
Thanks for the reply! One is a smaller lender based in Qld, and the other is ING (who I would have thought would do a fair bit of lending in the ACT and would be familiar with the process).
You should be able to process a loan application with westpac without exchange. They do require a copy of the front page with the details filled in (i.e. ready for exchange), but does not need to be executed. Talking from my experience in NSW.
Edit-
misunderstood the question.