The entire process of home loan from determining eligibility to application, documentation, disbursement and tax saving options, LoanEasy presents a short 5 step guide to understanding home loans end to end. STEP 1. Know Your ELIGIBILITY Different individuals have different loan eligibility, determining one’s eligibility is a crucial and effective way to start the home loan application process. Once you establish the understanding of loan amount eligibility, you can safely arrive at a loan amount you can borrow from the banks. Understanding and choosing a correct repayment option is crucial. Home loan EMIs ideally should be 65-70% of your take home salary after deducting existing EMIs. Understanding and choosing a right EMI makes sure that you don’t end up with an empty wallet at the start of the month. STEP 2: Compare Across All Banks There are more than 35 Banks and they are all competing for sales target. It is important to note that ‘Customer’ is king. A Loan Applicant Ends up paying double the principal amount during the loan tenure. Taking a Home Loan of 60 lakhs for 25 Years @ 9.6% you will end up paying 1.3 Cr . LoanEasy portal gives maximum loan data comparison in minimum inputs. Simply Key in 2 details and compare across all Banks in India. Contact chat support to understand Bank comparison data. A good resource on understanding ‘EMI calculations’ is at Loaneasy Blog Post. STEP 3 : Home Loan Documents : Documentation is a frustrating and time consuming process. 60% of the delay is due to documentation hassles. Know what all documents will be required and get them ready. Insist on handing over all documents on the same day to the Bank Representative. As it will avoid to and fro later and also speed up the process. STEP 4 : Bank Processing Charges : When you apply for Home Loan to a Bank, various charges are levied for processing the loan. These include documentation, legal and credit check charges. The charges are between 0.25% to 0.5% of loan amount Or capped to a maximum value. Banks charge the amount irrespective of loan application is sanctioned or Not. Step 5 : Tax Benefits on Home loan Interest component: Under Section 24, Interest amount paid to the bank can be claimed for exemption from Income tax. You can claim upto Rs. 2 lakhs or the actual interest paid over the period of that financial year( whichever is lower) Note: You can claim this exemption only when you are in possession of your property. Principal Amount Principal amount paid to the bank as repayment towards home loan also comes under the ambit of tax Exemption. Under section 80C, you can claim upto Rs.1.5 Lakhs for income tax exempt. This is again subject to the maximum level of Rs.150,000 across all income tax 80C investments.