The first step in home buying plan is getting pre-approved. To start lets create your first home buying plan. When signed into your Perch account, you can do this directly from your Perch Dashboard by clicking on the "start plan" button.

Here, you'll tell us a little bit about your plan by letting us know your target purchase price, maximum downpayment and the occupancy type of the property (e.g. owner occupied, rental, etc).

If you're purchasing this property with a partner, spouse, friend, colleague, etc. please add them as a co-applicant on your home buying plan. This is as simple as clicking the add co-applicant button in your plan page and providing their information.

Next you'll be encouraged to complete your perch Profile. You'll provide things like your date of birth, current home ownership status, financial and living situation, etc. These items will enable our team of advisors to determine your pre-approval amount.

To apply for a mortgage, all lenders will require a credit check. By signing your credit check consent you are giving your Perch advisor consent to pull your credit report which they will use to complete your pre-approval and any subsequent mortgage application.

As you add details to your profile, you'll notice that Perch will start asking you to upload certain documents to your profile. For example, if you entered a salaried employment role, the system might ask you for your T4 issued to you from your employer. These documents are a requirement and provide our advisors with the ability to validate your profile details with our lenders.

You'll see a yellow badge beside the link to the documents center in your sidebar anytime there are outstanding documents you need to upload.

While Perch works on your schedule, the sooner you are able to complete your profile and upload all of your required documents, the sooner your advisor will be able to provide you with your pre-approval.

As you start working with your advisor on your pre-approval, they may request additional documents or information from you. All requested documents will be visible in your documents center where you can easily review and upload them.

Congratulations 🎉 the hard work is behind you and your advisor will now work to prepare your pre-approved maximum purchase price.

Once your pre-approval is ready, you and your co-applicants will be notified via email. While your pre-approved amount will be available in the email, you can navigate back to your plan from your Perch Dashboard to download a pre-approval letter which shows the amount that you've been pre-approved for with Perch.

What an exciting day -- Your offer has been accepted on your new property and you now need to submit a mortgage application! 🥳

Now is the time to return to Perch and let your advisor know. Navigate to your Dashboard and open your home buying plan. Here you'll be able to enter all of your property details which will automatically notify your advisor.

Your advisor may need additional documentation from you to prove the purchase of the property so be ready to provide these additional documents.

Once your advisor has everything they need, they'll work to build a custom mortgage offer just for you.

Rest assured that Perch compares all of the rates for which you qualify available before presenting you with your "best offer".

You'll be notified via email when your mortgage offer is ready for review. Your offer will account for your purchase price and any closing costs you might need to expect.
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The turn around for mortgages offers are very quick and you can usually expect the offer the same day you upload your property details.

At this point you can work with your advisor to make any adjustments to your offer or you can choose to accept the offer. Once accepted Perch will submit your mortgage application to the lender and provide the lender with answers to any of their questions on your behalf.

After accepting the offer, you'll need to provide perch with details on how you'd like to pay your mortgage payments (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc.) and from which bank account the funds will be withdrawn. You can do this by completing your payment details right from the plan page.

When we hear back from the lender you will be notified via email to log into your account and sign your compliance documents. Sometimes the lender may require additional details, but typically your application will be lender approved at this point.

Now that your application is Lender Approved, you will be asked to sign a set of compliance documents. The number of compliance documents is based on where you live and the type of mortgage for which you have applied. In general however, there are only 3-4 documents requiring your signature and the great news is they can all be signed digitally through your Perch account.

This is the last major milestone in your mortgage journey. Once your compliance documents are signed, the last step will be to await your commitment letter from the lender. You will receive a notification via email to sign the document via Docusign.

Once signed your mortgage application is complete and Perch will work with your Realtor and Lawyer to complete the transaction and your home buying plan will be complete.

Its official, your home buying plan is complete 🏡. At this point you can simply sit back and relax... and it really wasn't all that bad was it?!

Oh, and don't worry, Perch will reach out as your closing date (i.e. the day you receive your keys) approaches to remind you about things like home insurance, setting funds aside for things like closing costs, etc.

Of course you can always reach out to your advisor from your Perch Dashboard at any point should you have any other questions or concerns.