FAQs for homeowner

Yes, you may sell the property to someone else during the term of the contract so long as all outstanding payable amounts are paid off during the closing process. Note that you are responsible for sourcing for any potential new buyers yourself.

Please refer to here for the eligibility criteria for properties.

In the event that the Investor does not transfer the property to you in accordance with the contract, the investor shall pay you a deposit penalty equals to three (3) times the value of all the deposits that you have paid to the investor to date and return the owed deposit to you as well. For the avoidance of doubt, the total amount would be four times of the total deposit amount. Rest assured that Homebase would be there to support you to seek legal recourse.

In the event of a dispute between you and the investor, Homebase will serve as a mediator to arrive at a fair and reasonable resolution based on its best judgment and experience. The decision made by Homebase shall be final and binding on both parties. Both parties can trust that, with the help of Homebase, the middleman that is intimately involved from start to finish on each step of the transaction, both parties can arrive at a fair resolution.

We will match you with an investor who will provide the financing for the purchase of the property. The property will initially be under the investor's name until you are ready to buyout the property and have paid up the full property price. Meanwhile, you can continue to live in the property, rent out, or renovate the property as you see fit.

The process can be as short as a few weeks to as long as a couple of months. Usually, the delays are in finding a suitable home-owner for the investor, and vice versa. 


The crux of the business model is as follows:


1. There are home-owners out there that cannot qualify for bank loans;


2. On the other hand, there are people that qualify for bank loans, but currently do not have any use for their credit room (“investors”);


3. Therefore, we match these home-owners and these investors together;


4. The investor, with the help of a bank loan, will buy the home from the home-owner and put the property under their name;

5. In turn, the investor will sell the property to the home-owner, and offer them an installment payment plan;

6. The home-owner, on top of paying an initial deposit, will pay for the bank loan’s monthly payment obligations, and pay the investor (and Homebase), a small fee every month for the service;


7. If the home-owner pays off the remaining purchase price, the property will be transferred into their name; and


8. If not, the investor gets to keep all paid up amount from the home-owner and the property. 


Please refer to here for the eligibility criteria for existing home-owner.

While the investor is the one who is technically the borrower of the bank loan, every month, you will pay an amount to the investor that is to be used for paying the bank loan's monthly principal and interest (i.e. the investor does not have to put up their own money to pay for the monthly payments to the bank).

Banks often charge borrowers an early repayment penalty ranging between 1 – 5% if the borrower exits within the first few years. As such, when a you exit the contract early, the investor, who has borrowed money from the bank essentially on behalf of you, is also hit with an early repayment penalty from the bank.

To compensate for this, when you exit the contract early, you will need to pay the investor an early exit fee that typically also ranges between 1 – 5%, depending on how early you are looking to exit and the underlying setup of each contract.

Yes, you can exit the contract early / buy out the property in advance. In fact, this often happens when you can subsequently qualify for a bank loan yourself after having saved up enough deposit for the property after a few years.

To exit early, all you have to do is to pay the investor all the balance amount of the property purchase price, and any other unpaid amounts. Once all payments are settled, the property will be transfered into your name.

If you are late for any payment obligations, we will give you a grace period to remedy the situation (usually 30 days and within reason). When you eventually pay the overdue amount, a late payment interest of 0.054% per day would be applied to the overdue amount.

However, if you still have not remedied the situation after the grace period, we will declare an event of default, and the investor will now be entitled to the entire property and have no further obligation to you.

At the maturity of the contract, if you have fully paid the purchase price of the property, and there are no other outstanding payment obligations, the property will be transferred to your name.

Often, it is the case that after a few years, you might have enough downpayment deposited into the property such that you might want to get a traditional bank loan to swap out the investor.

In the event that you have not paid up all outstanding amounts at the end of the contract, we will give you a grace period to remedy the situation (usually 30 days, or within reason); however, if you are still unable to remedy the situation after the grace period, an event of default would be declared, and the investor will now be fully entitled to sell or keep the property, whichever they prefer.

The contract can be as short or long as you and investor can mutually agree; however, it is typically 3 years by default.

The investor will be the borrower of the bank loan; however, every month you will pay an amount to the investor that is to be used for paying the bank loan's monthly principal and interest (i.e. the investor does not have to put up their own money to pay for the monthly payments to the bank).

Technically, you are not getting a loan but rather an installment payment plan, so calling it an "interest rate" would not be accurate; however, for simplicity, the effective "interest rate" you will be charged is typically the prevailing bank loan interest rate plus an additional 3% per annum that you will have to pay the investor, but it can be negotiated in certain circumstances.

Homebase offers comprehensive support to you, including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Arranging for the most compatible investor to match with your needs;

2. Acting as the facilitator between you and the investor to reach an agreement;

3. Facilitating the property closing process;

4. Supporting with the paperwork between all parties;

5. Supporting the monthly collection process; and 6) Acting as the mediator to resolve any dispute, if any.