One thing we love most about our profession as mortgage brokers is assisting our clients in achieving their financial dreams. We know that for many of you, buying your first home may be the biggest financial decision and commitment you ever make. However, for some First Home Buyers, the whispers and stories they hear about [...]
There are around 21,000 new businesses founded each year in Australia. And with a little over 2 million actively trading businesses country-wide in June 2014, there are plenty of good reasons to run your own small business. We often get approached by self-employed clients and prospects enquiring about their home loan opportunities. And whilst many [...]
Spring is here! The sun is shining, the weather keeps improving, and with it often comes that urge for a thorough spring clean. With a more stable climate, and Christmas holidays looming in the not too distant future, October is a very popular time of year for home improvements and renovations. And let's be honest, [...]
Over the past few months, there has been a lot of chatter in the media about APRA tightening controls on lending for investment property purchases. And as property investment is one of Australia's most popular ways to build wealth for the future, it has understandably raised a lot of questions from our clients about how [...]
What is pre-approval and what is subject to finance? Many first home buyers believe you don't need pre-approval if you intend to use a "subject to finance" clause in the sales contract when you find a property to buy. But that's not the case! In this article we explain why it's a wise move to [...]
Buying a home is a very exciting time – particularly if you're climbing on to the property ladder for the first time! When you finally get your deposit together, it's really easy to get caught up in the moment and forget to budget for the other costs associated with buying your home, so here's a [...]
In March last year, an amendment was made to the Privacy Act 1988, which allowed regulation reforms to be applied to the way credit-related personal information can be collected about you by lenders. The new system is known as "Comprehensive Credit Reporting" and has brought Australia in line with the rest of the world regarding [...]
If you've only taken out your home loan in the last few years, refinancing is probably the last thing on your mind. But having a set-and-forget attitude to your home loan is not ideal! Leaving your home loan unchanged for its entire term could mean you miss out on substantial savings, or opportunities to make [...]
With interest rates at all-time record lows, property has recently become very attractive to a wider range of investors. The media is full of articles and commentaries talking about using property to help fund retirement, with many even talking about it as a means to completely replace an employment income so they can quit work [...]
Some of you may have heard that APRA has cracked down on investment lending, influencing many lending institutions to review their investment lending policies. But we imagine for the majority of you, it's a case of "APRA, who?". In short, APRA are making some changes to investment loans, and we thought you would like to [...]
