Some questions come up in almost every first conversation. These are the long answers, written out properly so you can read them before you ring anybody.
Every one carries a name. If something here is wrong, you know exactly whose door to knock on.
Each one takes a few minutes and will make the conversation that follows considerably shorter.
Buying a home
Joint tenants own the whole property together and the survivor takes it automatically when one of them dies. Tenants in common each own a defined share, which they can sell or leave in a will. In Western Australia, co-owners are presumed to be joint tenants unless the title says otherwise, so the structure you end up with is the default unless somebody chooses.
Read the guide: Joint tenants vs tenants in common
Managing debt
If you cannot meet your repayments you can give your lender a hardship notice under the National Credit Code, verbally or in writing, and the lender has to consider varying your contract and answer you inside set timeframes. The thing worth knowing before you ask is that a pause alone frequently is not enough: ASIC found 40 per cent of customers who received a reduction or deferral fell into arrears as soon as it ended.
Read the guide: Mortgage stress
Loan types
A reverse mortgage lets an older homeowner borrow against the equity in their home without making repayments, with the debt repaid when they sell, move out or die. Loans written since 2012 carry a statutory protection that you can never owe more than the property is worth. The catch is the compounding: no repayments means the balance grows, and how much equity is left at the end is the question that decides whether it suited you.
Read the guide: What is a reverse mortgage?
Approvals
A credit score is a number a credit reporting body produces from the information on your credit report, and it is not the thing a lender approves. What a lender reads is the report underneath it: your repayment history, any defaults, and every application you have made. Those entries have set lifespans in law, you are entitled to see them free, and a mistake on the file can be corrected at no charge.
Read the guide: Credit scores and home loans
Choosing a broker
A mortgage broker works out which lenders would accept your circumstances, then arranges the loan with the one that suits you best. A bank can only ever offer you its own loans, and a broker is under a legal duty to act in your best interests that bank staff are not. This guide sets out the job, explains who pays for it, and is honest about when going direct is the better call.
Read the guide: What a mortgage broker does
Buying a home
Buying a house is a sequence, and most of the trouble people run into comes from doing it out of order. This guide sets out the whole thing, from working out what you can afford through to settlement day. Each step points at the page on this site that covers it properly.
Read the guide: How to buy a house in Australia
First home buyers
A first purchase in Western Australia has more moving parts than a second one, because the help available comes from three different places and each has its own rules. This guide sets out the deposit, the borrowing side, the assistance and who decides each piece. It links to the grant guide rather than repeating its figures.
Read the guide: Buying your first home in WA
Loan types
Most home loans are variations on two ideas: whether the rate can move, and what you are allowed to do with your money while you owe it. This guide sets out each type, what it is genuinely good at, and what it costs you in exchange. Every type here has its own page with the detail on it.
Read the guide: The types of home loan, compared
Refinancing
Refinancing means replacing your existing home loan with a new one, usually with a different lender. Done for the right reason it can reduce what the loan costs you; done for the wrong one it resets a debt you were most of the way through. This guide covers the process, the costs and the cases where staying put is the better answer.
Read the guide: Refinancing a home loan
Investing
An investment loan is assessed on the same principles as an owner-occupier one, with two differences that matter: rental income is counted but discounted, and the deposit often comes from equity rather than cash. This guide covers how lenders read an investment file, how the borrowing is usually structured, and what changes once you own more than one.
Read the guide: Financing an investment propertyBuilding
A construction loan is not a home loan paid out in one go. It is drawn down in stages as the build progresses, and you pay interest only on what has been drawn. This guide covers how the drawdowns work, how a lender values a house that does not exist yet, and where builds most often come unstuck.
Read the guide: How construction loans workDevelopment
Development finance is lent against a project rather than against a borrower. The funder is assessing the feasibility, the site, the builder and the exit, and the borrower's own position is only part of it. This guide sets out what gets assessed, where bank, non-bank and private funding differ, and why a declined project is usually a mismatched funder rather than a bad site.
Read the guide: Funding a property development
Commercial
Commercial lending is a different exercise from a home loan. Pricing is negotiated rather than published, the security matters as much as the borrower, and the entity behind the loan is part of the assessment. This guide sets out what lenders look at, what the paperwork involves, and which kind of commercial facility fits which problem.
Read the guide: Commercial finance, explained
Expats
Australians living overseas can buy and refinance property at home, and as citizens they do not need foreign investment approval to do it. The lender pool is narrower than it is onshore, foreign income is usually discounted, and the paperwork has extra steps. This guide covers what changes, what to organise, and what to do before you move back.
Read the guide: Home loans for Australian expats
Borrowing power
Your borrowing power is your income, minus your commitments, tested against a rate higher than the one you would actually pay. Every lender runs that calculation differently, which is why the same file can produce numbers hundreds of thousands of dollars apart. This guide explains each input and what you could do about it.
Read the guide: How much can I borrow?
First home buyers
The First Home Owner Grant is a one-off payment for eligible first home buyers building or buying a new home in Western Australia. It is administered by RevenueWA, it is capped by the value of the property, and it is not means tested. Every figure on this page is taken from the WA Government's published material and dated, because these settings change.
Read the guide: The First Home Owner Grant in WA
Approvals
A pre-approval is a lender saying in writing what it would be prepared to lend you, before you have found a property. It is conditional, it is not the loan, and it can be undone. Understanding exactly what it does and does not commit anybody to is what stops it becoming an expensive misunderstanding.
Read the guide: Home loan pre-approval, explained
Approvals
How long a pre-approval takes depends on the lender, on how complex your file is, and on where you sit in that lender's queue, so no honest answer comes with a number attached. What can be described is what the lender is doing while you wait, and which parts of it you could influence. A complete file submitted to a lender whose policy already fits you is the only real lever anybody has on speed.
Read the guide: How long does pre-approval take?
Choosing a lender
Choosing a home loan lender starts with credit policy rather than price, because the sharpest advertised rate is worth nothing from a lender that would decline you. Once you have an offer, judge the whole package: the rate, the fees, the structure, the features you would genuinely use, and what it costs to leave. This guide covers all three parts of that one decision and closes with a checklist for comparing loans side by side.
Read the guide: Choosing a home loan lender
Choosing a broker
Choosing between brokers comes down to three checks: that they are properly licensed, that they have written files like yours before, and that they tell you plainly how they are paid. Everything after that is fit and follow-through. This guide sets out what to verify, what to ignore, and the signals that are worth walking away from.
Read the guide: Choosing a mortgage brokerChoosing a broker
The questions worth putting to a mortgage broker are the ones that make them show their working: how many lenders were considered, why this one was recommended, what it costs you, and who you deal with after settlement. A broker who has done the job can answer all of that without hesitating. This guide sets out the questions and describes what a straight answer to each one sounds like.
Read the guide: What to ask a mortgage broker
Choosing a broker
Mortgage brokers are paid a commission by the lender when your loan settles, not by you. There is an upfront payment at settlement and a smaller ongoing trail while the loan stays open, and both are disclosed to you in writing before you apply. This guide explains the structure, why it should not decide which lender you are recommended, and the files where a broker does charge a fee.
Read the guide: How mortgage brokers get paid
Refinancing
Refinancing an investment property works the same way as refinancing the home you live in, with three differences that decide the outcome: the evidence a lender asks for, how much of the rent it counts, and what the borrowed money is used for. The last of those is a tax question and belongs with your accountant rather than with us. This guide covers the documents, the assessment, the traps and how to work out whether the switch is worth making.
Read the guide: Refinancing an investment property
Refinancing
How long a refinance takes depends on both lenders, on how your file reads today and on what turns up when the title is looked at, so no honest answer arrives with a number attached. What can be described is the stage almost nobody warns you about: the discharge authority that goes to the lender you are leaving, which is yours to sign and without which nothing on that side has started. Getting that one right, early, is the closest thing to a lever anybody has.
Read the guide: How long does refinancing take?
Approvals
Most home loan applications that fall over do so on something that was fixable weeks earlier: an unused credit card limit, a deposit with no history behind it, a job started last month. This guide sets out fifteen of the mistakes that most often cost an application, grouped by when they happen, with the fix sitting under each one. Every outcome is subject to lender approval, and lender policy varies.
Read the guide: Home loan application mistakes
Deposits
A low deposit home loan is one written where your deposit sits below the level at which a lender stops charging mortgage insurance. There are several routes to buying with less than that, they cost very different things, and not all of them are open to every file. This guide explains how a lender reads a small deposit and what each route actually involves.
Read the guide: Buying with a low deposit
Investing
There is no correct answer to whether your first property should be a home or an investment, and anyone who gives you one has not asked enough questions. The two purchases are financed differently, assessed differently and taxed differently. This guide sets out what actually separates them, including the parts of the rentvesting argument that usually go unsaid.
Read the guide: Investment property or home first?
Deposits
Saving a deposit comes down to knowing what you are aiming at and making the saving happen before the spending does. The target is larger than the deposit alone, because transfer duty and settlement costs are paid in cash on top of it. This guide covers how to set that target, what a lender reads in your savings history, and which changes make the most difference.
Read the guide: Saving for a home deposit
Loan types
A split home loan divides your balance into a fixed portion and a variable portion under one loan, so a rate movement reaches only part of what you owe. Splits are commonly set in whatever proportion suits the borrower, and the right proportion depends on your budget and on what you intend to do with the loan. The trade-off is that you are partly right whichever way rates move, and the fixed portion still carries every restriction a fixed loan carries.
Read the guide: Splitting a home loan
Repayments
There are only three ways to pay a mortgage off sooner: reduce the balance faster, reduce it more often, or reduce the rate it is charged at. Everything sold as a payoff strategy is one of those three under a different name, and which combination is worth your effort depends entirely on your own loan. This guide explains the mechanisms, names the refinance term reset that can undo a lower rate, and hands you to the calculators for the arithmetic.
Read the guide: Paying off your mortgage faster
Loan features
An offset account is a separate transaction account whose balance reduces the amount of your loan that interest is charged on. Redraw is the extra repayments you have already made into the loan itself, which many lenders let you take back. The two look almost identical on a statement and behave very differently on access, on lender discretion, and on how the money is characterised if the property is an investment.
Read the guide: Offset vs redraw
Commercial
A business loan application is decided on what the money is for, where the repayments come from, and whether the numbers support both of those answers. This guide sets out what a credit assessor reads in a business file, what to gather before anything is lodged, and what strengthens the case. Every outcome is subject to lender approval, and lender policy varies.
Read the guide: Getting a business loan approved
Managing debt
Debt consolidation means combining several debts into one loan with a single repayment, usually at a lower rate than the debts it replaces. It could make a stretched budget workable, and it could also turn a short debt into one you pay for decades and secure it against your home. Which of those you end up with depends on the term, the structure, and whether the accounts close afterwards.
Read the guide: Debt consolidation
Savings
An emergency fund is cash set aside for costs you did not plan for, held where you could reach it quickly without spending it by accident. There is no single right amount: what suits you depends on how stable your income is, how many people depend on it, and what your fixed commitments come to each month. It also matters to a lender, because savings history and what is left in the account after settlement are both things many lenders read when they assess a home loan.
Read the guide: Emergency fundsMoney writing without an author is worth very little. Every guide here is signed, and the name links to a profile with real qualifications on it.
Managing Director
Broking since 2005, four-time Top 100 broker and a PLAN Australia Hall of Fame member.
Loan Consultant
Business and law background, and a habit of making the process feel simple.
Loan Consultant
Fresh qualifications, a competitor's discipline, and a lot of patience.
The information on this page is general in nature and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Any figures shown are estimates only. Lending is subject to approval, and to the lender's terms, conditions, fees and charges. Consider whether the information is appropriate for you before acting on it.
Quantum Finance Australia Pty Ltd ABN 63 115 967 818 as trustee for the Gavin Harrigan Family Trust trading as Quantum Finance Australia is authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 389083.
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