Mortgage Scams • Loan Scams • Identity Protection Mortgage Scams in Australia: How to Know You’re Really Talking to Your Bank or Broker Mortgage scams in Australia are not always obvious. A fake lender or broker can have a convincing website, professional-looking documents, an Australian phone number and even real business or licence details copied […]
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Pre-Approval • Property Security • Home Buying Property Declined After Pre Approval? Why Pre-Approved Doesn’t Mean Every Property Is Approved A property declined after pre approval can come as a nasty surprise. You may already know roughly how much a lender is prepared to lend, but the actual property still needs to meet the lender’s
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Investment Property • Keeping Your Home • Next Home Can You Turn Your Current Home Into an Investment Property? You have outgrown your current home, found somewhere else you would rather live — but you are not quite ready to sell the old place. So can you simply keep it, rent it out and turn
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Property Valuations • Home Loans • LVR Why the Bank’s Property Valuation Can Be Different From What Your Home Is Worth Online An online property estimate says $950,000. A real estate agent thinks it could sell for $980,000. You believe it is worth around $1 million. Then the lender values it at $900,000. That does
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Home Loan Pre-Approval • House Hunting • Buying Property Your Home Loan Pre-Approval Has an Expiry Date — Here’s What Can Change Before You Buy Getting home loan pre-approval can make the property search much easier. You have an indication of what a lender may be prepared to lend and a clearer price range to
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Home Loan Serviceability • Borrowing Power • APRA Why Banks Assess Your Home Loan at a Rate You’re Not Actually Paying Your home loan rate might be 6%. Yet the bank could assess your borrowing power as though the rate were around 9%. That does not mean the bank thinks you are about to start
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Falling Property Prices • Home Equity • Refinancing Falling Property Prices: What They Actually Mean for Your Home Loan Australian property prices are falling again, with Sydney and Melbourne leading the recent declines. But a lower property value does not mean the same thing for every homeowner. If you are staying put and comfortably paying
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Mortgage Prison • Refinancing • Home Loans Mortgage Prison: Why You Can Afford Your Home Loan but Still Can’t Refinance You are paying your mortgage. A cheaper home loan exists. Yet when you try to refinance, the new lender says no. It sounds ridiculous, but it can happen. The term mortgage prison describes borrowers who
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Buying a Home • Conveyancing • Australian Property What does a conveyancer actually do when you buy a home? Buying a home comes with a small army of people: the real estate agent, your mortgage broker, the lender, perhaps a building inspector — and then someone asks whether you’ve sent the contract to your conveyancer.
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Home Loans • Repayments • New Calculator Where does your mortgage repayment actually go? You make a home loan repayment every month, but the amount leaving your bank account is only half the story. Some pays interest. Some reduces the loan itself. And over time, the balance between the two can change dramatically. Our new
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