How to make an offer on a property

Posted by ryan.ewart in Conveyancing, First Home Buyers, Home Loan, Mortgage Broking, Property Buying, Upgrading

You’ve been house hunting for some time now and you’ve finally found THE one. The perfect home for you, your family and even the dog. But what do you do next? 

Buying a home – whether it is your very first home or even if you’ve purchased property before – can be daunting. To make sure that you get the best deal on your dream home, our dream team of property buyers and home loan specialists have put together some tips on what to do now you’ve found ‘the one’.

1. Make an offer, don’t sign the contract

Any serious offer to buy a place should be in writing. But that doesn’t mean you have to sign the contract of sale just yet.

If the selling agent pushes you into signing the contract as soon as you’ve made an offer, be ready to hit the ‘pause’ button. There’s still a lot to do before you put your signature to a legally binding document. 

2. Call our home loan team

Hopefully, our home loan team has helped you get pre-approval (smart move!), so give us a call straight away to let us know you’ve found the property you want to buy. This will get the ball rolling with unconditional approval for your home loan.

If you haven’t taken any steps to arrange a home loan, it’s even more important to get in touch with us as soon as possible. It is possible for your formal offer to include a ‘subject to finance’ clause, and it can be a wise move. Remember, it takes several weeks for a lender to process your loan application so don’t bow to pressure from the real estate agent to bypass the subject to finance clause or reduce the extra time required.

3. Get legal advice!

Thank goodness for email! It means you can fast forward a copy of the sale contract to our legal team.

This is an essential step. Our solicitor and conveyancer will make sure your contract covers you as the purchaser.

 The contract should specify ‘chattels’ – in other words, those items that come with the place you are buying. Your legal rep can identify the ‘removable’ items such as the dishwasher, curtains, and even floor coverings. It’s an area where home buyers can easily be caught out.

Make sure that the settlement date works for you before you sign a contract of sale. Vendors are often reasonably flexible if you need an extended settlement period beyond the traditional six weeks.

4. Organise a deposit

When you submit a written offer on a property, the real estate agent may expect some sort of holding deposit of up to $100 at the time of making an offer which is held in a trust account. 

This is not the same as a 10% deposit you may pay on the exchange of contracts or if you’re the highest bidder at auction. Rather, it’s a sign that your offer is genuine.

5. Get a building inspection

If you want to make your offer subject to a clean building and/or pest inspection, the real estate agent will usually have standard wording to be included on the contract or our legal team can help.

Read the wording they provide to be sure you’re happy with it. If not, ask for it to be altered to your requirements.

6. Get your finance approved

At this stage, you’ve made your offer and handed over a small down payment – maybe $1,000. You’ve made your offer subject to finance, with a finance clause spanning a couple of weeks, and the balance of your deposit is due the same date. 

Now’s the time to meet with our home loan expert to get your home loan application underway and make the property your own.

Still looking?

If you’re still looking at properties and want to make sure you are in the best position to make an offer when the time comes, contact us to make an appointment to speak to one of our team. We offer you a range of services to help make buying your next home as easy as possible. 

We can walk you through the buying process, home loan applications and help you organise your pre-approval so you can have confidence when making an offer.

What is positive credit reporting?

Posted by ryan.ewart in Accounting, Financial Planning, First Home Buyers, Home Loan, Upgrading

When you need to borrow money, having a good credit history is vital.

Maintaining a favourable credit rating is important when you need to borrow money and a new reporting system in Australia now makes it easier. Changes to the way lenders assess your credit score are underway with new laws imposed by the federal government that include positive credit reporting.

Comprehensive Credit Reporting (CCR), the new system that includes positive and negative financial behaviour is bound to be good news for borrowers and lenders as it will give the full picture of your financial standing, not just the negative stuff as it has in the past.

What does CCR means for borrowers?

Australia has been behind other countries when it comes to personal credit scores, which only let lenders see your negative money behaviours. That means if you’ve ever fallen behind on your mortgage or didn’t pay a phone bill, financial institutes and brokers were advised when running a credit check.

What they weren’t told about are all the times you did pay your bills on time. And that’s where the big change comes in.

For borrowers, this transparent method of tracing your financial history will mean more opportunity for loan approval. It may also offer opportunity for better rates on mortgages and other loans, including credit card limits.

And for lenders, CCR means getting an honest, broader insight into a borrower’s overall money history, which will lead to better, and fairer, client assessment.

How to maintain a positive credit score

Maintaining a clean and clear financial history is the best way to ensuring your loan application will be approved. Here’s a list of ways to keep your financial standing favourable.

  • Firstly, you have to have a credit history to maintain. Lenders need a past to look at so be sure to have bills in your name. Start with a mobile phone plan, utilities bill or credit card.
  • Don’t borrow more than you can re-pay
  • Pay your bills on time
  • Always pay your mortgage first
  • Keep your credit card available balance higher than what is owed
  • Keep credit cards to a minimum and use the one you’ve had the longest the most
  • Spend less than you earn
  • Save money for emergencies and hardships
  • Talk to a broker to gain an understanding about your current credit score.

How to save on your home loan

Posted by ryan.ewart in Construction Loans, Financial Planning, First Home Buyers, Home Loan, Interest Rates, Mortgage Broking, Property Buying, Refinancing, Upgrading

There are few financial commitments that carry as much weight as your home loan.

So it makes sense that when the Reserve Bank cuts interest rates to such historic lows, that now is the time to review your home loan and see if you could potentially save thousands.

There are a few reasons why the RBA decided to cut the cash rate this month. Sustained national dwelling value falls, consistently lacklustre inflation and mixed messages from the labour market, may have encouraged the Board to shift its long-held stance on monetary policy.

This months rate cut is good news for the Australian property market which could now see a boost from lower interest rates. According to the latest CoreLogic Hedonic Home Value Index, national dwelling values fell 0.4% in April and 7.3% annually.

While the RBA’s decision will no doubt bring relief to borrowers across the country, the question now is how soon, and by how much will the nation’s lenders pass on the savings to borrowers?

In the past week we’ve seen most of the big banks did not pass on these savings to its customers. This is not that  surprising as in recent history, very few of the bigger lenders passed on the full rate to borrowers.

If you’re with one of the bigger banks or lenders, it is absolutely worth checking to see if another lender can get you a better deal.

How could you save on your home loan

If you’re keen to secure a better interest rate or enjoy more loan features, refinancing your home loan can be the solution. You could end up saving thousands off your home loan. Refinancing is also an opportunity to get control of debt or tap into any home equity you’ve built up.

Secure a lower rate on your home loan

One of the main reasons people choose to refinance their loan is to get a lower interest rate, and put more money back into their pockets instead of paying the banks. When done correctly, refinancing your home loan could save you thousands over the life of your loan, and free up cash now. With rates sitting low at the moment, now is the perfect time to see if you can save by refinancing.

Switch between variable & fixed rates

Another way to save on your home loan is to switch between a variable rate and a fixed rate. With a fixed rate, some want peace of mind – knowing exactly how much their monthly repayments will be without the possibility of it changing is worth a slight increase in rate. Conversely, you may decide you’d like to take advantage of a lower variable rate as you can accept the risk that rates may rise in future.

Get a home loan with better features

There are some great home loan features around at the moment, and refinancing could help give you some of the features that weren’t available to you before. You might want to switch to a home loan that allows you to make lump repayments without fees or open up an offset account to reduce your interest.

There are some pretty cool boutique features as well like getting a repayment holiday (a break from repayments), or the loan portability feature which allows you to take your home loan with you when you move without much hassle.  

Consolidate your debt

Many of us have multiple debts like car or credit card along with our home loan. Often our car and credit card loans have pretty high interest rates, meaning more out of your pocket. Refinancing could give you the opportunity to streamline your debt and potentially reduce the overall interest you’re paying through ‘debt consolidation’, streamlining all of higher interest debts into one lower interest debt, reducing your monthly repayments.

Release some equity in your current property

You may be thinking about joining the thousands of Aussies that have invested in property, renovate your home or go traipsing around Europe on that trip of a lifetime. With your current home usually being your most valuable asset, it only makes sense to release as much of the value in your home as possible.  

Not so long ago, the only way home owners could access their home equity was by selling up and upgrading to another property. These days, home loans are flexible and it’s possible to get access to the equity in your home without having to sell up. Reviewing your home loan can help you see exactly how much equity is available to you, and refinancing can help you access the equity to use for other things.

Let us help you save on your home loan

When it comes time to make a decision about refinancing your home loan, the best suggestion is to sit down with our team and go over your current home loan.

We compare your current loan with hundreds of others from our lenders to see if we can find you a better deal.