Pre-approval is a green light from a lender. Put simply, it confirms you're eligible to apply for a home loan up to a certain amount. Essentially, the lender checks your financial circumstances, to decide if you'll meet their criteria and can afford to repay a mortgage. A home loan pre-approval usually lasts for three to six months and gives you a set budget during your property search. Here's why home loan pre-approval is so important. To confirm your borrowing power B...

Getting ready to buy your first home? As your mortgage manager, we're here to help you every step of the way. It's an exciting time and it's easy to make mistakes. Here are 5 common mistakes that you should try to avoid!
1. Relying on advice from family and friends Family and friends are people you can trust, so it's understandable that you listen to their advice. However, while they may have the best of intentions, it's always best to seek independent professional advi...

If you're self-employed, meeting the strict lending criteria of many banks can be tough. What's more, each bank has its own lending policies making it even harder to know exactly where you stand. When all your time is focused on running your business (as it should be), it can be difficult to do the leg work to find out things like: Do you need bank statements or pay slips to apply for a self-employed home loan? Should you be registered for GST? How does your fluctuating income e...

    Your finances can get a bit out of control sometimes, for all sorts of reasons. Illness, divorce, redundancy – sometimes, just getting overwhelmed with things to do and accidentally missing a bill payment. The result can be that you get put in the bad credit basket. Even if you sort it out and pay the overdue bills or fix up a default on a loan repayment, you can still have a black mark against your name afterwards. So, while you may see yourself in the clear after clear...

If you're self-employed, like most small business owners, you know how to make money but perhaps you're not so great at managing it. Usually this is because you're so busy running (and building) your business to keep on top of the latest money advice for self-employed borrowers. So, to help you better understand how to manage your money here are a few quick and easy tips to help you get started. 1.            Paying less tax...