Before You Buy: What Lenders Really Look For

In this episode of Fraser Coast Property Brief, Glen Winney sits down with Peter Bennett from AFPG to unpack the lending process in plain English.

Peter shares his journey from nearly 30 years in policing to becoming a mortgage adviser, and explains how trust, pressure and people skills shaped the way he works with clients today.

The conversation then moves into practical advice for buyers, investors and anyone looking to build on the Fraser Coast. Peter explains what a mortgage broker does, how brokers differ from banks, what lenders assess, why pre-approval matters, and how land and construction finance works.

They also talk about deposits, Lenders Mortgage Insurance, credit history, serviceability, fixed versus variable rates, current market confidence, and why buyers should get finance-ready before they start shopping.

A clear, practical episode for anyone thinking about buying, building or borrowing in the Fraser Coast market.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Fraser Coast Property Brief, the podcast where property, development, and business leaders share what's really happening across the Fraser Coast. Each episode brings you insights into local projects, market trends, and the people helping shape the future of our region. Welcome back to the Fraser Coast Property Brief. Today I'm joined by Peter Bennett from AFPG, which is Australian Financial Planning Group based here in Harvey Bay. Peter is a mortgage advisor. But before finance, he had a very different career as a police officer, which we're going to delve into. Today we're going to cover two things. First, Peter's personal journey from policing into mortgage broking. Second, you're going to get practical about lending, the current residential market, what a broker actually does, how it differs from a bank, and really get into the nitty-gritty of borrowing. So today we're talking about lending, security, pre-approvals. So welcome, Peter. So this is a general discussion about brokering. A lot going on at the moment with wars over in Iran, interest rates going up, now Reserve Bank's talking about interest rates going down. So I want to get into the complexities of lending, but I'm more interested in you to start with. Give us a little bit about your history. How does a police officer turn into a mortgage advisor?

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Well it all started originally. I was uh I left school at 15 actually, and I joined the old Bank of New South Wales. Walked in the door there and um was uh their mail clerk and spent seven years in the bank and basically got into policing. My my brother joined, and after hanging around him for a while, I thought this looks really exciting. Um and that call to go and serve got me, and I joined up and spent probably nearly 30 years there.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

So what it would have been early mid eighties era that you got into it?

SPEAKER_00 2:04

1985 I walked into the police academy.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Well different back then, you were allowed to do lots of things with copper.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yeah, it was uh um that era I think that everyone sort of looks back, but I was fresh and young and um you know wanted to jump in and just enjoy the excitement because that's what I actually got that from my brother from his stories. Um and um yeah, the things progressed from there, spent the next 30 years.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

That's good. That's probably one of those ones' eras that you probably picked up in the 80s. Well, it's they take it, they take you out to the edge of the town and buddy take your shoes off and make you walk back if you've done something wrong.

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Yeah, a lot of people say that when I see them um in my job now and tell them what I used to do, and they go see that look and go, Do you know me? You remember me.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

So, where were you posted? Which which where'd you start your career and where where are the different places you're posted?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

So, so my first year I started in um in Brisbane and the Valley. So I basically was so Fortitude Valley. Fortitude Valley uh and Brisbane City. That was my first shift. We basically very different now. We showed up at the station, they gave us a radio and a ticket book and uh a map that said this is where you walk, and they sent me another first-year constable on their first day out and let us loose.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

That was like Sydney City back then, Fortitude Valley.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Yep, um, so very different. So I did my first months, 12 months training there, and then uh went up to Ipswich, Ipswich, where I I I immediately jumped straight into plain clothes and worked in the criminal investigation branch after about a month, month of getting there.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Plenty of customers out there as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

There was, there was, there was plenty, and it was one of it was a it was a rough old town. You had to had to be able to handle yourself to get in there, and so I spent a number of years there.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Um when did you come up to Harvey Bay?

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Well, in between there, I went off and uh I took charge of a little place called Wowan, which is w west of Rocky, one man police station. I did five years there with the family. Um and that's probably I'd say where I really came of age in my policing career, being embedded in that local community. Like it was farming based, small town, and um one pub. That's what pop as you liked, yeah. Um and and I guess that's um yeah, where I really sort of learnt how to be a policeman, yeah, um, and how important that was being part of that community. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Um and you moved to Harvey Bay when?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Harvey Bay. Well, I went by King Arroy then for a little while, and so Harvey Bay, I rolled in here at the end of 1999, and that's uh promotion to sergeant, and uh spent then the next 14 years here. 14 years, so how long had you retired from policing?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

2014 was I think long service after 30 years, had enough?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Um it was kind of like um my time here, I got I became involved in finance with like as a client. Yep, and funnily enough, it was sort of like I was referring a lot of friends and colleagues along, and then they said, You want a job.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

So tell me how that transition happened. Did you go straight from policing to a finance broker or did you just decide you wanted to leave policing and didn't really want to do, or is it a I was probably really lucky I had the opportunity to do a little transition period.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yep. Um, just on some long service leave and just just reaching that stage in the career. Um, and then I gave it a try and just I realized that it was I could still do what I want without people wanting to jump over the desk at me or the conflict, and probably 30 years I'd sort of reached that point where I'd had enough enough of that, and it was something new and exciting, and I could see I could still uh still help people. Um, and uh it was still a people, it was very much the same. Everyone says so different, but yeah, you know, we're all dealing with legislation, policies, and procedures, and really just being able to have that relationship uh was with the client.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

You still want to jump over desk when you don't give them a loan?

SPEAKER_00 6:17

That's very different now.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

All right, so let's break it down. What does a mortgage broker or mortgage advisor actually do? You know, like people are used to bankers and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

What's the difference? Um well I I guess the main difference is that I see is when you go to a bank, um the same, the process is the same as what we're doing. We're assessing your position. But in the bank, bank has their one product, yeah, and they're assessing what you want to do, and do you fit our policy? Yeah, whereas what we do is we're we're looking at what your objective is or what the client's objective is and what they want to do, understanding their position fully, and then we're matching them to the lenders and the options that would be available to them given their circumstances, and believe me, that was the one thing I found very uh different. I thought it would be so easy. Every single person you see has such a different position to try and fit them in with the right lender. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

So you're like a dating service, nearly. Yeah. You find a you find a good customer or and you then you work out what their needs are, what the risk profile is, then you find a bank that fits that same sort of profile or or risk aversion or whatever else.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

And it's a one it's it's kind of like a one-stop. They'll come and talk to us, yeah, and they're not going through the door and getting a no and then going and reproducing everything again to the next to the next one and the next one until they can find a yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Because your business also got uh financial planning and everything too, so you can do a more holistic type understanding of the client's needs and help them with cash flow and everything like that.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah, and and I mean that's one thing that I uh learnt very early in mind being embedded in that that industry is just look looking past the initial loan and looking to the what's the future or what's the end game or the end goal for that original objective. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

So is it much different for the client besides having multiple banks? So you do the application to the banks, not to the client. Um, so is it much different for their process to come sit in your office or go sit in the bank manager's office?

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Uh I'd like to think that it's a it's a lot more streamlined for them. Um we've still got to gather the same information. So our our core process is based on meeting all of the legislative guidelines for identifications, all the bank policies. Um they're all very much the same. And but we so we will go through all that assessment and then we we will come back to to our clients with recommendations for what and you know some most most of the time every people proceed with our recommendations, but sometimes they they want to take a different path.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So I'm gonna wander down your office, get some money off you. Um what do I really need? Do I need um you know what what information should I be bringing down to you the first time um I want to talk about a loan?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Well, um there's uh initially look, we have to jump through like an identification process as the anti-money laundering legislation, which is legislation we have to follow. But importantly from that So what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

You just got to verify the So it's that passports or driver's case.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yeah, usually look the the main ones is passports, driver uh sorry, passport and driver's license or birth certificate, Medicare card and driver's license, and that gets you in the door.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Um initially, what I look for is just um obviously want to know what your objective is, um, and if you can bring evidence of what your income is with you, so that we can do that initial assessment and go through all that. The the the importance of the driver's license uh and the identification is we go through a privacy and consent process, um, which is done with everywhere, and we first place we go and look is the the credit report. Um and and that's kind of like your credit history.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Yeah, that's the one online you go in yourself and look at Yeah, you can look at it.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

But we get a very different one that we get access, and it's the one we access the one that the banks access, and and funnily enough, they sometimes find more things than what we actually access.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

So there is a somebody's got a overdue credit card payments or a small bad debt or a private lender loan or something, all those things in consideration.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Mystery payments, and that they all affect the banks that you can go to, what lenders we can access. So some of the banks have got pretty strict rules on what they'll let happen with that, yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

So let's go into the lending itself for a minute. So um we'll stick to residential today. So we'll stick to the normal mum and dad house um, you know, or or investment property, but you know, more so the residential house. What's the normal lending criteria to borrow for a house? You know, what should your deposit be? Is it the old 80% lend and you need 20% deposit, or is it a bit more flexible these days?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

Okay. So generally, 80% lend for a bank, that's the sweet spot for them. So ideally, if you've got 20% deposit uh plus your purchase costs and a standard residential property, we can access most lenders with that, and they're happy. But of course, then obviously above 80%, that's where our lenders' mortgage insurance comes in. It's not something that everyone considers. So explain mortgage insurance.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Is that just another cost or is it an insurance policy?

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, it's uh it's I I sort of look at it, it's really it's an insurance policy that um the client pays that protects the bank. Right. So uh really, because if you don't um if the loan's not insured above that 80%, the bank's not going to give you the money.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

So that's it's like insuring your car.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

You've got to pay an insurance company.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

So if you're defaulting your loan, the insurance company pays out that money.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yeah, if there's a shortfall, if they have to force just force the sale of the property and there's a shortfall, they can't recover the money. They pay for the shortfall. And that's why the banks want it insured. So the ben the benefit is to to the client is that it enables you to reach that objective to buy the property.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Yep. Um and when you have an 80-20 rule, is that 20% cash, or can it be 20% equity in something else if you've got another house and you're looking for investment, or it can be anything external to property that that 20% can be?

SPEAKER_00 12:50

So so that 20% um in the end result, it's got to turn into cash. Now that can be from meaning you can access another security, we can combine with the one that you're wanting to buy. Yeah, you still got to borrow all the money.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Um it can be shares. You can we we can go to the bank and go, hey, look, we've got this much in shares, and that as long as that is turned in, converted to cash and available at settlement.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

So you put a mortgage over the other security as well.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

They do, yeah. So they'll be taking and they'll combine. And there's a couple of different strategies that we employ.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

All right, so what's the you know, we we know how much you can borrow and the rest of it. So what's a lender, you know, in in this case you, which is filtering the information out, what what are you really trying to assess from the borrower? How much is about credibility, how much is about the way they live their life and their expenses, credit cards, or whether they're a saver and that. What what what's the key things that you look for?

SPEAKER_00 13:49

So so there's a there's these five C's of lending that they talk about before. Uh so I remember when I was doing the original training. Um, so and really simply let's look at um character, uh capacity, capital, collateral, and conditions. Look, without going into them, we're what they're in, what we're looking at is first of all, we look at the client. Yeah, what's their history? Uh credit file gives us a picture. Are they someone that's going buy now, pay later, short-term finance and all that stuff? It paints a picture of what their what their history is in in terms of finance. Um then income, can they service the debt? Is it are we putting them into a position that's going to be detrimental to them going forward? Um, like obviously, if you need to borrow uh half a million dollars and you can only service 300,000, you're not getting a loan.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Do they have to supply a family budget or something? Saying this is how much I spend a week and I've got this spare?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yep. Um and then so so with that, with that, so that talks now more about what's called household expenditure measure. So let's probably go into a little bit of depth with um how the banks look at it. Bank will look at it and they'll go, single person, this is the expenditure measure we would expect they would be spending. Yeah, and that's what they'll apply. So you can tell them I don't spend that much, they'll still apply that higher level. Husband and wife, we expect you to spend more. Vice versa, as well as if someone making $50,000 and someone making $200,000, they raise that level, and that has an effect on your borrowing capacity.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

So they don't believe when my wife says I didn't buy any online shopping, I don't spend that much. They go, nah, that's not true.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

And that's why they ask for statements, Glenn, and they don't look at it all.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

All right, so um so you got that cat, you got the character, you go through all that. Yeah, um, obviously, there's some intangible things you look at, especially around the character, so it'd be very hard to put into form, so you really can't tell the customer that they're they've got a bad character and you don't like them. Um it's a delicate situation when you're going through this.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

It's a bit of a generalized term. I mean, they're looking for your employment history, yeah. Um, really, and then you know, have you been uh jumping from job to job and different different fields of work, or have you sort of shown a steady career path? You can move employer to employer, but if you're in that same line of work, um and um basically it's off that that uh credit report, which it also records have you been moving around house to house and all these sort of things and all that sort of contact.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Okay, so I'm not gonna ask you how you work to seek your formula out, but uh repayments. So is there a golden rule, you know, if uh a young borrower is looking, you know, it's a lot of first-time owners and they think, well, you know, what should the the mortgage payments be in percentage of your overall income? You know, is it is it 25, 30 percent or is it what's what's your well I there's a generalization of where too much is too much?

SPEAKER_00 17:00

They've got their calculations that the bank are rely on, and so if a bank is looking, they they add what's called a buffer onto the interest rate, so uh that's about three percent is on average for all of them. Yeah, so if you're looking at a home loan and going, hey, I can afford a home loan at six per cent here, the bank's adding three percent on that in their assessment. Um yeah, uh look, there there is a general sort of one there, but I've found over the over the years um so many different factors now come in that we get it. But look.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

How much is overextended? You know, if they're paying 50% of their mortgage, oh yeah, that so what's what's uh what's a comfortable it may not be a rule, but what what's an advance as a general?

SPEAKER_00 17:41

You know, 25% maybe if they're I mean like I sort of I I I I generally gauge that when I'm talking to the client and I'll give them the number and I'll go, how do you feel about that? And usually they'll give you gives me a fair indication. That's from a client perspective. The bank might say you can have the money, yeah. And that's where we come in and out and as a broker and sort of going, well, that's the figure. Bank says you can have it. It's about you being comfortable with that repayment.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

So in and a rental history, obviously, they've they're renting a house so they've proven they can pay a rental, so you look at that as well.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

And that and that's a consideration and all that.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

So let's get into the property side. Yeah, you know, and I I see this a lot, and we ask in our game because we sell a lot off-the-plan selling and and people are buying well in advance. Um, and often we ask, do you have a pre-approval from the bank before you go shopping?

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

So it tell me about the pre-approval process and should people be doing it before they go out, you know, run around display homes on weekends or go and buy a house or whatever else.

SPEAKER_00 18:48

Look, the the pre-approval process is the same as an application for purchasing a property or building a property, whichever way you want to go. It's it's gets up to the point where the bank says, based on you telling us you want to buy at this amount, we're happy to lend you that amount of money. This is what the rate, this is what the repayments will be. Um, it's subject to us being happy with the property that you're buying and giving us a cloud. And you get an upper limit. And you'll get an upper limit on that. And what we generally try and do is maximize that because invariably when people go shopping, they're looking, going, I want to want to spend $700,000, but that really nice house for $750 is the one that I actually end up buying.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Or they go to an auction.

SPEAKER_00 19:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

It's bidding up a little bit above uh.

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

So does a pre-approval letter give them enough confidence to go to an auction and go to a cash contracting there?

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Or um yeah, it certainly does. And I'm I'm finding now a lot more people are seeking pre-approvals now, because when the market was been so uh running so hot, yeah, the competition's there and uh vendors are looking and going, what have I got? Oh, I've got someone that's got to go and get finance, and I've got someone that's already got pre-approval. Yeah, so it's working in their favour. So there's certainly a lot more confidence on both sides. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

So how does the finance work buying off the plan a lot? Oh, you know, we we sell a lot of new estates, so uh so mum and dad might come in and say, Oh, I want to buy this block of land, might take six months before the land's finished, even then, they've got to get a house built, might take another six months. How does the loan process work if they want to go borrow a percentage for the land, then build the house on it? Is that one loan or are they doing two separate things or yeah?

SPEAKER_00 20:37

So so the main with with that land and construction, there's there's two processes that happen, or two options. One is where um the builder is very happy to fund the whole build and give the one contract. There's less and less of those uh running around. Then the other one is uh in your case, the developer sells the block of land, we have a contract for that, that purchase happens, and once that's happened, you can then construct the house. So you actually will get a loan to buy the land.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So it's a separate loan.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Oh, that's a separate loan that we do.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

And that's not guaranteeing the house loan, that's just saying we've got enough.

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Generally, what we'll do ideally, you know what you want to build and the house is ready, and we'll go to the bank and go, can we have one loan, buy that land, and do that build? And it is all done in one loan at that one time, but a lot of the time the build's not ready, the land is. So that that land that loan happens and repayments will be made uh in the normal way. What different banks, different people have different ideas. Uh, when it comes to the bill, we do, or what I often recommend is let's roll that land loan into one construction loan, if the lender permits it, and that converts to interest only. And you pay progress claims. And you pay progress. And as the as the bill happens, your debt increase. But you're only servicing the interest until the property is complete because I've got to forget that we're still living in a house where we're probably rent somewhere else, so yeah, you're at it squeeze during that process. So ideally, look, normally six months for the build process is a is you know, sometimes sooner, sometimes a bit longer, uh, that you've really got to be really on point with your budget paying that interest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

So is it easy to just get one loan by an established house or is it becoming more common now to people wanting to build new houses?

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Um look, the government incentives that have been around with the first home buyers grant uh I found of late our market here has pushed us out of that accessibility to that first homeowners grant because that's capped that 750,000 combined house and land.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Um so it really comes down to a personal choice on what's which is hard now because at the entry level, even in Hubby Bay, it's getting above $750,000 for a new home. You might be able to buy an older established house or something, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

So several years ago, those schemes were really good because we were we were right in the sweet window for those, but now we've just succeeded and jumped out. I mean the same with that government guarantee scheme if we have a and that five percent deposits. Yeah, well our our it's $700,000 is the um is the cap for this region here. Um so if you can go and buy a home um now in in the area for s under $700,000, yes, you can access the government guarantee scheme.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

All right. Let's just talk about the uh interest rates and the market mood. Um you know we had four or five interest rate cuts last year, RBA put up two interest rates this year, just recently said, oh, we might have a drop in interest rates because the the mood is shifting with the external wars and and cost of living. Um where do you see the mood, especially of the banks, with lending and you know, are they aggressively trying to lend or are they predicting more rises themselves?

SPEAKER_00 24:10

Everyone's got their view on it. The number of times, Glenn, I've been asked what are the interest rates going to do. Um and my reply is if I knew that I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you. Uh but um what what I have found more so recently now is a fair indicator is what the banks are doing with their fixed rates.

SPEAKER_02 24:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

And just recently I've seen a number of them come out and they're lowering their two and three year fixed rates.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

So they they are predicting yeah rate decreases in the future.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Yeah. Um the people that are picking their rates obviously do their homework and they're setting those rates based on what they think the market's gonna be at that time.

SPEAKER_01 24:49

So what's the average rate now? Is it five point nine, something like that?

SPEAKER_00 24:52

No, look the average home loan, if it's gonna you can probably chase something potentially over the five, but most there is about that six, six point zero nine. Six point zero nine.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

And some of the banks are saying that they're giving longer-term fixed loans at below the six?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yeah, that's that rate I was saying was about a variable one, but in the fixed fixed rates they're setting them up six and a half percent. Six and a half percent. Now when they're yeah, when they're starting, and that's for twelve months. And and and what the discussions I have with people is they go, well, we're on a variable rate now. If we factor in over twelve months two more rate rises coming in four months, you're already up and surpassing what that fixed race is. And then um so you you're essentially having a betting against the bank and the market with that.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

I remember years ago um you know, when when things were going up for 15 years or so, and the bank convinced me I should lock in for uh two, three years at eight percent fixed rate. Yeah. I'm gonna save all this money before it goes down. That's a wonderful rate. Next thing is you know, about a year in, it's sitting about six percent, and I think that wasn't a good call. Look, but if it went the other way, then I'd be in you're probably in financial trouble because your repayments go up and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Fixed rates, there's there's it's a security thing. There's a couple, yeah, and there's a couple of reasons. Mainly is you want to manage your cash flow and you want to know what that's my repayment for the next two or three years, whatever you set it for, and I don't have to worry that it's gonna go up or down and I'm comfortable. Or in the earlier days, like I a number of people had come in in and probably crying with it. I've just finished my three or four year 1.99 percent fixed rate, and now I'm telling me I've got to pay six percent. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Um I I think it is, especially if we're with a younger couple getting in their first home, you need that guarantee of your weekly budget because you are sitting pretty tight, you know, in in your limits.

SPEAKER_00 26:42

Yeah, I mean you can't one one of the discussions, you have the option you can actually split your lending and and fix a portion of the loan. If you've got a $500,000 loan, you can fix $300,000 and keep $200,000 variable, you can still access access offset accounts.

SPEAKER_01 26:58

That's part of the advice you give as a financial buyer.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

And and and would tailor it to what the individual circumstances are.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Uh and um let's just talk about these rate rises. You know, we've had two 0.25% rate rises. What does that actually mean for the mum and dad? So you know we've got a probably average house around $800,000 here. So what does those you know, those rate rises mean in weekly or monthly repayments?

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yeah. Um look, depending on what you're borrowing, it can mean you've got to find an extra hundred dollars a week to just make your loan repayment.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Um so for those that's for the two of them or the two rate rises?

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, probably yeah. Look, and it's it depends on what you're uh on what you've borrowed, you know.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah, at least five grand plus a year.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yeah, yeah. So I mean that's a big in impact on the household budget. And then you throw in um fuel's gone up, rates go up, power's going up, all those things, um, all those other costs of living. And that's that's part and parcel of the discussions when I am doing this is we try and factor that in in front and have those real discussions about uh this is what it is now, um, this is what it potentially could be. So how do you feel about that? Yep. Um and then try and adjust the lending as best we can to fit.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

Yeah, and and if they're right at the edge, that's when the the fixed interest rates become a security blanket a bit because they're not going to get caught in the markets, one way or another. All right, so that's good advice. Um so confidence out there, the Iran war, uh obviously petrol prices went up, starting to come back down. Um we've got two rate rises this year, trying to knock the confidence out of it. It seems to be working in uh southern markets. So, what's the sediment in the market around our region at the moment in your lending side?

SPEAKER_00 28:54

Um I I think the confidence is still there. Um it's just a little bit more guarded. Um not as eager to rush in, uh, but it's still there. So they're more measured, um, a little bit more analytical on some of those finer details. What's that rate rise affecting going to do to me?

SPEAKER_01 29:16

The agency's starting to come out of it where they're afraid they're gonna miss out tomorrow, topic.

SPEAKER_00 29:20

Yeah, um, in some ways, um, yeah. So I as I said, it's just more measured now what the the conversations are with whereas before uh people were just jumping in and and rather than talking to me, the contracts were just showing up on the doorstep. I bought it and um we've got to make it work.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

So So do you feel um, you know, how how do you feel over the next you know six to twelve months, you know, should be should they be trying to get finance now, should they be finance ready? Um where where's the sediment going forward for the rest this year?

SPEAKER_00 29:54

What I I would encourage if you're contemplating any of the any purchase or whatsoever, come in and have the discussion out front. The biggest thing that um I've found over my time broken is the comment is I was talking to my friend who had a friend at a barbecue, and they did this.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

And that's the one thing I've learned, every individual's position is different. So come in and have that chat with come in with your whoever your advisor is and have the discussion about what you want to do and make sure you're looking just not at the transaction what the next six or twelve months has in store for you.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

Because you're not going to help tell the whole truth at the barbecue, are you? No. Make it sound good.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Yeah, um, I've and it's all I've heard some good ones. I actually had one person that said, mate, you should go and see your mate at the barbecue, get him to do your loan.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yes, I know, yes, the stories are good. All right, so we might wrap it up in a sec. So any last bits of advice for, you know, especially I'm you know, I'm concerned about the next generation of first-time owners getting bargained. You know, is it is there some tips, you know, even if they're not ready to buy now, but they might be ready to buy in six months or twelve months, you know, is there things like reducing your credit cards, getting rare unnecessary small loans, you know, keeping clean accounts? What's what's some tips to be ready to go to a mortgage broker?

SPEAKER_00 31:20

A really dirty word called budget. Budgets. Budgeting. And I know a lot of people, a number of people that come in and go, I said so. How much does this cost? How much does that cost? And they go, I I don't know. Do a budget, become aware of where your spendings are, where your costs are, and really look at them. And and as I say to all my users, I said, I'm not the budget police, I'm not here to tell you what you should be spending your money on. I want you to be the actual police. Yes. I want you to be aware of where it is and and identify how you how and where you can make savings and what you can actually save, because that's what the bank's looking at. If if we're going to give you a half a million dollar home loan or more and ask you to pay three or four thousand dollars a month, uh show us that you can commit money on a regular basis. So start a regular savings plan.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Um any little tips they should be getting rid of, like that morning coffee or something like that. Um what's what's the biggest vices you've seen that's really makes people stumble when they're getting a home online shopping?

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah, that only costs that's only I'm only doing that one off. And then when you look at statements, it is only one off once a week. So it's once every three or four days, so you know. Um and and that's where that comes back to that budgeting and that situational awareness and where your money's actually going. Yeah. And and a lot of that isn't a problem for a lender if they see you regularly putting money away and saving. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So um so the actual process of saving itself is a big key indicator for lender.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

Yeah, yeah. And it's that discipline. I I I remember getting told earlier and say that any loan's a dumb loan. Um but there's good and bad debt, obviously, but the more you save, the less you have to borrow. Um, and and what I've sort of focus on is yes, we want to meet your objective, but we want to sort of look at what that wealth generation is going to be for you going forward when you have got a family and and you want to you don't want a debt around your head when one person stops working and all those things. So we're trying to prepare you for that going forward.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

That's good advice. All right, we might wrap it up there. So we want to thank Pete and go see you at the mortgage broker. He promised he will not lock you up anymore, even if you were an old customer of his back in the day. Um, but uh thanks again. Um check it out on our podcasts or our YouTube or or Facebook. Just check it out and listen through because it's some good advice there. But more importantly, go down and talk to your mortgage advisor before you start going out into the market and looking for a house.