Samantha Skipp

AMP Take The Lead

6/11/08 3.01pm

AMP has surpassed the major banks and passed on the full .75% of the RBA's rate cut. ANZ have announced they will be passing on .58% in line with the commonwealth and NAB are passing on .62%.

Hopefully they will all catch up with AMP and pass on the full reduction to clients in the not to distant future.

Peter & Susan Have Now Moved Into Their First Home!

Most of my clients come to me through referral, Peter and Susan however, where lucky enough to stumble upon my service through the internet.

When I first met with Peter and Susan I remember thinking to myself that this loan should be pretty straight forward. However, as we began the loan application I found out that Susan wanted to quit her job to start a new one, Peter works away, and that they will both be going away on holiday three weeks before their loan is due to settle and will not be back till a few days after.

We had to move quickly to get the loan approved ASAP so that Susan, could hand in her notice and accept her new job offer. This was made slightly more difficult by the fact that Peter worked away, all application and documents had to be signed via fax and Susan had to gather all his information for him. Between us we managed to get everything together quickly and I lodged the application within a few days.

Once we had received formal approval, Susan was free to move to any job she wished.  Before they left to go away, I checked with the bank and the settlement agent to make sure that absolutely everything was organised for settlement. I made sure I had contact details for both of them for while they were away, just in case. A week before settlement was due I rang the bank and the settlement agent again and spent two hours going over absolutely everything and checking all the figures to make sure nothing would go wrong at settlement. I then e-mailed Susan to let her know everything was okay, so that it would put her mind at rest, and she could enjoy the rest of her holiday without having to worry.

Settlement through without a hitch and their new house was waiting for them when they returned from their holiday.

With the recent increase in the First Home Buyers Grant you probably know someone who is looking to buy their first home too. If you think I could help them work through this complicated lending process would you please call or e-mail me their details with a little bit about their situation.

Names have been changed to protect the individuals privacy

RBA Shocks Us All Again

Tue 4/11/08 11.30am

The Reserve Bank of Australia has shocked us all again today with another big interest rate reduction. Last month we saw them slash interest rates by a full 1%, this time we have recieved another .75%. This will come as a big relief for all home owners. 

This latest reduction means that we have now recieved a total of 2% reduction over the last three months, leaving the official cash rate at 5.25%.  

In real terms this means for your average mortgage of $300,000 your monthly repayments will be reduced by approximately another $150/month. 

So far the Commonwealth have announced that they will be passing on .58% of this reduction. Watch this space to see what other lenders will do.

It’s Not Every Day Your Clients Save $17,000 in Fees

How much interest do you think you would pay on $17,000 over the course of a 30 yr loan?

Neil and Paula decided to purchase the house they had been renting for a few years. They managed to secure the property for a really good price ($100,000 less than market value) as they had made some improvements to the property and they knew the owner.

They had $80,000 for their deposit which equated to a 10% of the loan amount. If you want to borrow more than 80% of the value of the property, then the banks require you to pay a premium called Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI). This premium is designed to protect the bank against any risk if the property value comes down and the loan is defaulted on.

The premium that Neil & Paula would have to pay if they wanted to borrow 90% of the purchase price was almost $17,000. We realised though, that as they brought the property for $100,000 less than it's value, this existing equity along with their deposit totalling $180,000, meant that the loan to value ratio was reduced to 80% and technically the banks risk was already covered.

I knew it was a long shot but I spent an entire day calling all the lenders to see if we could use the value of the property instead of the purchase price when the LMI was being assessed. Unfortunately they all refused, insisting that they had to use the purchase price. I then started to call everyone I knew in the industry to see if they had an answer, once again everyone said it would not be possible.

My clients insisted that logic and fairness should prevail, and there had to be a way, so we confirmed the property value with an independent bank valuation and I kept trying.

I exhausted all avenues of enquiry and finally my hard work totalling an extra 22 hours of research and negotiations finally found a lender to see sense. We got the loan through using the value of the property and not the purchase price. My client didn’t have to pay a cent in mortgage insurance and now has an extra $17,000 in their pocket that they would otherwise have had to pay.

If that $17,000 had been added to their loan then that would equate to about an extra $30,000 in additional interest over a 30yr loan term. So in total they actually saved approximately $47,000. What a result!

Who’s the next person you know who would like to save as much money as they can on their next mortgage.

The Big Four Follow Suite

Wed 8/10/08 11am

The Big four banks have followed the Commonwealths lead passing on a 800bsp or .8 percent decrease in interest rates.

Commonwealth Bank Sets The Standard

7/10/08

Commonwealth Bank set the standard early today passing on .8 percent of the recent 1 percent interest rate reduction. As much as we would like to have recieved the full 1 percent, this will make a big difference to the hip pocket.

What it means is that for your average $350,000 loan you can expect your monthly repayment to reduce by approximately $200 per Month. Good news for all home owners.

Maddy's Ecstatic With Saving $310 Per Month

I’m Excited, I’ve managed to help another client save money

One of my clients Kathryn (my mum) referred her friend Maddy to my consulting service.  Maddy has two properties, her home and an investment property. Her goal was to reduce her monthly expenses by as much as possible whilst making available $60,000 for her next investment property.

I looked at her current financial arrangement and saw the opportunity to reduce her interest rate quit significantly. I restructured her new loan over a 30yr term, consolidated her personal loan, payed out her credit card and at the same time made available $60,000 for next investment property. We were able to simplify her debt into one easy to manage loan and still reduce her outgoings by over $310 per month. You can imagine how ecstatic Maddy is about that!

If you would like to find out more about how i could help you manage your personal situation do not hesitate to contact me.