thanks guys – really appreciate your feedback :-)

Thanks for all your helpful input.

I have absolutely no faith in the broker but am now just proceeding with one refinance so as to avoid the $1000 penalty. (I went with the Australian Lending and Investment Center, which is clearly just a huge machine driven by maximizing profit, despite all the advertising hype about how they are dedicated to the ‘customer relationship’).

The whole process has dragged on for months now and my hope of finding a mortgage broker I can trust has still not been fulfilled. I’m now tempted to go back to my original strategy of dealing direct. Ideally I’d love to learn how to be my own mortgage broker. Is that possible? I’ve educated myself with all the generic basic property investment info but am struggling to find access to a deeper level of information to increase my confidence in decisions moving forward. Any suggestions much appreciated :-)

Thanks very much for the advice. I thought as much. The issue is he got me to sign a waiver that I have to pay $1000 if I don’t choose to proceed. Do people think I ha e a good case for the ombudsman given that the proposed structure is clearly not in my best interests? Thanks in advance