My opinion of mortgage brokers was indeed soured when I purchased my first property. No return of phone calls, set up the loan wrong and in the end I was the one phoning the bank’s broker line and arranging things and getting the answers I needed. I had to go get the loan docs from the CBD headquarter bank myself because the broker didn’t do anything and I had less than 48 hours to settlement; all at the same time as having a recently broken leg from work incident and limited to crutches.

While returning home I went through the paperwork and found the broker had submitted the loan application completely incorrectly. The structure/type etc that had been requested and signed off on was wrong so I again got back on to the bank and told them the broker was a bloody idiot and had submitted everything wrong (he had actually submitted it correct first and then submitted a completely different one which they did the approval for). In the end the bank was very good, due to the errors they had to submit a whole new application and did so and approved it within 24 hours…staff worked late to get it done and I had the documents delivered by courier at 9pm the night prior to settlement.

As you can understand, I approached the bank directly for my loan restructuring. Everything went smoothly, but I will now go and see a broker (with personal property investment experience) with a good reputation due to the following recent event.

I had an appointment with my loan manager of the same large Australian bank who I have dealt with previously as above. My initial IP/PPOR loan was with them and my current PPOR credit line is also with them. I sold my first property about 12 months ago and this was very profitable and I came out with lower loans and good equity in my new PPOR and have since paid it down well, certainly above average.

The purpose of the appointment was to see what they could offer me; what can be arranged and how they see my borrowing potential. I came out with advice that “no one uses trusts these days” and “you are young (31) and should be having more fun”…Unbelievable…a loan manager giving me advice to recklessly spend and not invest! I believe I manage my money very well but I still manage to travel o/s minimum twice a year which I am sure is more than her! I posed the question of how is it that so many people 25-30 have multimillion dollar property portfolios, she shrugged her shoulders and said “i dont know”. She has many years experience as the loan manager but how ridiculous!

As other’s have said above, many (bank) loan managers don’t have the broad experience and knowledge you need when property investing.

I am now looking for a new mortgage broker. I live in Adelaide and have heard good things about Wendy Higgins of Mortgage Choice at Glenelg. Any recommendations appreciated.

Hi develop.mee

I understand what you are saying but full and comprehensive reports are not required when conducting general research. Onethehouse does show current advertised price, source and date etc so you can see when a vendor is reducing their price. Individual property reports can be obtained where required. RPData is a great resource but like you say quite expensive to maintain.

Cheers

This was very informative, thank you. I didn’t mind the voices used, was quite entertaining!