Case Study: Bryan
We're interviewing some of our amazing loans.com.au customers to get to know their home and car-buying stories.
We had a chat with Bryan, a Sydney-based IT consultant, and asked him a few questions about his experience, challenges, and how he overcame them.
Background
This was an exceptionally challenging purchase. I had been searching for an investment property around Brisbane for my SMSF for about 12 months. I had found properties in the past, but always identified a hitch (water damage, flood zone etc.)
I had pre-approval with another lender which was difficult to maintain - I needed to re-submit extensive information every three months when it expired.
When we finally found the townhouse and signed the contract of sale at the beginning of December, the lender dragged their feet in providing full approval, requesting more information. We extended the initial settlement date of 27th December 2023 to 19th January 2024, although the vendor was reluctant. We finally got a letter of offer on the 5th January 2024 and rushed to put a deposit ($15,000) to secure the property and convince the vendor we were serious.
When browsing the offer, I had only tallied the listed dollar fees and overlooked a 1.75% application fee. It wasn't until we received the detailed finance documents on 10 January 2024 that it was spelled out as a $5950 application fee for a $340,000 loan! Additionally, there were charges for $2100 legal, PEXA, Digital transaction fees etc. Also monthly fees of $15 plus annual fees of $300, discharge fee of $1350 and a rate of 7.84%. I questioned our broker about these fees and he said it was the best he could do due to the limited competition in the SMSF market. With 7 business days due before settlement, I reached out to other brokers to validate the high fees and see if they could beat it. While they questioned the fees, none said they could turn around a better deal quick enough for settlement. We were being forced to choose to accept the high fees ($30,000+ over the life of the loan) or lose the property we'd been searching for for so long as well as our $15,000 deposit.
Google and loan comparison sites indicated loans.com.au as the place to go so I called up and spoke with lending specialist Lani and explained our situation. Although the timeframes were tight, she was confident loans.com.au could help so I immediately submitted an application.
Challenges
- Finding a loan with reasonable fees
- Getting an SMSF loan approved and settled FAST
Solutions
- Found loans.com.au with a simple online search on a comparison website
- Made sure the customer care staff understood the tight timeframe required
“loans.com.au were always responsive and had a sense of urgency. loans.com.au were always responsive and had a sense of urgency.”
How was your loans.com.au experience?
While it wasn't all smooth sailing, loans.com.au got the job done against the odds. The resulting loan product is SOOO much better than what was offered elsewhere and will save 10's of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.
I felt the staff understood the time pressure we were under and were doing everything they could to get the job done. They were always responsive and had a sense of urgency. I felt like they had my interest at heart and wanted to earn my business.
loans.com.au customer?
If you’re a loans.com.au customer and would like to be featured, we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at community@loans.com.au and we’ll get in touch.
"loans.com.au is truly a modern lender with a can-do approach."
"We got a lot of helpful advice from loans.com.au"
"Best credit policies out of anyone and actually had a pretty good interest rate too."
"We found that loans.com.au still had a very competitive rate and we were happy with the service"