Case Study: Elma

We sat down with Elma and asked her a few questions on her experience, challenges, and how she overcame them.

We lived in Sydney for about 17 years but we had visited Adelaide and thought we would like to move here for a change of lifestyle. My husband was offered a work transfer and we were keen to take it but, unfortunately, it happened during COVID, and the border was shut. When the border reopened, we decided it was time to sell up and go. I had already refinanced my Sydney home loan to loans.com.au, so when I arrived in Adelaide, it was natural to approach them again for my new home loan.

• Almost all of the homes we were considering in Adelaide were for sale by auction. This was entirely new to me, as I had always bought by private treaty before, and I needed help.
• There is no finance clause when you bid at auction, so if you win, you need to provide a deposit immediately and settle quickly. There is no backing out.
• The suburbs in Adelaide that we liked turned out to be more expensive than we thought, so we had to get finance instead of just using our equity from selling the Sydney home to buy outright.

“The online process also was pretty straightforward. It was seamless. It was easy because I could do it at my own convenience.”

• I called loans.com.au and the lending specialist explained to me exactly how the auction process worked and what I would need to do to buy a home that way. Thoughout my entire time in the market, I was calling him almost every other day as we bid on a number of properties.
• I solved the finance issue by getting pre-approval from loans.com.au. A pre-approval lasts 90 days. This allowed me to bid on a home with confidence.
• The solution to getting finance was simply to contact loans.com.au. I was already familiar with the process so it was easy and they knew I had an excellent credit record from our previous loan.