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Notes with a date on them
Rate decisions, market takes, and town stories. If it answers a question you'd ask on a call, it doesn't live here, it lives in Straight Answers.
You Don't Need a 20% Deposit Any More
The bank's old answer to first home buyers was save 20% or pay lenders mortgage insurance. Since October 2025 that rule is gone: no income caps, no limit on places, no insurance premium. What the premium was actually costing in real dollars, and what dropping to a 5% deposit does to the maths.
Guide September 2026 · 5 min read
Your Bank Is Charging You More Than Your Neighbour Pays
Your bank keeps two prices for the same loan: one for the people it's trying to win, and one for the people it thinks won't leave. What the gap costs in real dollars, why 2026's three rate rises made it wider, and the free phone call to make before anyone mentions refinancing.
Guide September 2026 · 7 min read
Home Loans for Doctors, Nurses and Lawyers: How LMI Waivers Actually Work
There is no such thing as a doctor's home loan. There is a list, at some lenders, of jobs that get lenders mortgage insurance waived, and every lender writes its own. Who is really on the lists, the income and registration gates behind them, how locum and practice-owner income gets read, and why the same registered nurse pays a five figure premium at one bank and nothing at the next.
Guide September 2026 · 9 min read
Buying Your Next Home: Sell First, Buy First, or Bridge
Nobody has to sell first. The three ways to move house and the fourth option of keeping the place as a rental, then the two numbers every bridging lender tests you on, peak debt and end debt, the valuation you don't control, and the selling costs, stamp duty and deposit bond that never make it into the spreadsheet.
Guide September 2026 · 9 min read
Your Fixed Rate Is Ending: The 90-Day Plan
A fixed rate ends on a date, and if you do nothing your bank moves you onto whatever variable rate it decides that day. The plan in calendar order: what to find out at 90 days, what to ask your own bank at 60, what to lodge at 30 so the switch settles the day after expiry with no break costs, and what to check the week it rolls.
Guide September 2026 · 9 min read
Offset, Redraw and Paying Your Home Loan Off Faster
If you've got a home loan and your savings are in a savings account, just stop. Offset and redraw save the same interest and differ the day you take the money out. Extra repayments and the fixed-rate cap, splitting loans by purpose, and why the fastest way to pay a loan off is ignoring the two lower repayments the bank offers you.
Guide September 2026 · 9 min read
Home Loan Jargon, Translated: Every Term the Bank Uses, in Plain English
Most home loan jargon is a plain idea wearing a fancy word. Serviceability means can you afford the repayments, notional rent is rent you don't pay, clawback is money the bank takes back from me and not you. Thirty-odd terms in the order they come up, each with the rule behind it, the trap it hides, and the full answer one click down.
Guide September 2026 · 12 min read
Self-Employed Home Loans: How the Bank Reads Your Financials
Your accountant spends the year making your profit as small as the law allows, then the bank reads that same return to decide what you can afford. One map of which years lenders read, what they add back, how a company or a fresh ABN is treated, and why the lender you pick changes the answer.
Guide September 2026 · 8 min read
Refinancing With a Broker: How It Actually Works
A refinance is a brand new loan with a bank that has never met you, and the first move is usually not a refinance at all. The four moves in order: reprice first, price the switch, clear the LVR gate, pass the affordability test again, and the honest list of when to stay put.
Guide September 2026 · 8 min read
Investment Property Loans: How the Bank Sees Your First One, or Your Fourth
Equity gets you in the door and income keeps you there, which is why people with plenty of equity still get told no. One map of the four things every lender does to an investment deal: shading the rent, stacking the buffers across every loan you hold, reading the security and capping the cash out, and why the same equity produces different answers at different lenders.
Guide September 2026 · 8 min read
How to Buy Your First Home in Australia: Every Pathway, Step by Step
Borrowing power first, then the five ways to a deposit, the schemes, the offer and settlement. Every first home pathway in order, with the full answer library one click down.
Guide Updated September 2026 · 12 min read
What Income Counts for a Home Loan?
Your payslip number and the bank's number are two different numbers. How lenders shade, average and test bonus, casual, family-business, self-employed and Centrelink income, and why the lender you pick changes the answer.
Guide Updated September 2026 · 9 min read
Why Is My Borrowing Power So Low?
The bank's version of your life costs more than your version. The buffer, the expense benchmark, five hidden debts, and the three things people think lift the number that don't.
Guide Updated September 2026 · 8 min read
The First Home Guarantee, Explained
Buy with a 5% deposit and no LMI. What the guarantee does, what changed in October 2025, who can use it, why it can't be stacked with a guarantor, and the four things it doesn't do.
Guide Updated September 2026 · 8 min read
Mortgage Broker in Glen Innes, The Town Where I Became a Broker
My broking career grew up in Glen Innes. Why nobody fights for the small-town loans, what country properties teach you about banks, and why I still take those loans personally.
Towns Updated September 2026 · 5 min read
Mortgage Broker in Inverell, From Someone Who Actually Lived There
I lived in Inverell, and over 25 local households have done their loans with me since, almost all through word of mouth. The story, and how regional lending really works.
Towns Updated September 2026 · 5 min read
Why did the bank say no to my home loan?
A no from one bank is a no from one calculator. The five gates a home loan actually fails at, the questions that live at each one, and which gates open at the next lender.
The bank said no Updated September 2026 · 8 min read
RBA Rates March 2026: What Just Happened and What It Means for You
A March 2026 snapshot of the second hike in a row: what happened, why, and what it meant at the time. The live answers on fixing, waiting and refinancing are linked from the top.
Rates March 2026 · Checked September 2026 · 5 min read