A broker’s value is not access to a rate table – anyone can look those up. It is knowing which lender will say yes to your particular situation, and getting the file in front of them in a shape they can approve.
What happens, in order
1. A conversation before any paperwork. What you are trying to do, by when, and what would make it a bad idea. Nothing is lodged and nothing touches your credit file at this stage.
2. The numbers, honestly. What you can borrow across different lenders – which is rarely one figure – and what the repayments look like against your actual life rather than a benchmark.
3. Structure before lender. How the loan should be put together: splits, offsets, whether securities stay separate, what happens at the end of a fixed or interest-only period. This is the part that matters in five years.
4. One application, well placed. We submit to the lender whose policy already fits. Every credit enquiry is visible to the next lender, so applying hopefully in several places actively damages your position.
5. Through to settlement, and after. We chase the lender, the valuer and the solicitor so you are not on hold. Then we diarise the things that bite later – fixed rate expiries, interest-only reversions, annual reviews on commercial facilities.
What we will not do
We will not put a file to a lender we expect to decline it. A knock-back marks your credit file and costs a fortnight you may not have, so we would rather spend an hour getting the structure right first.
And we will tell you when the answer is to wait, to use a different product, or to do nothing for six months. That answer costs us the loan this month, which is precisely why it is worth something.
Fees
Where a fee applies to the work – which happens on some commercial and personal lending – we tell you the amount in writing before you commit to anything, and you will see it again on the credit quote you sign. No fee is ever a surprise at settlement.
