Posts Tagged ‘finance’

Family Pledge Mortgages

April 22nd, 2011 51 Comments
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If your financial history does not allow you to receive approval for a home loan on your own, you might have more luck if you take advantage of the power of family pledge mortgages. This is when a family member agrees to offer support for your loan by putting up equity in their own property or providing income assistance. This can also be beneficial for people who want to apply for a loan on a home that is too expensive for them to apply for under normal circumstances.

Reasons Why You Might Want to Apply

  • If you have children who are buying a home, they may be limited in the size of a loan that they can apply for. This could be because of their income, or it might be because of the size of their deposit. Relatively small deposits also mean higher interest rates and lender’s insurance.
  • You may want to help your children buy a property now, rather than forcing them to wait until they can save up a large enough deposit.
  • You may have children who don’t have enough money to buy an expensive home now, but they are in a field where it makes sense to think that their income will continue to grow.

Equity Support

Equity support is the most popular form of family pledge mortgage. Under this model, you take advantage of the equity that you have placed into your own home as a form of security. This makes it possible for the family member to buy property of their own.

When somebody takes out a loan with a deposit smaller than 20% of the value of the home, the borrower is usually required to pay for lender’s insurance. The cost of lender’s insurance can be very high, and dramatically reduces the amount of funds available each month for other purposes.

If a borrower has a small deposit, or no deposit at all, a family member can dramatically improve the situation by making a family pledge. In this case, the borrower only applies for an 80% mortgage for the new home. The family member then secures the rest of the value of the home using the equity in their own property.

This process has several benefits. First of all, it is much simpler for the bank to approve the application. This is because the bank only needs to approve the loan internally. It does not need to contact their lender insurer to see if they also approve the loan. The monthly costs are also much lower, since the borrower is not required to pay for this insurance.

In most cases, the person making the pledge will only be responsible for the 20%. They typically are not held liable for the rest of the loan, so the risks are relatively low for them.

It is also worth pointing out that there is no reason that the equity has to come from a family home, although this is the most common type of pledge. It could also be an investment property. All that matters is that the property is owned by the person making the pledge.

A family pledge can be removed when the remaining principle of the loan is less than 80%. This can be because the value of the property increased, because this part of the balance was paid off, or both.

Income Support

This type of pledge is less common because it requires the person who is making the pledge to make themselves liable for the entire amount of the loan. If the borrower’s income is not high enough for the lender to offer them a loan, you can pledge that you will provide your own income to help pay for the loan if necessary. The downside of this is that if they fail to make payments on the loan, you are held 100% liable to make the payments.

While this is significantly different from equity support, both types of pledge can be made at the same time. Equity support can be used to cover the deposit, while income support can be used to increase the overall size of the loan.

An income support pledge can be removed once the other borrower can demonstrate that they are earning enough income to pay for the loan on their own.

Learn more about family pledge mortgages.

Low Doc Loans: 80% LVR

April 20th, 2011 48 Comments
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When you decide to purchase a piece of property, either as a residence or for financial investment purposes, you will most likely need to apply for a loan. Before you will be granted a loan, the bank will want to be certain that you have the ability to make the repayments. This typically requires you to produce tax documents and check stubs, but not everyone can do this.

Applying for mortgages can be an intimidating process, especially if you don’t have the documentation usually required by lenders. There are a lot of different types of loans available, but many of them aren’t accessible to individuals with little or no proof of income, such as those that are self-employed or work as independent contractors. However, there is an option available: the low doc home loan.

A low doc loan, also referred to as a low documentation loan, is a home loan in which the paperwork used in standard loans is not required. This type of loan is perfect for self-employed borrowers that don’t have the proof of income papers typically used in applications for standard loans. Generally, lenders of low doc loans will ask the applicant to provide some proof of income, such as recent bank statements. In addition, low doc home loans are only available for loan to ratio values up to 80%.

Lenders offering 80% low doc home loans may have varying requirements, however most lenders ask that the borrower meet the following basic criteria:

1. You have been self-employed for at least one year in the country of Australia.
2. You have had an ABN number for at least one year.

The idea behind these criteria is to make sure that the borrower has a steady source of income and can afford to make the repayments. Other requirements may also apply depending on the lender. However, understanding these other requirements can be tricky. The requirements for low doc loans with high loan to value ratios, usually between 60% and 80%, are fairly confusing. Below, you will find the details of some typical low doc loan situations.

Issue A:
Refinancing a loan without sufficient business activity statements, or BAS statements.

One option for solving this problem is to acquire a loan with a loan to value ratio between 60% and 70%. Loans for a loan to value ratio of up to 70% can be acquired from one of the major providers without trading statements or BAS statements. Instead, the applicant needs only provide a letter from an accountant confirming that the loan is affordable. In addition, there is no mortgage insurance is required. Some other providers may also provide low doc loans up to 70% loan to value ratio, but the qualifications are stricter.

Another option would be to acquire a loan for a loan to value ratio between 70% and 75%. This type of loan can be obtained through a regional bank with certain requirements. The applicant must have been GST registered for more than 2 years for a loan to value ratio of 75%, but only for one year if the loan to value ratio is 70% or less. This loan is only available if you will remain under $1,500,000 in total loans, including those you may have from other lenders. Not available to developers, primary producers, or builders.

The third solution is to look for a loan with a loan to value ratio between 75% and 80%. Though it is possible to find a loan of this type from providers who won’t ask for BAS statements, the rates and fees will likely be higher than for other loans. In addition, it is not easy to find lenders that will consider cash out loans.

Issue B:
Purchasing a home at 80% loan to value ratio without BAS statements.

In this case, you can get a loan from a non-bank lender, a second tier bank, regional bank, or even a major bank. You will need GST registration and ABN for one year or more. Fees and rate will be comparable among lending institutions.

Issue C:
Obtaining a loan when your exposure is too high with your current lender.

To solve this problem, you will need to engage in debt consolidation and then spread your loans out over several lending institutions so that you meet all of the requirements of each institution. In doing this, it will give you the ability to take out another loan.

Whether you are applying for home loans or personal loans, there are options available for getting the money you need. If you don’t fall under any of the aforementioned circumstances or if you have bad credit, you could also consider using a guarantor to increase your borrowing ability. A guarantor is someone that agrees to be responsible for your loan should you default on it. The guarantor’s assets will be taken into consideration when you apply, which can dramatically increase the amount of money for which you are eligible.

Learn more about low doc loans.

Family Guarantee: Avoiding Lenders Insurance

April 19th, 2011 21 Comments
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When you know you have enough income to pay mortgage payments each month, but you simply don’t have enough money saved up to make a good deposit, this can be an extremely frustrating situation to deal with. You might be able to get approved for a mortgage with little or no down payment, but you’ll be forcing yourself to pay for unnecessary costs like lender’s insurance, and possibly a higher interest rate.
Thankfully, avoiding lenders insurance is possible even if you don’t have a deposit saved up. If you have family with equity in a home of their own, or real estate that they are financially responsible for, you might not need to make a deposit at all. This is possible through something called a family guarantee.

Why Banks Require Lender’s Insurance

Before we discuss how a family guarantee can help you avoid lenders insurance, allow us to discuss why it exists in the first place. When a bank decides how to approach a borrower, they perform a complex calculation based on rules that determine how much of a risk you are to them.

As such, a bank has to plan ahead to deal with these risks. If you were to take out a home loan, only to find yourself in a situation where you could no longer pay it off, the bank finds itself in a precarious situation. They home now belongs to them, but it is of no value to them unless they sell it.

Banks are not home salesman, and they are not able to sell the home at its maximum value. In many cases, the bank is forced to sell the home for a loss. This is why they ask for a deposit in the first place. The deposit protects the bank from these losses.

But the bank does not feel protected from those losses if the deposit is too small. They have to find that protection elsewhere, so they hire an insurer. These lender’s insurance companies will cover the losses to the bank if you are no longer able to make your mortgage payments.

Of course, the bank has no reason to pay for the cost of lenders insurance themselves. If that were the only option, they would only lend out to people who could offer a large enough deposit. The banks don’t see it that way, however. They can simply ask the borrower to pay for the lenders insurance, and most borrowers who haven’t saved up a deposit are happy to do so, because they would rather not wait any longer.

How a Family Guarantee Resolves the Issue

With a family guarantee, the risks faced by the bank can be alleviated without making a large deposit and without paying for lender’s insurance. Through this process, the family member agrees to act as a guarantor. They are usually a parent, but they could also be a sibling or a grandparent. They then choose how much of the loan they will secure.

In most cases, the figure chosen is close to 20%. This is because 20% is the size of a deposit necessary in order to avoid lender’s insurance. While no deposit is needed in this case, the family guarantee serves the same purpose to the bank. Essentially, the family member is agreeing that they will be held liable for this amount of the loan if you fail to make your payments on time. They need to back up this claim using equity in a home of their own, or an investment property.

Assessing guarantor credit history is an important part of this process. Not only will the borrower be required to submit documentation. The guarantor will need to do so as well. They will also need to prove that they are financially and legally independent of you.

Benefits of a Family Guarantee

The most obvious benefit is that the borrower is not required to make a down payment in order to avoid or reduce the costs of lender’s insurance. This means that you will be able to buy a home sooner than you would otherwise be able to. You will be able to borrow for the full value of the home without any concerns, including the extra expenses (which usually amount to about 5% of the value of the home).

There are benefits to the guarantor as well. Not only are they able to help their family member buy a home, they can do so with very little risk to themselves. The situation is entirely different from cosigning a loan, which means that the family member could be held liable for the value of the entire home. They are only liable for the value that they have explicitly stated they are willing to secure.

Releasing the guarantee is also possible within a relatively short period of time. If the family member chose to secure 20% of the value of the home, for example, they could be released from the guarantee once 20% of the value of the home had been paid off. They could even be released if the value of the home increased by 20%.

To learn more about family guarantees, visit our website.

Can I Get A Home Loan With A Casual Job?

August 5th, 2010 87 Comments
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Yes! It is possible to get approval for your home loan while casually employed. The secret to getting approved is to know what the lender’s policy is, and to apply with a bank who can accept people in your current employment status.

Typically lenders see casual employees as unstable. Your income may fluctuate from week to week or you may go for some time without shifts at all. In addition to this you are not paid for holidays and have less job security than a full time employee.

Lenders simply haven’t come to the realisation that in this day and age nobody has the same job security that was available in the past. Many industries such as hospitality or nursing tend to have a very high number of casual employees, yet the experienced staff are never out of work. However other industries (such as finance!) tends to have many permanent full time employees that are concerned about their job security!

As a result of the way banks see casual employees they typically will not accept any of your income until you have been in your job for 12 months and even then may only use 50% of the income that you earn!

So what is the secret to getting your home loan approved?

It’s simple! Apply with a lender that has flexible policy for casual employees. Some lenders will accept 100% of the income that you earn and only require you to be in your current job for 3 months or more. They will confirm the date you started then use the Year to Date (YTD) figure from your payslip to work out your annual income.

Some lenders can also use your group certificate to calculate your earnings. A good mortgage broker can help you to decide which documents to provide to your lender so that they assess your income in the most favourable way.

You can apply with a specialist mortgage broker who understands casual employees such as the Home Loan Experts who can quickly work out which lenders can help you. Generally there are no fees for the services of a mortgage broker, they can quickly work out which lenders you qualify with even help you with the paperwork.