What we work on

Residential mortgage broking on the AFG panel. The work I take on is whatever I can put real attention on — that means most files cluster around self-employed structures, investors, and PAYG borrowers whose income or liabilities sit outside the bank-calculator template. Below is a quick look at each.

First home buyer

Queensland first home buyer

Three Queensland concessions in play right now: the First Home Owner Grant (new builds only, capped), the First Home Guarantee (federal, 5% deposit without LMI), and stamp-duty concessions (full exemption under $700k, scaled relief between $700k and $800k for eligible first home buyers).

Eligibility check across all three before pre-approval — the order matters.
Lender-specific FHG panel (not every lender is a participant; some have allocations that fill mid-quarter).
5% deposit lender appetite — which panel members will actually approve, not just market the headline.

The mistake I see most: locking a contract before checking whether the property type rules you out of the FHG. Apartments under a certain size, off-the-plan with long settlement, certain non-standard build types — all common knock-outs.

Run the calculator → Or talk it through

Refinance

Refinance — including the cashback honest version

A refinance is worth doing when the rate, fee, and structure change actually pays back the switching cost inside a window you'll hold the loan. Not when the cashback marketing makes the maths look right on the front page.

Rate vs. cashback economics — most $4k cashbacks are eaten by 30-50bp rate differential within 18 months.
Clawback risk — most lenders claw back broker commissions if you exit within 24 months. That doesn't cost you directly but it constrains how often you can re-refinance.
Retention rate negotiation — sometimes the right move is asking your existing lender for the rate you'd switch for, before switching. We'll tell you when that's the better play.
Structure changes — fixed-rate splits, offset, redraw, principal-and-interest vs. interest-only — usually more important than the rate itself.

Run the calculator → Or talk it through

Self-employed

Self-employed home loans

The widest panel spread on the market — this is where lender choice matters most. Same borrower, same income, can borrow 30-50% more with one lender than another, depending on how each one treats add-backs, multi-entity flow-through, and minimum trading history.

Sole trader, company, trust — each entity structure changes which lenders are even on the table.
BAS-derived income — a handful of non-bank lenders accept BAS-only without two years of tax returns; useful when full financials aren't ready yet.
Add-back categories — depreciation, interest, vehicle, home office, owner salary. Each lender publishes which categories they'll add back; not every lender allows everything.
Trading history thresholds — 12 months ABN trading is enough at some lenders; 24 months at most; 36 months at the most conservative.

The current calculator (v1) uses your declared self-employed income figure as a starting point — the v2 self-employed calculator models entity structure and add-backs explicitly, which is where the real spread shows up.

Run the calculator → Or talk it through

Investor lending

Single property and portfolio. The interesting decisions are structural — how you arrange equity, where the offset sits, what ratio of fixed to variable, whether interest-only is actually tax-advantaged for your situation or just deferring principal.

LVR strategy — when LMI is worth it (capital deployment > LMI premium) and when it isn't.
Debt recycling — splitting deductible vs. non-deductible debt cleanly without ATO pushback.
Rental income shading — most lenders use 75-85% of gross rent; some lenders apply higher shading for short-stay or holiday-let properties.
Lender appetite by property type — high-rise apartments, regional, mining-town, rural-residential — each carries lender-specific restrictions.

Run the calculator → Or talk it through

Complex PAYG

PAYG with complex income shape

Bonus, commission, allowances, second jobs, recent role changes, international income, equity-component compensation. The cases where the bank's calculator either ignores the income outright or shades it down to the floor — and the lender variance is widest.

Bonus by frequency — regular monthly/quarterly bonus is treated very differently to annual or one-off; every lender has its own rule.
Commission averaging — most lenders use the lower of the last two years; some use a 12-month average; specialist lenders look at YTD.
Allowances and overtime — only some lenders count these as servicing income.
Recent role changes — minimum employment-tenure thresholds (3, 6, 12 months) vary lender-by-lender.

Run the calculator → Or talk it through

Construction

Construction loans

Knockdown-rebuild, owner-builder where allowed, builder contracts. The mechanics are progressive drawdowns against fixed-price contracts, with interest charged only on the drawn balance during the build phase.

Land + construction as a combined facility, or land settling first with a separate construction component.
Builder requirements — most lenders need a registered builder, fixed-price contract, and stage-payment schedule.
Cost during build — the interest-during-build cost is non-trivial and frequently underbudgeted.
Practical completion → revert — the loan reverts to standard P&I (or the structure you chose) at handover.

Talk it through

Family pledge / guarantor

Family pledge and guarantor structures

Where parents (or another close family member) use equity in their property to support yours — typically removing or reducing LMI and improving your effective LVR. Limited-guarantee structures ring-fence the guarantor's exposure to a specific dollar amount, not the whole loan.

Limited vs. unlimited guarantee — limited is the standard structure; the guarantor's exposure ends once your LVR drops below 80%.
Lender appetite — most major lenders accept guarantor structures, but minimum age, residency, and own-LVR rules vary.
Independent legal advice — required for the guarantor; we coordinate the timing.

Talk it through

Where most clients start

Run the borrowing-capacity calculator across the home-loan panel. It tells us the shape of your situation before we get on a call, so the conversation focuses on the policy fine print that actually moves your number.

Run the calculator →