A house is often the biggest purchase of our lives, and a mortgage (also called a home loan) is typically our biggest financial commitment. Choosing the right home loan and repaying it quickly can save thousands of dollars â and free us up to achieve other goals faster!
Choosing the lowest-cost loan and repaying it quickly can save thousands of dollars.
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For most of us, itâs a case of going out and looking at lots of different properties before finding the right home. It pays to be just as careful when choosing a home loan. The idea is to:
You can get a mortgage directly from a bank or through a mortgage broker. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Home loans are also available from ânon-bank lendersâ such as building societies, finance and insurance companies, trustee companies and credit unions.
âNon-conforming lendersâ are an option for people who canât get a bank loan, because of a bad credit history or lack of proof of income. These lenders usually only accept applications through mortgage brokers.
Advantages
Disadvantages
Here are some questions for lenders to have on hand when meeting with a bank.
Brokers deal with a number of lenders, so they can save you time shopping around.
Advantages
Disadvantages
How much you can borrow depends on what you can afford to repay on your current income, and how much a lender will lend against the value of the property you want to buy. Not sure how to calculate mortgage repayments? Try our new mortgage repayment calculator.
There are many types of mortgage, each with its own interest rate, fees and degree of flexibility. All these things affect how much the loan costs and when it will be paid off.
Once our mortgage is in place, there are steps we can take to make sure it keeps working for us.
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