Documents required. This is by far and away the area that holds everything up, everysingle lender will use missing documents as a cause for delay. That is why being organised is the most important way to cut through the BS and get you loan processed. What do they want and why, lenders are now moving to what I call a weight method of approval, the heaver the loan in terms of paper the closer the loan gets to an approval, don’t worry if its not relevant everything they ask for ultimately adds to the weight of the file and when it attains that imaginary weight the loan gets assessed then approved… What are they looking for and why? First and foremost is servicing, can you afford it? This particularly in July 2019 this is extremely important. These days were people don’t have the permanent jobs they used to servicing is getting harder for them to get their head around. Most basic form of income verification is payslips, most institutions are happy with 2 as long as they have a year to dat. Some want 3 that have the same info as 2 but then the file will weigh more so that better. You have so many variations on this now, Full time, part time, permanent part time, casual. (Just for the record there is no such thing as full time casual, y=if you don’t get sick leave or holiday pay your casual and will be treated as such) Some lenders have different rule about the length of time you can be casual it varies and it pays to do the research. Self-employed, the most difficult and confusing for credit assessors, unless they are non confirming loans and then they turn to the accountant with a simple letter. 1st tier lenders require 2 years financials for assessing a loan and as well as the company returns, they need personal returns and the profit and loss. This varies but the lower the rate the more information they will need. They also require bass statements to ensure that the tax liabilities are up to date or at worst case under arrangement. When you move towards the non confirming space these requirements peel back to as much as a simple letter but then the rate goes up, so the more organised you are the lower the rate will be. Government benefits, lenders accept some forms but not all, and even then there are expiry dates on them, for example you get family allowance up to the age of 18 but lenders calculate up till 12 or age 15, go figure.. Security, lenders will always want a copy of the contract when you are buying or building, they give this to the valuer who copies the purchase price on to their report and then charge you money for the report. Nice work if you can get it. If you already have the property being either a house, unit or land they will then require a copy of the council rates, then they will also do a title search to see who has the current 1st mortgage and make sure there are no nasty surprises on the title. When you give the lender your council rates ALWAYS make sure they are up to date. Refinances and debt consolidation, there are many lenders who will consolidate debts and they are now also putting these debts into a separate facility or loan and putting them over a shorter time frame, in other words, they may refinance the combined debts at say a 5 to 10 year term so that the debt is paid out. You will need up to 6 months statements on these debts and depending on the lender if there any arrears they may or may not accept any arrears, the most important thing for the lender is that you are better off, reduce you monthly commitments and improve you overall position. These include, credit cards, store cards, personal loans, private debts to parents for example, leases, interest free facilities and depending on the lender (as 1st teir banks don’t do this ) tax debts. These are the broad categories, when you look at individual circumstances we start to see more paperwork bubble up and hence the weight of file theory, however, people are organic and everyone is different. Lenders try and jam organic into static policy everyday and out pops the loans. Remember the key to a quick result is to get everything to the lender as soon as possible and avoid the delays of “we are just waiting on x”