Case Study: Erlinda
We're interviewing some of our amazing loans.com.au customers to get to know their home and car-buying stories.
We sat down with Sydney-based Erlinda and asked her a few questions on her experiences, challenges, and how she overcame them.
Background
I have owned a number of properties in the past, but I sold them all except this one in Melbourne. It is a four-bedroom villa I bought it 2017, after a financial adviser recommended that I set up an SMSF and invest in property to help fund my retirement. After a while, I realised my previous lender was charging me way too much interest and I decided to refinance. It was actually quite overdue. After several rounds of rate increases this year following the RBA rate rises, it was all getting too much. Initially I asked around with the major banks but I found out that, with self-managed super, it is quite a specialised area and most of the banks don’t offer SMSF loans. So somebody suggested to look it up online. That’s how I found loans.com.au.
“I realised my previous lender was charging me way too much interest and I decided to refinance. It was actually quite overdue.”
Challenges
- Trying to buy a house during one of the biggest property booms in decades.
- Finding a good investment property that will go up in value. My past experiences in property investing were good except for a Queensland investment which was really bad. I think the location is pretty important and the one in Queensland I lost money on. I had it for 13 years and the property value never went up.
- Finding a lender with a good rate that offers residential SMSF loans
- Completing the refinance process
Got a SMSF home loan challenge?
Visit the SMSF Home Loans page to discover helpful resources.
Solutions
- Be sure to buy a property that is close to key amenities like schools and shopping
- Don’t buy because some property broker is trying to sell it to you and promising you the world
- Put in the effort to shop around online and compare a few lenders – that’s what I did
- Pick a lender with good service including a local call centre, like loans.com.au, so you can get personalised support when you need it
How much can my SMSF borrow?
Visit the Borrowing Power Calculator page to see how much your SMSF can borrow.
How was your loans.com.au experience?
- It was very good. Excellent actually. It was pleasant and quite efficient. I don’t really have any complaints. When I had questions I got prompt answers so I’m happy with that.
- I communicated with loans.com.au online, by email, in the onTrack portal and also on the phone. When we got to the point of signing off on the documents, I had questions and somebody contacted me on my mobile phone. They got my questions sorted out quickly and then I was able to send the documents to the settlement team.
- It was definitely worth it financially. My advice is that refinancing is worth the effort because it’s not a small amount of money you can save.
loans.com.au customer?
If you’re a loans.com.au customer and would like to be featured, we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email at community@loans.com.au and we’ll get in touch.
"We really liked the online onTrack application app which detailed the documents required and what was outstanding - it made the process easy to follow."
"Helpful approval and support from loans.com.au just made the process a lot easier. Even though I speak with loans.com.au online mostly, I feel that I am not just a number. I know who my lending specialist is and she is very up-to-date with my circumstances and offers good advice on financing."
"We had friends telling us “you need to prepare lots of paperwork”, but our experience with loans.com.au was extremely smooth and straight forward and I didn’t have to do much at all."
"loans.com.au got us into a much better deal."