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Residential lending
Your home loan shouldn't depend on which branch you walked into.
Twenty-one years in lending. More than $600 million in home loans settled. Over twenty-five lenders on one panel, and one person handling your file from the first phone call to the day you get the keys.
Home loans
One broker, start to finish.
Buying a home is one of the biggest milestones in anyone's life, and the loan sitting behind it makes far more difference than most people realise. At Proficient Finance Group I take the time to understand what you're actually trying to do, because no two situations are the same. Whether you're buying your first home, upgrading to something that meets the needs of your family, or adding an investment property, you'll have one experienced broker beside you from the first conversation through to settlement day.
Based in Wetherill Park and working with families and business owners right across Western Sydney, I've spent twenty-one years in lending and settled more than $600 million in home loans. Access to over twenty-five lenders means I can put competitive rates and genuinely flexible terms in front of you, rather than whatever a single bank happens to be offering that week. I handle the paperwork, the lodgement and the follow-up, so the process stays calm and you always know where it's up to.
Choosing Proficient Finance Group means you're never handed from one person to the next. You deal with me, start to finish, and I'll tell you honestly where you stand, including when the answer is that you should wait. That straightforwardness, and twenty-one years of knowing which lender says yes to which file, is why clients come back and refer their family and friends. Let me find the home loan that fits your life, so you can move forward with confidence.
Start to finish
How it works
The same five steps every time, and the same person at every one of them.
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A conversation, not an application
Thirty minutes, on the phone or in person. Nothing touches your credit file. We go through income, deposit, debts and what you're actually trying to do.
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The numbers, in writing
What you can borrow, what the repayments look like at today's rate and at a higher one, and the full cost to complete — transfer duty, conveyancing, inspections, and Lenders Mortgage Insurance if your deposit is under 20 per cent.
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A shortlist, and the reasoning
Usually two or three lenders. Rate matters. So does which one will actually say yes, and what they'll want to see before they do.
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Lodgement
I present the file the way a credit assessor needs to read it, with the income evidence already addressed rather than queried. Most of the delay in a home loan comes from documents arriving incomplete.
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Settlement, and every year after
I stay on the file until it settles. Once a year after that I review your rate against the market and tell you whether it's worth moving.
Plenty of lenders reserve their sharpest pricing for new customers, and the loan you signed three years ago is rarely still the best one available to you. You don't have to do anything with what I find — but you should know.
Five ways this starts
The situations I see most often
| Situation | Who it suits | What I'd tell you |
|---|---|---|
| Buying your first home | Deposit saved or gifted, first purchase | The deposit is only half of it. I'll give you the real number to complete, check what you're eligible for, and get you to an open home with a pre-approval instead of a guess. |
| Upgrading the family home | Equity in the current place, needing more room | Whether you sell first or buy first changes the structure, the duty and the stress. We work that out before you list. |
| Buying on one year of ABN income | Self-employed, trading under two years | Several lenders on my panel will write a loan on twelve months of returns. A few will work from BAS or business bank statements instead. |
| Buying after a decline | Knocked back elsewhere, or a past default | Tell me which lender and, if you know it, why. That narrows down which of the twenty-five-plus lenders I deal with will read the same file differently. |
| Buying before you've sold | Needing both properties for a period | Bridging loans cover the gap between settling the new place and selling the one you're in, and I write them. The part to get right is the end debt — what the loan looks like once your current property sells — because that's what bites if the sale takes longer than you expected. |
No surprises
What it costs you
Nothing, on almost every residential loan. The lender pays a commission when the loan settles — an upfront amount, then a smaller trail across the life of the loan. You don't pay more by coming through me than by walking into the branch yourself.
Where a fee does apply, you get the figure in writing before you commit to anything, and you'll know why it applies.
Later, not now
What to have ready
You don't need any of this for the first conversation. It's what we'll need by lodgement.
- If you're salariedRecent payslips, your latest notice of assessment, and three to six months of bank statements.
- If you're self-employedTwo years of tax returns and financials where you have them, your latest notice of assessment, recent BAS, and business bank statements.
- EveryonePhoto ID, a list of current debts and limits, and the contract or contract details if you've already found the property.
No dead ends
Where it gets hard, and what I do about it
A good share of what I write came to me because something about it didn't fit somewhere else. That's the work, not an exception to it.
Tell me where you're stuck-
A bank has already said no
A decline is a policy outcome, not a judgement on you. The lender that said no has one credit policy, and it may have tripped on something as narrow as how it treats your overtime, or a business in its second year.
What I do about itTell me which lender, and if you know it, why. That genuinely narrows things down, because their policies differ far more than people expect and the file that failed at one is often routine at another.
Sometimes the answer is a different lender today. Sometimes it's the same lender in six months, after we fix one specific thing. I'll tell you which, and what it would take.
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Your income comes through an ABN
Twenty-one years in lending means I've watched the self-employed go from close to unbankable to merely inconvenient. The policy has moved. What hasn't moved is the tension in the file: your accountant's job is to minimise your taxable income, and the bank's job is to lend against it. Nobody in a branch is going to resolve that for you.
What I do about itI read a BAS and a set of financials the way a credit assessor reads them. The work is presenting the real position without overstating it — add-backs for depreciation, one-off expenses, director's wages and retained profit, each one evidenced and each one defensible if the assessor asks.
Several lenders on my panel will write a loan on twelve months of returns. A few will work from BAS, business bank statements or an accountant's declaration instead.
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You already have a business or equipment loan
The loan on your truck or your machinery was probably arranged somewhere else, by someone who never asked about your mortgage. It still counts against you. The repayment reduces what a home lender will advance, any personal guarantee you signed follows you, and on a bigger loan some lenders will ask for your house as extra security on top.
What I do about itOne person handling both. The length of the business loan, whether there's a lump sum at the end, and which lender writes it all get decided with your mortgage in mind rather than against it — and that has to happen before the equipment is financed, not after.
It's set out in full on the truck and equipment finance page.
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You don't know what you can actually borrow
Online calculators run one lender's assumptions. On the same income, the answer can move by six figures from one lender to the next — which makes a single number close to useless for deciding what to bid on a Saturday morning.
What I do about itBefore you walk into an open home you get a real ceiling and the name of the lender who gives it to you, in writing, with the repayments shown at today's rate and at a higher one.
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You've been told to wait and nobody said what for
Sometimes waiting is the right answer. It should come with a reason, a timeframe and a list of what to fix — not a shrug across a desk.
What I do about itIf I think you should wait, I'll tell you for how long and why: a second year of returns, a default dropping off your file, a credit card that needs closing rather than paying down. Then we put the conversation in the diary for when it actually matters.
Find out what you can actually borrow.
One phone call, no credit enquiry, no obligation. If the answer is that you should wait six months, I'll tell you that too.
Asked on the phone
Questions people are too polite to ask
If yours isn't here, call and ask it. I'd rather spend ten minutes on the phone than have you not apply.
Ask Alen directlyHow much deposit do I actually need?
Twenty per cent of the purchase price avoids Lenders Mortgage Insurance, which is the clean answer. Plenty of lenders will go well below that with LMI added, and the premium can usually be capitalised into the loan rather than paid up front.
A handful of professions are exempt from LMI entirely, and a parental guarantee can be another way to remove it.
What is pre-approval, and how long does it last?
It is a conditional, not final, way of the lender saying yes to you. Formal approval still depends on the valuation of the property and the contract of sale. Treat it as the thing that lets you bid credibly, not as a loan.
I've never heard of the lender you've recommended. Should that worry me?
No. My panel includes the major banks, the second tier, mutuals and non-bank lenders. The non-banks are not deposit-taking institutions, so they fund differently, but your loan contract, your protections and your discharge rights work the same way.
They are frequently where the sharper pricing and the more sensible policy sits, particularly for self-employed borrowers. I'll tell you who the lender is and why they're on the shortlist before you apply to anyone.
Does my HECS debt matter?
Yes, more than most people expect. It reduces your take-home pay, so it reduces what you can service, and lenders treat it as a commitment rather than ignoring it because it's interest-free.
It rarely stops a loan. It does move the ceiling, and it's worth knowing by how much before you start looking.
Can my parents help without handing over cash?
Often, yes. A security guarantee lets a parent use equity in their own property to cover part of your loan, which can remove LMI and bring the deposit requirement down, without them giving you money.
It also puts their property at risk, so it's a decision for both households and usually one they should take their own advice on.
Should I fix my rate?
I can't answer that for you, and anyone who answers it quickly is guessing. Fixing buys certainty and costs flexibility: limited extra repayments, usually no offset against the fixed portion, and a break cost if you sell or refinance early. Splitting part fixed and part variable is the common middle ground.
What I can do is show you the numbers both ways for your actual loan, and tell you what the break cost would look like if your plans changed.
Also on the site
One broker for all your financing needs
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Refinancing
Already own one? Find out what your current loan should be costing you before you borrow against it.
Residential
Construction loans
Building rather than buying. Staged finance, and the valuation that decides whether the build stacks up at all.
Commercial
Truck & equipment finance
Why the way your equipment debt is structured decides what you can borrow for a home — and what the dealership finance desk won't tell you.
Let's talk
Request a call back
Tell me what you're trying to do and when suits. No calendar to wrestle with — I'll call you.
One broker. Twenty-five lenders. No cost on almost every home loan.
Tell me what you're trying to do and I'll tell you whether it's possible, which lender is most likely to say yes, and what it will cost to get there.