Low Doc Loans

At Advantage Home Loans, we mean it when we say that we can broker the best mortgage terms and rates for any potential home buyer, regardless of their specific wishes and circumstances. However, if you’re one of those buyers from the “low doc” category, you might have a hard time believing this. Maybe you’ve been turned down so often, you just can’t bring yourself to imagine hearing good news from any lender, anywhere!

The problem is this: most loan decisions are made on the basis of your current income, which determines your ability to repay the money that a lender gives to you. However, what happens when you can’t prove the income you’re bringing in? There are a number of reasons this might be the case.

• If you’re self-employed…
• If you’re minimizing your income for tax purposes…
• If you have atypical sources of income not commonly recognized or seen by lenders…
• If you’re a personal contractor…
• If you’re a professional investor yourself…

If you meet any of the above categories, you may have had difficulty acquiring a loan in the past simply because you weren’t able to offer documented proof of the income that you knew you had. This can be very frustrating because you know you can pay the loans, you just don’t have the papers in hand saying so.

For this reason, Advantage Home Loans offers a variety of “low document loans”, loans that do not require specific evidence of your income in the way that traditional loans do. You don’t need pay slips, receipts, tax returns, or certified letters. All you need to do is sign a document attesting to your ability to repay the money that will be loaned to you. You will be taken at your word, as the honest, hard-working person you are. As difficult as it may be to believe, Advantage Home Loans can make it happen.

Some things to be aware of, however...

• Often, lenders are only willing to front low doc applicants up to 80% of the value of the property in question. This is a good percentage, but less than the 95% typically enjoyed by full doc borrowers. You may well need more money up front for a larger down payment.
• You may need to have an ABN (Australian Business Number) to demonstrate your self-employment and source of income in a general way. Certain lenders may even require your ABN to have been registered for more than 2 years already. This is usually the case if the income you’re declaring is quite high (more than $75,000 a year).
• You may have heard in the news lately that certain low doc lenders are now only giving out 60% loans unless the borrower can show 12 months worth of BAS statements as part of their application.

Despite all these potential issues, however, rest assured that Advantage Home Loans has experience in dealing with them and making them work for you. We’ve gotten full 80% low doc loans from lenders who have solid reputations for never going above 60%. We’ve managed to waive the 2 year requirement on certain ABN-based loans. In certain cases, we’ve even gotten excellent 5.41% or less loans for low doc borrowers who had had their ABN for only one day!

In the end, if you’re a low doc borrower, you owe it to yourself to see what Advantage Home Loans can do for you. Never assume that we can’t help you, just because you’re having a hard time proving your income!