What's New at Top of the Range Home Loans
I saw a statistic the other day where less than 20% of newsletters sent by businesses to their clients actually get read. The emails end up in the "junk" email box or clients just choose not to read them. I always try to get clients to Like my Facebook page which is a much more convenient way to stay in touch rather than having to send emails/newsletters.
I recently had a fun competition where people had to guess how much money was in a jar and the winner got to keep the money. The reason I tell this story is that talking about interest rates is boring to most people, but the idea of our Facebook page is to inform clients and to keep the page more "normal" and to have some fun. Please Like Top of the Range Home Loans and I promise not to bore you with interest rate stories!!!
Website
A client rang the other day and was asking about home loan repayments. I told her if she wanted to play around with some figures to go to my website. I have a lot of useful calculators on my website - www.rangeloans.com.au - including repayment calculator, stamp duty etc. Please use them if you need any help. Obviously ring me if you get stuck, but these calculators are supplied to me from the MFAA and they really are helpful. We updated the website about a year ago and you will see a lot more content on there now. Very useful for people starting out in the market and I have uploaded some video blogs.
Insurance
I found out over the weekend that a friend of mine who lives overseas has been battling cancer for the past 6 months. I was in complete shock. I contacted him and he was positive and upbeat about what lies ahead. A crowd funding page has been set up on Facebook to help his family as he is self employed and has not been able to work. As sad as this story is, it highlights the need to have insurance. No-one is immune to getting sick or being involved in an accident. How would you pay a mortgage, cover medical treatment, pay school expenses for the kids if you have no cover? Sobering thought! Please contact me if you need some advice about what to do.
Banks
We are in an interesting period with lending at the moment. Some banks are not doing investment property loans and some are just being difficult to deal with. Some of the banks are lifting interest rates, even though the RBA has kept rates on hold. Always keep an eye on what is going on with your rates. They are displayed online and on your statements that are sent out. A quick email to me asking if there is a better deal will take 5 minutes of your time.
Remember - if you recently did a loan with a 5% deposit I would not be advising you to refinance to another lender as you will have to pay mortgage isnurance again! The magic figure is 20% equity in your property or if you paid 20% deposit, you might be able to refinance. Also, sometimes you can't refinance as the lender we went to originally is the ONLY lender we could use. For example, the size of the property may have been 150 acres and there is only one bank that could do that deal.
Brad Spanner Top of the Range Home Loans brad@rangeloans.com.au 0746 393000 0439 743 438 www.rangeloans.com.au Like us on Facebook - Top of the Range Home Loans
