Seven Equity

05/06/2026

Your parents want to help you buy your first home. You do not want them to lose their
house. Here is how to do it properly.

A guarantor loan is one of the fastest ways for a first home buyer to get into the market
without a full 20% deposit. But most families I speak to have no idea how the structure
actually works, or what the risk to the parents really is.

Here is the honest version.

Your parents do not hand over cash. They offer their property as additional security for
your loan. The lender takes a limited guarantee over a portion of your parents' equity.
Usually just enough to bridge your deposit to 20%, which means you pay no LMI.

As you pay down your loan and your property grows in value, the guarantee is released.
Typically within 3 to 5 years. Once released, your parents' property is no longer
exposed.

The risk to your parents is real but limited and manageable. If you default, the lender
can call on the guarantee. That is why the structure matters. The guarantee should be
limited (not unlimited), and your parents should get independent legal and financial
advice before signing anything. That is not optional.

Combined with the First Home Guarantee scheme and state stamp duty concessions
available in 2026, some buyers are getting into a property with less than $20,000 in
genuine savings. Depending on purchase price, location, and income.

What I do on a call: explain the full structure to both the buyer and the guarantors.
Check which lenders accept family guarantors and on what
terms. Get everyone clear before anything is signed.

DM YES, and bring your parents to the call if they want to be there.

29/05/2026

You don't not qualify. You were assessed the wrong way.

If you are self-employed in Australia and you have been told by a bank or a broker that you do not qualify for a loan, here is the truth most lenders will never spell out for you.

Nine cases out of ten, the problem is not your business. The problem is how your business was translated to the lender.

Here is the trap. Your accountant is doing exactly what your accountant is supposed to do. They minimise your taxable income. They depreciate. They use add-backs, retained earnings, and every legitimate deduction available. So on your last two returns, your income looks modest. Sometimes capped.

Then a bank assessor opens those returns, applies generic credit policy, and says no. They never see the turnover. They never see the retained earnings still sitting in the company account. They never see the actual cash flow.

The no was not based on your capacity to repay. It was based on a poorly told story.

A client of mine last month had been knocked back by two banks for an investment property. Strong business. Profitable. Consistent. Two banks still said no.

I unpacked the same business properly for a different lender. Same turnover. Same retained earnings. Same debt structure. The business model proven over years.

Approved in under two weeks. Same client. Same tax returns. Different story. Different lender.

Like most things in business, the outcome lives in how something is packaged and presented to the right person.

What I do in a 15 minute call:
1. Look at your business structure and last two years of trading.
2. Tell you whether the bank's no was fair, or whether it was a packaging issue.
3. Identify which lenders match your business profile and have appetite right now.
4. If it is fixable, fix it.

If a bank or another broker has told you no, DM me YES and let me re-tell the story properly.

21/05/2026

The May rate hike just cost you borrowing power. Here is the real number.

If you were planning to buy this year, the RBA's decision this month changed your numbers, even if your income and savings did not move a cent. This was the third cash rate hike in 2026 and the cash rate is now 4.35%.

Every 0.25% hike strips around $16,000 off a single borrower's capacity, and around $25,000 off a couple. Cumulatively, this year's hikes have cost roughly $25,000 in borrowing power for singles and around $49,000 for dual-income households. That is a deposit gone. Or a bedroom. Or the difference between an investment-grade suburb and the one another 15 kilometres further out.

The brokers I speak to are not sugar-coating it either. At least one of the big four is forecasting two more hikes by August. If they are right, your borrowing power is going lower from here.

The property you could afford in January is gone. The investment that made sense six months ago does not stack up at today's rates. And every month you wait for clarity, your options narrow.

Had a couple come in last week pre-approved for $850k in February. Re-ran their numbers Monday and they are at $801k. Same income, same deposit, $49k of buying power gone."]

A 15 minute Zoom gets you your serviceability against current rates, the maximum you can borrow today across the bank and non-bank panel, which lenders still have room in their policy for your situation, and a clear read on whether locking in a pre-approval now makes sense.

No charge. No pressure. Just clarity.

DM me if you want to know where you stand before the next hike.

16/05/2026

You are not paying off your credit cards. You are renting them.

If you have a mortgage and you are carrying credit card or personal loan debt at the same time, the maths is worth looking at properly. Average Australian credit card rate sits at 18 to 22%. Average variable owner occupier rate after the May hike is around 5.94%. That is roughly a 14 point gap, every month, on every dollar of card debt.

On $20,000 of cards that gap costs about $400 a month in interest. On $40,000 it is closer to $800. Most of it never touches what you actually owe. It just disappears.

Roll the card debt into your home loan and the rate drops from around 20% to around 5.94%. The cash flow you free up either pays it down faster or takes some pressure off the household budget. Your call.

The refinance side of my business has not been this busy in two years. Refinance enquiries are up about 60% in six months, and the reason is the gap above.

The part worth knowing this week: every RBA hike tightens serviceability. APRA's 3% buffer means lenders are already assessing repayments at over 8%. The consolidation that clears this month is not guaranteed to clear after the next hike.

A 30 minute call gets you the numbers on your situation, what the repayments would look like after consolidation, the realistic monthly cash flow change, and which lender fits and why.

DM me if clearing the cards matters.

14/05/2026

Borrowing power and rate hikes!?

08/05/2026

Rates up ... don't have regrets!

30/04/2026

The price of doing nothing ...

23/04/2026

Hey homeowner, did you know….

02/04/2026

26/03/2026

Rate hikes don’t just affect your mortgage… they affect how you feel about yourself.

Every mortgage holder has a “buffer balance” number in their bank account…

And it’s a number where they feel: “I’m okay. I’m in control.”

And right now, for many mortgage holders, that number is starting to go backwards.

Month by month. And that’s where all the stress and panic and anxiety thinking hits.

Because it’s not just money. It’s what that money represents:

When people's “buffer balance” number starts to drop they start to feel a loss of…

Control.
Security.
Breathing room.

And when that starts to shrink…

So does your sense of certainty.

Here’s the truth most mortgage holders don’t realise.

This isn’t just about interest rates.

It’s about the structure of your lending,

The who, what, when where and why associated with your mortgage and other debts.

Because the wrong mortgage structure quietly drains your buffer…

While the right one protects it and rebuilds it.

So, if you want to add another $1000 - to $3000 per month in available cash to your budget, the solution may well lay in addressing your current lending structure.

Here’s what you should do.

If you’ve seen your safer buffer shift and decline to a number where you are feeling the pinch, send me a DM and I’ll set up a time to walk you through how to take back control.