LoanBuddy

Call Directions Website Contact the business

👨‍🔧 Investors. Self Employed. SMSF. First Home Buyers.
⭐ 100+ 5* Reviews
💰 30+ Lenders

04/11/2026

Your SMSF loan has probably never had a health check.

Plenty of SMSF trustees sign the loan once, tick the compliance boxes and never look at it again. Meanwhile the rate, fees and features have been quietly drifting away from what’s available today. 🔍

Refinancing an SMSF property loan isn’t as simple as a standard home loan switch. It has to stay with the same property, it can’t be used to pull cash out, and the trust paperwork needs to line up. But plenty of lenders do it, and having a broker with access to 30+ lenders means finding the ones who actually want SMSF borrowers.

General information only, not advice, so loop in your accountant or SMSF specialist as well.

Curious whether a refinance stacks up for your fund? Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

20/10/2026

“So how do you get paid?” Fair question. Here’s the answer. 💸

I’m paid by the lender once your loan settles, not by you. Most clients pay nothing to work with me, which sounds too good to be true until you realise that’s how the banks have run their own distribution for decades.

The part that matters: I’m legally required to put your interests first, and I can point to why a loan was chosen. If a lender pays less but suits you better, that’s the one I recommend.

If you want to see how it works before you decide anything, book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138. Questions about money are welcome, including mine.

13/10/2026

Your house might already be your next deposit. That’s the good news.

Usable equity is roughly 80% of your home’s value minus what you owe. A $1,000,000 home with a $500,000 loan could have around $300,000 to work with. 🔓

But that’s borrowing against the home you live in, and the lender still needs to be happy with your income. How the loans are set up matters a lot, because the wrong structure can tie your properties together in ways you’ll regret later.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

06/10/2026

Waiting for rates to drop is also a bet that prices won't rise.

Here's the bit that rarely gets said. A 0.25% rate cut on a $600,000 loan saves roughly $1,500 a year. A 5% rise on an $800,000 property is $40,000. 📈

Nobody can time both, and rates dropping tends to bring more buyers back into the market, which is exactly when prices lift. That doesn't mean rush. It means the waiting game has a cost too, and it's worth putting a number on it.

Run your own version with us and see which side of the ledger wins.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

30/09/2026

Rent is dead money. So are interest, council rates, insurance and the leaking roof.

"Renting is throwing money away" only tells half the story. Owners pay interest, rates, insurance and maintenance too, and none of that builds a cent of equity. Only the principal part of each repayment does. 🧾

Renting isn't the villain either. It buys you flexibility, and it means someone else gets the call when the hot water dies.

Buying tends to win when you stay long enough for growth and loan paydown to outrun those costs, usually years rather than months. So the real question isn't rent or buy, it's how long you'll stay and what you can comfortably hold. We'll run your actual numbers, no pressure either way.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

22/09/2026

You can buy a house you've never set foot in. 🏠 Here's how not to regret it.

Buying a place interstate without ever walking through the front door sounds risky, but it's more common than you'd think these days. Video walkthroughs and a good buyers agent can do a lot of the legwork for you.

The catch is the stuff a video call can't show you. Building and pest reports matter even more when you can't eyeball the cracks yourself, and getting a feel for the local market (school zones, flood history, what similar places actually sold for) is where a lot of interstate buyers come unstuck.

On the finance side, it barely changes anything, we can pre-approve you regardless of postcode. It's the on the ground details that need a second pair of eyes before you fall in love with the listing photos.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138 and we'll walk you through it.

16/09/2026

Most people are using their offset account wrong.

An offset account only earns its keep when your money is actually parked inside it. I regularly meet people with an offset attached to their loan while their real savings sit in a separate account earning nothing against their interest bill.

Redraw looks similar on the surface but works differently. It's still your own money, but pulling it back out can affect tax deductibility down the track, especially if that property ever becomes a rental.

The right setup depends on where your life is heading over the next few years, not just what feels easiest to open today.

If you want a second opinion on how your loan is structured, let's chat.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

09/09/2026

Investment Loan Structure

Two investors, same property, same interest rate. One of them will be tens of thousands better off, purely because of how the loan was set up on day one.

Loan structure is the least glamorous part of buying an investment property and the part that quietly decides how the next ten years go. Two things catch people out more than anything else: letting the bank tie your home and the new purchase together as one security, and paying spare cash into the investment loan instead of into an offset. 🏘️

Tying both properties to one lender feels harmless right up until you want to sell one, refinance one, or pull equity out. Suddenly every move you make needs that lender's blessing.

The redraw one is sneakier because it is invisible. Money pulled back out of a loan can change the deductible portion of that debt, and plenty of investors find that out from their accountant a year too late. We are not accountants, but we can build the structure so your accountant has something clean to work with.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

02/09/2026

Buying Interstate

You can buy a house 1,400km away without ever standing in it. The risky part isn't the distance.

Plenty of Australians now buy in a state they've never lived in, chasing yield or a price point that stopped existing near them years ago. The logistics are the easy bit. Building inspectors, property managers and conveyancers all work remotely just fine.

What catches people out is that property law is state law. Cooling off periods differ, contracts get exchanged at different points, and stamp duty and land tax rules change the moment you cross a border.

There's also a lender angle nobody mentions: some lenders get twitchy about postcodes they consider high density or single industry towns, and will quietly cap how much they'll lend against them. Worth knowing before you sign, not after.

Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

26/08/2026

Myth: "My bank knows my finances best"

Your bank has watched your money for eleven years. It still quoted you a worse rate than the stranger who walked in yesterday.

This one is worth saying plainly: seeing your transaction history does not make a bank generous. Loyalty is not priced in, and in a lot of cases it is priced against you. New customers get the sharp advertised rate, existing customers get whatever they had, until someone asks.

The bigger issue is not pricing though, it is policy. Your bank has one credit policy and one servicing calculator. If your income is a bit unusual, casual, contract, bonus heavy, self employed, or you are counting rental income, that single set of rules decides your answer. Another lender might read the exact same payslips and land tens of thousands apart. 🤷

So a bank saying no is not a verdict on you. It is one opinion from one institution that only sells its own products.
Book a chat at loanbuddy.com.au/book-appointment/ or call us on (02) 9188 2138.

Address

Suite 19 103 George Street, Parramatta
Sydney, NSW
2150

Telephone

+61291882138

Website

https://www.loanbuddy.com.au/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when LoanBuddy posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.