Questions & Answers - Refinancing

Thank you for your question.

As a home loan provider intouch is able offer home loans from $30,000 on some of our products.

We are also able to lend to pensioners, but it would depend on how your income is specifically received.

Traditionally, it is easier to obtain a mortgage for self funded retirees, rather than those on a government pension.

However, it would be great if we could talk to you directly about your situation and offer you some advice more tailored to your specific circumstances.

If you would like to discuss this matter please call on 1300 4878463 and we will direct you to the closest home loan managers

Best wishes

Thank you for your question.

We can only provide a generic answer to your question as each home loan provider has different discharge fees and deferred administration costs. You would be best advised to contact your current lender to seek the answers.

In relation to intouch Home Loans we can confirm that as of 1 July 2011 there will be no exit fees or deferred administration fees on any of our loans.

The government recently passed legislation to remove exit fees and as a non bank lender intouch Home Loans will have no such fees for all new loans after 1 July 2011.

If you are unsure of any aspect of your loan please do not hesitate to let us know the specifics and we can try to assist. Best of luck

Thank you for your question.

Most home loans these days come with what is known as portability. Portability basically means that if you are changing homes you don’t have to repay your mortgage and take out another one, you can simply swap properties.

While we are not sure what CBA’s exact process is and urge you to clarify directly with them, we would suggest that it would likely involve the following. A valuation would have to be done on the property that you are buying to ensure its suitability. If the property you are buying is more than or equal to the property you are buying and of suitable quality, this is likely all that needs to be done to accept the new property. If the property is of lesser value than the one you currently own, then you may be asked to reduce the balance of your home loan to an acceptable level or if you are unable to do that you may have to go through a more stringent assessment and qualification criteria.

When the new property is accepted your provider will contact their solicitor to prepare a variation to your mortgage and move to a simultaneous settlement of the new property and release of the existing one. The fees for doing this are usually fairly low and should be generally be under $1,000.

A good home loan provider will always advise you of the key features of a home loan, however portability is now a standard option on most home loans so it is not the key selling point that it once was, though it is certainly an essential part of a mortgage.

Best of luck

A real estate agent is not under any obligation to disclose any bids from other parties to you and vica versa.

However the real estate agent should advise all buyers that there are other interested parties and that your offer could be more or less then the other parties.

They don’t have to disclose figures as it is unfair to the other buyers.

In an auction though all offers are on the table on the day or night and all buyers get to know their competition.

Best of luck with the buying process

Thank you for your questions as we feel great empathy for your situation.

It is difficult to give you specific advice without knowing all the details but what we do recommend is that you click on the talk to a home loan expert icon within the site and we will arrange for suitably experienced home loan expert to contact you and see how we might be able to help.

It is always nice to know what options you have and we welcome the opportunity to assist.