The most common issue we see is an inaccurate assessment of your living costs.
Inaccurate reporting of your living expenses can very easily overestimate or underestimate your borrowing power.
Here are some tips to help you
Make it very clear that your rental expenses expire once you buy a home (if you are buying to occupy) especially if you are online applying, people lump in all expenses together and ignore this.
Factor in school fees changing (ie, private school fees). Lenders understand the changing costs with children.
Lenders will factor future expenses, like body corporate fees, council rates etc as ‘future expenses’.
Always include debts as liabilities separate from living expenses (as these expire once paid).
If you have big discretionary one off spending (such as a large overseas trip or a new car) be prepared to explain these are out of the ordinary.
Never underestimate living expenses on purpose to get a loan – it will just slow down the process, as banks use complex algorithms to spot these types of applications.
What if it goes wrong
Amending an application is much harder than getting it right in the first place. If its your own bank, they can go through your records, if its not with your bank, they will ask for statements.
We’d suggest that seeing a broker (who are incentivized to get the application correct) may assist removing erroneous reporting of expenses. If you are unsure, this might help.