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Why borrowing power is less when you don't have 20%?

We love working with first home buyers. The excitement of walking through your own front door for the first time is something that never gets old.  After more than 15 years combined experience between us, there is one thing that keeps coming up over and over - why can’t I borrow as much if I have less than 20% deposit? While there are much publicised rules around how much banks can lend to people with less than 20% deposit, there are also lesser known requirements around income, current d...

"Creative" funding of Rental Properties

One of the things we're constantly asked by investors, is "how can I get around the LVR rules"? The reality is that there is no silver bullet, but there are some ways in which you can be clever about how you approach your next rental purchase and really it depends where you sit in terms of equity, income and what you're prepared to pay to borrow money....

How to be the best guy jumping out of a plane

If you’re going to do a skydive, you want the gear getting you from the plane to the ground to be 100% perfect, right? We’d call that managing your risk, and it’s what the banks do when they assess your home loan application. You want to be down on the ground, unhurt with a success rate of 100%, the same as the bank wants you to pay back the money they’ve leant you to purchase your home. Understanding risk is a good way to think about the differences between a 10% and a 20% deposit. If y...

Foodtogether Cambridge - My Mortgage Community Project

Food{together} Cambridge is a non profit social enterprise made up of people right here in Cambridge that has the goal of making seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables accessible to everyone in our community at affordable prices, typically between two thirds to a half of what you would pay elsewhere. Claire and My Mortgage became involved in 2018 to help build Food{together}'s reach in our community and make recipes available for the fantastic fruit and veggies that Food{together} provide...

The scribble graph - Adam draws this multiple times week

This scribble is going to be familiar for a lot of people reading this... ...

Situation changing? Structure your mortgage to be resilient

At My Mortgage one of the most important things to us is you having the right home loan for your situation. We often stress that when you get your first mortgage, we'll structure it to fit you best, but over the course of a couple of years, there might have been some changes in your family, financial or personal situation....

Springboard to your first home - The Bank of Mum & Dad

So your parents have said "hey, we're keen to help you with your first home purchase". For a lot of first home buyers, this is the case, and there are a heap of ways that your parents (or other family member) can help make your first home a reality....

Loan term pressure from the banks

We've been seeing a lot more clients lately suffering from some "Loan Term Pressure" from their banks.  Essentially their banks have been asking them to repay their lending faster than they'd like to.This can mean you're forced to pay over shorter loan terms with much higher payments than you'd like but often you feel like there is no other option.  The good news is that there is a better way!...

Free design advice for your new build or renovation!

Here at My Mortgage we love working with our clients and those in our networks to create more value for you in your experience with us. Deanna from The Designery Room thinks along the same lines, and as the designer mastermind behind both Adam and Claire's recent new builds, we thought bringing her into the fold was an absolute no-brainer! So we've teamed up with Deanna to provide free consultations to any clients who are renovating or building a new home and obtain finance with My Mortgage.&nbs...

What does that Jargon mean? We know it so you don't have to

As with any industry, ours is full or Acronyms and Jargon, but what do all those things you hear actually mean?   We try to keep it really simple so if you catch us dropping one of the below things in to conversation now you'll know what we're waffling on about!...

Good news for Investors and First Home Buyers

Big news from the Reserve Bank today... There is some easing around deposit restrictions for new lending from 1st January. Investors - Will now have to have a minimum 30% deposit instead of 35% deposit.  (There is an allowance of 5% of loans to be over this threshold) First Home Buyers  - The banks can now have up to 20% of their overall lending to people who have less than 20% deposit....

Insurance is not our game but we know people!

Insurance is not our game but it's still a very important part of owning a home and like with everything that we do, we want to make this as easy and cost effective as possible whilst maintaining a high quality product. We've listened to all of the complaints around being "upsold" on insurance type products over the years and we agree that you must have a need to justify a review of a product like this. We don't partner with other businesses lightly but we've engaged Initio who are a specialist ...

The Hunger Project - A My Mortgage Community Project

In 2018, Claire is embarking on a quest with The Hunger Project NZ's Awaken programme, a fundraising leadership development opportunity with the goal to ending world hunger by 2030. Around the world, millions of people eat two or three times a day, but a significant percentage of women eat only once. Many women deny themselves even that one meal to ensure that their children are fed. These women are already suffering the effects of severe malnutrition, which inevitably will be their children’s...

Books for kids - A My Mortgage Community Project

This is Hannah's project for the community. The aim is to grow the minds of our local children and introduce them to the world of reading from a young age. Bringing books to children and their families, making reading accessible, and an everyday occurrence in homes around the Waikato....

Are there two deposits I need to pay?

There is often a bit of confusion around deposits for your new purchase - we talk about deposits, and so do Real Estate Agents and Lawyers - what does this all mean, and are they all different things?...

How do I buy a house with my mates?

With house prices a little bit higher than they were five years ago and the tightening of bank criteria for single home buyers, we are getting a lot of enquiries about whether it’s possible to buy with friends - and how to go about this....

Why should you refinance your mortgage?

With interest rates at historic lows and banks undercutting each other left, right, and centre, we've had a lot of enquiries about refinancing, and it's super important to understand exactly what this involves. There can be some confusion about this term, lots of people see it the same as re-fixing a loan or topping up a loan to realise more "equity", but in our terms it means transferring your existing loan from one bank to another. While refinancing might allow you to pay off your loan faster ...

"Have fun, make money & make a difference" is our "Why?"

Well it's probably not what you're going to hear from another Mortgage Broking firm, that's for sure. This is a slogan pinned to the wall by Adam's desk and it's been that way ever since he started My Mortgage back in 2012.   It's pretty simple really....

A new home for 5% Deposit for first home buyers

A new loan type has just come out today offering 95% lending for people wanting to purchase outside of the main centres....

Don't set and forget! Your mortgage deserves better.

I feel like I've been on a personal crusade lately to tidy up bad loan structures.  It's so common and yet so easy to make a difference and save someone hundreds of dollars a year, if not more.So how does this happen?Us Kiwis are a laid back bunch.  Stats show that the most common thing to do when taking out a new home loan is to simply fix it for 2 years and forget about it.  That might be ok at the start as it gets you in to a house and gets you settled.But what about after thos...

Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) - Why it matters?

Updated: Nov 2020LVR has to be the most talked about thing in the Mortgage industry in the past few years, and it's with good reason.   It's probably the single most important thing when it comes to assessing a lending proposal. For those of you who don't know what it stands for, LVR is "Loan to Value Ratio" - Essentially it is the percentage of lending you have, divided by the value of your property.  If you have $80K lending on a $100K property then your LVR is 80%....

Check your Loan to Value Ratio before you sell

There has been an unintended consequence with the 2016 introduction of LVR restrictions on investment properties and we had a case recently that I definitely think needs talking about.   It raises the point "Check your LVR before you sell" Because a bank cannot exceed 70% LVR for lending on a rental property, it means that if you've got a number of properties and sell one, they may in fact need to take all of the proceeds from that sale to ensure that they are still compliant...

The stepping stone to your dream home

When you're buying your first home, you want a place to live you can call your own. Sometimes that might not be your dream home, but it could be a "stepping stone" to something you've always wanted. At My Mortgage, we often talk about making a plan that will be best for you in the long run, and putting you in the best position we can long term. Part of that is to make a plan for you for the next 2-5 years, ask you about your financial goals and what you'd like to achieve over that time.  It...

6 easy tips to make your first home happen

We all know that your home is one of the biggest purchases you'll make in your life. Here at My Mortgage, we want to make the path to owning you own home as easy as possible, so we've put together some handy tips which we know work, to get you into a position to make it happen faster!...

The pre first home loan health check

Here at My Mortgage we want to make your journey into your first home easy, and we've put together a brief "pre home loan health check" that we do every day with people like you to make sure they're in the best position they can be to buy. Like visiting your doctor for a check up, there are a few key things that we need to get right so you're home-loan ready, and whether you're 6 months or three years from buying your first home, we can help guide you along the right path and make a plan togethe...