The loan the bank said you couldn't have.

Nothing, on almost every residential loan. The lender pays a commission when your loan settles — an upfront amount, then a smaller trail across the life of the loan. You don't pay more by coming through me than you would by walking into the branch yourself.

Some commercial and specialist deals do carry a fee. Where that applies, you get the exact figure in writing before you commit to anything, and you'll know why it applies.

No. Nothing touches your credit file until you've chosen a lender and told me to lodge. We can talk through your situation, run the numbers and shortlist lenders without a single enquiry being recorded.

What does damage a file is shopping around yourself, bank by bank — each formal application leaves a mark, and a cluster of them in a short window makes the next lender nervous.

No, and this is a large part of what I do. Several lenders on my panel will write a loan on twelve months of returns. A few will work from BAS statements, business bank statements or an accountant's declaration instead — these are usually called low-doc or alt-doc products.

The rate is typically a little higher than a full-doc loan, and the deposit requirement can be larger. In many cases the loan can be refinanced onto sharper pricing once you have a second year of returns behind you, which is something I'll flag at the start rather than after settlement.

Tell me which bank, and if you know it, why. That's genuinely useful — it narrows down which of the other lenders will look at the same file differently, because their policies differ far more than people expect.

Sometimes the answer is a different lender today. Sometimes it's the same lender in six months, after we fix one specific thing. I'll tell you which, and I'd rather tell you to wait than put you through an application that's going to fail.

In New South Wales the main one is transfer duty, calculated on a sliding scale based on the property value. First home buyers may be eligible for an exemption or concession depending on the price and the property type, and the thresholds change from time to time, so it's worth checking the current Revenue NSW figures rather than relying on what a friend paid.

Beyond that, budget for conveyancing, building and pest inspections, loan application or settlement fees where they apply, mortgage registration and title searches, and moving costs. If your deposit is under 20 per cent, Lenders Mortgage Insurance may also apply and can be a significant amount. I'll give you a written estimate for your specific purchase before you start looking seriously.

For a straightforward application with a major lender, pre-approval usually comes back within a few business days. Formal approval through to settlement commonly runs four to six weeks, though it can stretch during busy periods or where the file is more complex.

Self-employed, construction and commercial applications generally take longer because there's more to assess. The single biggest factor in speed is whether the documents are complete and correctly presented at lodgement, which is the part I control.

If you're salaried: recent payslips, your most recent notice of assessment or tax return, three to six months of bank statements, identification, evidence of your deposit, and details of existing debts.

If you're self-employed: two years of personal and business tax returns where available, financial statements, business bank statements, and often an accountant's letter. For purchases, add the contract of sale. I'll send you a checklist built for your situation and the specific lender, rather than a generic list of everything imaginable.

It depends on how much certainty you need and how much flexibility you'd be giving up. Fixed rates lock in your repayment for a set period, which helps if your budget is tight or your income is variable. Variable rates move with the market and usually come with offset accounts and unrestricted extra repayments.

Splitting the loan — part fixed, part variable — is a common middle path. I'm not going to tell you which way rates will move, because nobody knows. I will tell you what each option costs you if you're wrong.

Yes, and I'd encourage it. The two are connected whether or not anyone tells you. A chattel mortgage on a new truck affects your serviceability for a home loan. A director's guarantee on a commercial facility shows up in your personal assessment. Debt structured in the wrong entity can cost you the house you were saving for.

When the same person sees both sides, the sequencing can be planned deliberately — which purchase goes first, through which lender, in which name.