Nobel Finance Sydney – Money Matters Newsfeed

by Noel Clarke 

There are not many people in this world who do not get excited by the prospect of buying a new car. This excitement can sometimes be deflated by the whole finance thing. If your credit history is not so good, or basically non existent, then you may need to find a bad credit car loan.

The fact is buying a car for most people is one of the biggest purchases they will ever make. Owning a car is kind of like a right of passage for a lot of people, and definitely a sign of “coming of age” for most teenagers. Let face it , we all need a reliable car to get around, and most of us would rather drive a nice new or late car than an old bomb. But nice new or late model cars are obviously a lot more expensive than old cars, and that means that most of us will require some sort of finance. The problem is that if you have a poor credit history, or have not had time to establish a good credit record, then its going to feel like the whole financial system has it in for you. Unfortunately many banks and most financial or lending businesses do not look favorably on people with no or bad credit history’s.

But before you decide to give up, bad credit finance is available, be it a bad credit personal loan, or in the case of buying a car, a bad credit car loan.

A point to bear in mind, is that quite often the bank will be more inclined to grant you bad credit finance on a newer vehicle, due to it having more value if the bank should need to repossess it.

There are lenders out there who specialize in bad credit finance, and who will be able to furnish you with a bad credit car loan.  When considering bad credit financing, it is advisable to shop around and do your homework, because the interest rates offered can vary quite significantly between the various lenders. A finace broker is the key here. They know the market and know which lender would be able to help you. The most important thing to remember is not to go filling out applications all over town. The more enquiries you have on your credit file in a short time, the less likely you are to get approved. Use a finance broker to apply once and get the loan. 

When buying a car, some things to keep in mind may include. If you are planning to buy a used car, get a friendly mechanic to give it a once over. Keep in mind additional costs such as insurance, registration etc. And most importantly, to enjoy the pride and freedom that owning your own car creates.

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Mining surveys

Mining surveys usually only have to be conducted if you are in a high-risk area or if there is evidence of subsidence. In former mining areas, you can often obtain documents from the Mine Subsidence Board. These maps will tell you if your property is at risk, in which case you may wish to commission a mining survey. A mining survey determines the position of underground works such as tunnels and shafts, as well as surface structures and boundaries.

Other surveys

Other surveys are also available but are rarely necessary and are more likely to be used when building a house or embarking on a large development project.

These include:

• Engineering/construction surveys
• Topographical mapping and control surveys. These portray the terrain; rivers, highways, railways, bridges and other man-made features
• Hydrographic surveys. These map shorelines of water bodies; chart the bottom of streams, lakes, harbours and coastal waters and assess issues affecting water resources
• Photogrammetric surveys

Strata title investigations

If buying a unit, you should obtain an inspection of the books and records of the owners’ corporation — or body corporate. There are firms who specialise in these inspections. They not only inspect the building but also the written records (which include meeting minutes) kept by body corporate. These will tell you what insurances are in place, what the quarterly levies are, what the financial position of the strata is, what maintenance problems exist and whether special levies are likely to be exacted in the near future.

Local council reports and services

The local council can be a source of considerable information on the following:

Modifications: Illegal modifications can be a source of serious angst. A council building inspection will help you sort these out prior to purchase and costs about $100 or $200.

Flood maps: The council has flood maps that are available to the public and if you are buying in a low-lying area these are worth consulting. If the area is flood prone, this should be reflected in the price.

Bushfire zones: Council provides maps of fire-risk areas. Should you wish to renovate or rebuild at any stage, you will have to comply with fire-resistance building practices. This is an added expense.

Posted in Buying property | | No Comments »

By Sarah Mills

Buying property is a huge expense so the one thing you shouldn’t stint on is surveys and inspections. These are the best protection you have against buying a white elephant. The number of surveys you conduct will ultimately depend on how prudent you want to be. Given pre-purchase costs can add between five and six percent to the cost of an average home, this will be an important consideration.

The vendor usually supplies copies of previous surveys with the Contract of Sale to try and speed the purchase process. While this is a good guide when deciding whether to buy the house in the first instance, it is still prudent to conduct your own investigations before settlement. It is also a good idea to use surveyors and inspectors with professional indemnity insurance so that you have some recourse should an error be made.

Pest inspections, building inspections and property surveys are the three most common types of reports home buyers commission and they offer a broad level of protection.

Following are a list of inspections, surveys, costs, and general tips

Termite inspection

In Australia, this is a must. Termites can completely destroy a home and the owner rarely has recourse to house insurance where termites are concerned. Cockroaches can also be problematic. Average cost: $100.

Building inspection

Building inspectors check the structural soundness of a house. Subsidence, age, earthquakes and poor construction, can all affect the integrity of a house and are rarely covered by house insurance. Many sellers try to hide defects by strategically positioning furniture, painting over cracks and signs of damp, and ventilating well to hide damp. A trained eye should be able to pick up any deficiencies you have missed.

The building inspection should also cover most drainage issues. If you are considering buying on the low side of the road, it may also be worthwhile asking the building inspector to check the absorption pit, and that the downpipes have not been connected to the sewer pipes. This practice is quite common but illegal. The water board checks large areas at once (which it does easily by injecting red smoke into the mains that eventually rises through the downpipe and surfaces from the gutter). The water board employees then stand back and observe the red smoke emerging chimney-like from several houses at once. If yours is one of these, it can cost thousands to fix.

By law, the Contract for Sale must include a drainage diagram. It includes maps of drains, pipes and mains and this can be a good thing to check and share with the inspector.

The average cost of a building inspection ranges between $200 and $1000, depending on the property.

Property surveys

Property surveyors survey the land on which the house is built and must provide a certificate of completion within 30 days. They fix property lines, peg boundaries and calculate the land area. This is to ensure that the property you are being sold is the property you think you are buying. Often buildings have been built in the wrong places — sometimes even on different blocks — so it is important to get it right. Property surveys stop encroachment by neighbours and establish important issues such as easements and right of way. They advise on the status of land ownership, on the rights, restrictions and interests in the property.

By law, you must use a licensed surveyor to prove the dimensions of your property and failing to do so incurs a $10,000 fine. It also means the survey will have no legal status in any ensuing boundary disputes.

Surveying errors are more common with older houses. Sometimes a house may have been built a few inches over the neighbouring property. If this error was discovered decades ago it will be written into the title. This is a sign that the government forced the various parties involved to be civilised and have accepted the error. This is rarely an issue for the buyer.

The problem for buyers comes when these discrepancies have not been listed on the title, especially if it has been the result of more frequent activity by the vendor.

Quantity surveying charges vary depending on the property’s location, size, age, design and complexity, but the average cost is about $500.

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by David Zwierecki
Building and Rebuilding your credit does not have to be nearly as hard as it sounds. In order to maximize your credit scores and build or improve your current credit you need to first understand how the credit scoring system works.

Here are some quick tips on improving your credit score that you can do all on your own:

# This is the most obvious of all of the tips but you need to start with making all of your payments on time. Make sure you pay your co-pays for insurance bills at the doctors office and/or hospital so that they do not eventually find themselves in the collections department and reporting as a blemish on your credit report. This is one of the most common types of collections that report to consumers credit reports.

# Never borrow over 50% of the maximum credit limit on your credit cards. It is even better if you can keep the balances under 30% of your maximum credit limits. Maxing out your credit cards, or even worse, going over your credit limit can have almost as negative affect on your credit report as late payments.

# Maintain a good balance of credit. For example 1 auto loan, 2 credit cards and 1 mortgage loan would be a good balance of credit. If you were to have 10 credit cards only and no other credit, this would not be a good balance/mixture of credit usage.

# Limit the number of total inquiries you have against you. This simply means do not apply for every type of credit that you can. Do not sign up for new credit cards at every sporting event or mall kiosk that you see so that you can get the free gift. Too many inquiries can have a negative impact on your credit score.

# Try piggybacking credit off of a friend or family member. This is a method of having a friend or family member add you one (or more) of their credit cards as an “AUTHORIZED USER,” not as a co-borrower and you can instantly gain their credit history from that credit card. Not all credit card companies will report this to your credit but many of them will. You must make sure the individual has a good payment history and is not over-extended on that credit card themselves for you to receive maximum benefits from this. Also a credit card with a long history will be much better for you to be added to.

If you are new to credit the easiest credit cards to obtain are usually department store credit cards, such as JCPenny, Sears, Kohl’s, etc… Also, Capital One and Household Bank are very easy to obtain credit cards through as well.

Therefore, just because you have credit cards does not mean you need to use them. Use them very sparingly and preferably only once in awhile to demonstrate a responsible payment history. Follow the tips above and the tips on the link above in order to improve or build your credit.

About the Author

The author of this article, Dave Zwierecki, has over 10 years of experience in the credit and mortgage lending fields. http://www.gofirstsecurity.com

Here is a great link on credit building/rebuilding and how credit scoring works: http://fshomeloan.com/index_files/mortgageblogger.htm

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by David Zwierecki
Unfortunately when you are dealing with real estate there are always going to be fees and closing costs involved in the process. Even if you are not obtaining a mortgage on the property, there will still be fees associated with the real estate transfer, such as a recording fee, transfer fee, title/attorney fees, notary fees, doc stamp, etc… Even if you are obtaining a mortgage on the property and you are using a lender that is advertising no closing costs or no fees, chances are you will still have to pay for items such as an appraisal fee, your 1st year of homeowners insurance, your tax and insurance impound account deposit, and quite possibly an application fee. But how can these lenders avoid all of the other fees that you have heard about or noticed in prior real estate transactions. The answer is very simple, they “jack up” your interest rate on your mortgage loan to account, for the amount of money you would have had in fees, and then some. Many of these lenders advertising no closing costs or fees will even add a pre-payment penalty to your loan to make sure that you stay in it for at least a few years so that they can recover the money that they paid for your closing costs.

So what are all of these fees for and what do they do for you? We will not discuss every individual fee in this article, but we will focus on the main fees and charges. First, we have the appraisal fee. This one is pretty self explanatory, as you want to make sure the home is worth what you are going to pay. Next, we have your lender fees such as underwriting and such. These fees compensate the lender for reviewing the file, making sure the file adheres to the lending institutions guidelines and policies and normally to FNMA and FHLMC’s guidelines as well. Third, we have origination fees and/or broker fees. Usually, you will have these fees if you work with a mortgage broker or a mortgage banker.

A mortgage broker will shop your loan around and will almost always find you a considerably lower rate than what you would be able to qualify for on your own with the same lender. Therefore, they charge a fee for this service. Fourth, we have your title company fees. Many times the total fees here for the title company will be the largest chunk of fees charged. The title company fees guarantee that you receive a clear title, insure the title, insure the loan is properly recorded and notarized, and make sure all of the money is properly disbursed accordingly. Finally, you have your miscellaneous fees such as survey, endorsements, doc stamps, wire fees, etc… that are not always necessary but depend on the type of loan and the lender’s policies.

Therefore, even though sometimes the fees can seem a bit much, mainly they are all there for your benefit and protection. Anytime you are considering a no cost or no fee mortgage, make sure that you have no intention to keep that loan more than a few years. If you decide to go with a no fee loan and keep it longer than that, you will end up paying much more over the life of the loan than had you just paid the closing costs. If you are planning to stay in the home for a number of years, then paying the closing costs and taking the lowest possible rate will probably be in your best interest and will save you the most money in the long run. Also, some of your closing costs may be tax deductible. You can also have the seller of the home you are buying pay your closing costs by negotiating that into the price. There are many options that surround you when dealing with fees and real estate, just make sure you understand your options and you make the best decision for your finances.

About the Author

The author of this article, Dave Zwierecki, has over 10 years of experience in the credit and mortgage lending fields. http://www.gofirstsecurity.com/Florida/closing_costs.htm

Posted in Buying property, General, Real Estate | | No Comments »