Investing in Property: A Strategic Move for Nurses
Leveraging Your Career in Nursing for Property Investment
You don’t want to be working the night shift in your 50s. You need freedom of choice, especially as you move through the years.
For nurses, property investment isn’t just a financial decision; it’s a step toward long-term security and wealth building. Your dedication to healthcare provides unique opportunities in the property market. Understanding these can transform you from a homeowner to a wealth accumulator.
The Power of Property Investment for Nurses
Building Wealth Over Time
Property investment is a proven method for wealth accumulation. Lender breaks for registered nurses are an advantage here.
Using Home Equity
Already a homeowner? Your home’s equity can be a springboard into property investment, providing a deposit for your investment property.
Understanding the Market
The real estate market can be complex, but, with our expertise, we guide you through the nuances of making smart choices when it comes to financing your investment property.
5 Key Considerations for Nurse Investors
1. Your long-term plan and objectives
The biggest mistake many property investors make is buying one investment property at a time in an area they know. Investing in property should be like a business – start with the end in mind. That is, where do you want to be with your property portfolio in 10 years’ time?
2. Plan
Our planning process kicks in here. We start with your objectives and then work through your key economics, such as borrowing capacity, purchase price, repayment, and plan your next steps from there.
3. Capital growth vs. rental returns
The way to build true wealth from your property is through capital growth – how much your property increases in value over time. Rental returns are great and help pay the mortgage, while over time the capital growth will see you right and your rental income will follow.
4. Understanding leverage and finance
We know this does not sound particularly exciting to learn, but it really is key to maximising your investment property returns, including being able to purchase your investment sooner than what many of our nursing clients think. We pride ourselves as genuine experts in this area.
5. Stick to your plan
The main reason most investors do not get past one investment property is because they don’t stick to their plans. Of course, there are many unpredictables in life, but if your plan is to buy two investment properties in the next two years, like a nurse has recently done with us, then taking a month to travel Europe may not fit with that!
How Nurses Have an Advantage in Property Investment
Lender Breaks for Nurses
Through understanding leverage, smart financing, and lender breaks for registered nurses, you can get your property investment plan off the ground much faster than your non-nursing friends.
Stable and Predictable Income
Nurses often have stable employment, which makes it easier to secure loans and manage investment properties. Banks love this, and you should be rewarded for it.
Future Planning
We advocate the principle of starting with the end in mind. We help you plan your property investment journey with clear goals and strategies.
Your Proven process for your home purchase success
Step 1
Your Plan
Clarity on next steps to achieve your home ownership objectives.
Step 3
Lender Selection
Maximise your qualifying criteria across 40+ lenders based on your situation and objectives
Step 5
Purchasing Assistance
Guidance through the property search and purchase process, not “left on your own”.
Step 7
Client Care
Pay your mortgage off faster with proper account structuring. Ensure you are not over-paying with your interest rate.
Step 2
Internal Credit Assessment
High confidence of loan approval before loan submitted or credit file impacted.
Step 4
Pre-approval
Leave to us to get your loan pre approved. Keep you updated
2x per week.
Step 6
Settlement
You plan for the move in while we handle the financial and legal work. Keep you updated through the process.
Step 8
Future Planning
Proven plan to follow to ensure future goals are met.
Step 1
Your Plan
Clarity on next steps to achieve your home ownership objectives.
Step 2
Internal Credit Assessment
High confidence of loan approval before loan submitted or credit file impacted.
Step 3
Lender Selection
Maximise your qualifying criteria across 40+ lenders based on your situation and objectives
Step 4
Pre-approval
Leave to us to get your loan pre approved. Keep you updated
2x per week.
Step 5
Purchasing Assistance
Guidance through the property search and purchase process, not “left on your own”.
Step 6
Settlement
You plan for the move in while we handle the financial and legal work. Keep you updated through the process.
Step 7
Client Care
Pay your mortgage off faster with proper account structuring. Ensure you are not over-paying with your interest rate.
Step 8
Future Planning
Proven plan to follow to ensure future goals are met.
What Our clients say about Finance4Nurses
Frequently asked questions
How much deposit do I really need?
As First Homebuyers, many of our clients qualify for the Federal Government Home Guarantee Scheme. This means they only need a 5% deposit and do not have to pay Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI).
If you are a registered nurse (RN) or midwife, do not qualify for the guarantee, or are not a First Homebuyer, we have lenders who require a 10% deposit only and no LMI, even for investment properties.
What is the Federal Government Home Guarantee Scheme?
Scheme allocation places are limited and reviewed and released on 1 July each year.
The deposit requirements range from as low as 2% for qualifying single parents to 5% for qualifying individuals and couples.
The property’s age and type do not matter. It can be well established or brand new.
However, the guarantee only applies to owner-occupied homes, and you must have lived in the home for at least 12 months. Investment properties are not eligible.
For single parents, the only ownership rule is that you do not currently have any interest in a property in Australia.
There are income and price caps to be aware of.
Regarding income caps, if you are single, you must have earned less than $125,000 before taxes in the previous financial year or less than $200,000 in total if you are a couple. This is based on your last Notice of Assessment.
Property price caps differ by region. See this link:
https://www.housingaustralia.gov.au/support-buy-home/property-price-caps.
For more details, you can refer to
https://www.housingaustralia.gov.au/support-buy-home/first-home-guarantee. Or you can just call us, and we will help you with your case.
What are the Federal and State Equity Schemes?
The Government owns a share (‘equity’) of your home – for example, 30% for a 2% deposit.
You are allowed to use lenders for your mortgage, but note that lenders are limited to 2 or 3 per State.
Your financial position and property are reviewed each year to check whether you still qualify. If you do not – for instance, your earnings exceed the threshold – you need to raise funds to buy out the Government’s share.
Some of the income thresholds are very low. For example, in NSW, the maximum before-tax income cannot exceed $90,000 for singles or $120,000 in total for couples.
Even if you do not own the entire property, you have to pay 100% of the costs, such as rates and maintenance. This means if and when you sell the property, the Government takes its share of the capital gain even though you have paid all the costs.
What do you do for nurses?
That is a good question. Of course, you need to know what’s in it for you.
Working with us allows you to benefit in three ways:
First, we can help you understand your income and present it in the best light for lender approval.
Nurses have some of the most complex remuneration structures of any profession.
Additionally, there are many possible work arrangements. These include salary packaging, allowance, casual, agency, travel nurse, second job, or any mix of those.
Second, we can explain the lender policies that will work for you.
Because we specialise in working with nurses, we know which lenders to approach to maximise your loan approval and get you the best interest rate.
For example, if you are a travel nurse, two lenders (at the time of writing) will allow you to buy a property as an owner-occupied property in any State, regardless of where you are based. You do not even have to live in a particular State to get the full benefits of a First Homebuyer.
There are many more examples based on income type. The differences in lender policies and how they affect your borrowing capacity will surprise you.
Third, we offer an unmatched breadth of service.
One of the things we are proud of is we partner with you at every step – from the first call until you have your keys in your hand. And even beyond that, your lender will still provide you with the best arrangement.
Our core belief is that every nurse can and should own their own home.
We start with a plan for you. You just have to be a nurse with a genuine home-ownership goal. If that is the case, we will map out what you need to do to buy a property and work with you as you fulfil the requirements.
Many brokers and banks only get you pre-approval and wish you luck, but we go further. We subscribe to property reports and data services to help you learn more about the property you are interested in, compared to the general public.
We also have access to networks in all States to collect information about conveyancing/legal requirements, property inspections, and so on.
Furthermore, we will assist you with making your offer and going to an auction.
Think of us as your own project manager for your home purchase dream.
What home financing advantages do nurses have?
As a nurse, you might not have to pay any LMI even if you do not have a 20% deposit. This is possible through the Government Guarantee Scheme for First Homebuyers.
If you do not qualify for that, several lenders offer no LMI for RNs and require a 10% deposit only.
Looking at your income, some lenders will be more generous than others. However, we can get you qualified with only three months’ casual income (the standard requirement for non-nurses is 12 months), including all of your allowances (unusual for other occupations) and 100% overtime recognition.
Some lenders even offer a lower interest rate for nurses!
Rest assured we will find the best lender for you.
I have no idea where to start. What is the process?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/austnurseshomebuyersforum.
At the same time, you can book a 10-minute phone call with us. Once we understand your situation, we can put together a plan that includes your next steps based on your objective.
You can book a time that suits you using this link:
https://fin4nurses.me/intro-call.
My partner is not a nurse. Can you help?
Even if your partner has a complex situation, we are experienced enough to have seen it all.
Many of our clients’ partners are self-employed or contracted. For instance, some work as tradies or independent drivers or have other occupations.
As long as one of you is a nurse, you can get favourable lender treatment for both of you.
Where are you based? Do you work with nurses from anywhere?
No matter where you are, we can have video meetings, know the State property rules, and have contacts to assist you with your legal and other requirements.
How much do you charge?
We believe that all nurses should own their homes.
Even if you are a year or more from purchasing, we will work with you to get you into the best position to buy. Our only requirement is that you are committed to purchasing and willing to make the sacrifices to do that.
Nevertheless, we are not a charity. We will earn a standard commission when you buy a property. This is disclosed to you and is the same for all lenders.
It is also worth mentioning that lenders are not permitted to offer lower rates due to the structure of the mortgage broking industry and because we do a lot of the work for our clients.
My savings are low. How much do I need before you will work with me?
Even if you are a year or more from purchasing, we will work with you to get you into the best position to buy. Our only requirement is that you are committed to purchasing and willing to make the sacrifices to do that.
We can create a plan for you so you know what to do next. Simply book a call with us, and we can put together some realistic targets.
I have a bad credit history score. What can I do?
We need to know what is causing your low credit score so we can explain it to the lender.
The first thing we do is run your credit report that banks look at – with your written permission, of course. This does not impact your credit score, as we are subscribers to the credit companies, not credit providers.
Many banks perform automatic credit scoring. This means if your credit score is below 700, it will automatically be declined. We skip those.
Other lenders are more flexible and take into account the reason for the low score as long as it is explained well.
The weighting of a credit mark fades over time, so sometimes we advise a client to wait for a few months while their older credit applications drop off.
There are many options, so don’t be afraid to reach out!
How do I contact you?
Speak to us about buying an investment property today
We always start our process with a quick, complimentary consultation. Click the button to book your call.