Upgrading Your Home: A Nurse’s Guide to Moving Up the Property Ladder
Embracing Change as a Nurse
Your journey in nursing is one of constant evolution, and so are your living needs. Whether you’re expanding your family, seeking a more relaxing environment, or simply ready for a change, upgrading your home is a significant step. As a nurse, your unique professional and financial situation requires a tailored approach to this transition.
The Art of Timing and Planning
- Understanding Your Financial Position: The first step is a thorough assessment of your current financial health. As a nurse, your income may include regular wages, overtime, and shift allowances, all of which play a crucial role in determining your borrowing capacity.
- Sequencing Your Move: Balancing the sale of your existing home with the purchase of your new one requires strategic timing. We guide you through this process, considering factors like market trends and your professional commitments.
- Exploring Financing Options: There are various ways to finance your home upgrade – from bridging loans to leveraging equity in your current home. We’ll explore the options that best suit your unique nursing income and lifestyle. We match these with special lender offers for nurses, such as requiring a lower deposit for your second home or investment property.
The Nurse’s Advantage in Upgrading
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.
Flexibility in Shift Work
Your shift work schedule can allow time to manage property investment responsibilities.
Nursing-Specific Loan Options
We explore loan options that consider the unique aspects of nursing income and combine that with lower deposit requirements several lenders now offer for nurses.
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 upgrading your home today
We always start our process with a quick, complimentary consultation. Click the button to book your call.