Home Loans
Why two lenders give you two very different numbers
Assessment rates, living expense benchmarks and how existing commitments are treated can shift your capacity by hundreds of thousands.
Rove Financial · 6 min readRead
Knowledge Centre
Finance, explained without the jargon.
Education is part of the advice. These are the explanations we find ourselves giving most often — written down, in plain English.
Featured
Start here.
Browse
Find what you're wondering about.
Search by topic, or choose a category. Every guide is written to be read once and understood.
Home Loans
Why two lenders give you two very different numbers
Assessment rates, living expense benchmarks and how existing commitments are treated can shift your capacity by hundreds of thousands.
Rove Financial · 6 min readRead
Loan Structure
Offset, redraw and why the difference matters
They look similar on a statement and behave very differently in practice — particularly if the property ever becomes an investment.
Rove Financial · 5 min readRead
First Home Buyers
The deposit conversation nobody has properly
Deposit, costs, buffers and schemes. What you actually need in the account before you start making offers.
Rove Financial · 7 min readRead
Refinancing
When refinancing is the wrong decision
A lower rate isn't always a better outcome. Term resets, costs and structure changes can quietly erase the saving.
Rove Financial · 4 min readRead
Self-Employed
How lenders actually read your financials
Add-backs, retained profits and trust distributions — what a credit assessor is looking for in your tax returns.
Rove Financial · 8 min readRead
Investing
Cross-collateralisation, and why we usually avoid it
Tying securities together makes one approval easier and every future decision harder. Here's the trade-off in detail.
Rove Financial · 6 min readRead
Refinancing
Should I Refinance My Home Loan? An Australian Guide
How to compare your rate, remaining term, switching costs, loan features and overall position before deciding whether to refinance.
Rove Financial · 8 min readRead
Refinancing
Is My Home Loan Interest Rate Too High? An Australian Guide
How to compare your mortgage rate, loan type, features and overall lending position in Australia — and when it may be worth asking your lender for a review.
Rove Financial · 9 min readRead
Home Loans
How Much Can I Borrow for a Home Loan in Australia?
How Australian lenders assess income, expenses, debts, credit limits, dependants, loan term and interest rates when working out borrowing capacity.
Rove Financial · 10 min readRead
First Home Buyers
How Much Deposit Do I Need to Buy a Home in Australia?
Understand 20% deposits, smaller deposits, loan-to-value ratio, Lenders Mortgage Insurance, buying costs and current first-home-buyer support.
Rove Financial · 11 min readRead
Home Loans
Mortgage Broker vs Bank: Which Should I Use for a Home Loan?
The differences between using a mortgage broker and going direct to a bank: lender access, best interests duty, how brokers are paid and when each may suit.
Rove Financial · 10 min readRead
Home Loans
What Does a Mortgage Broker Do? An Australian Guide
What an Australian mortgage broker actually does: assessing your position, considering lenders on their panel, explaining options and managing the application to settlement.
Rove Financial · 11 min readRead
Home Loans
Home Loan Pre-Approval: How Does It Work in Australia?
What pre-approval is, what lenders assess, how long it may last, and why it is conditional rather than a guarantee of finance.
Rove Financial · 12 min readRead
Loan Structure
Fixed vs Variable Home Loan: Which Is Better in Australia?
How fixed, variable and split home loans actually work in Australia — certainty, flexibility, features, break costs and what to compare beyond the rate.
Rove Financial · 12 min readRead
Self-Employed
How Do Banks Assess Self-Employed Income for a Home Loan?
How Australian lenders may assess self-employed income — tax returns, financial statements, add-backs, income consistency, business debts and serviceability.
Rove Financial · 13 min readRead
Investing
Investment Property Loans: What Should You Consider?
Borrowing capacity, rental income, equity, LVR, repayment type, security structure and future plans — the lending considerations behind an Australian investment property loan.
Rove Financial · 14 min readRead
Stay informed
One considered email a month.
No promotions, no rate alerts. Just the explanation of something worth understanding.
Lending Strategy Session
Prefer to ask the question directly?
Bring it to a Lending Strategy Session. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and an answer specific to your situation rather than the general case.