Article by Patrick Lynch, Head of Operations at Long Property
With this being our last newsletter until after the New Year, Dan and I thought it would be good time to reflect.
It hasn’t been an easy six months, establishing the new business whilst also dealing with a difficult lending environment, a Royal Commission into the banking sector, and softening property market conditions in Melbourne and Sydney.
However in the pursuit of finding the best lending solutions for clients we’ve now lodged applications with 14 different lenders and we have had a near perfect conversion rate in terms of approvals.
Looking at some highlights…
Pre-approvals:
- We’ve put in place multiple pre-approvals for clients in preparation for good buying opportunities.
- This lowers risk and enables clients to now compete aggressively for high quality assets.
Purchases & Developments:
- We’ve helped many clients buy owner occupied properties (first home buyers right the way through to $5m+ homes).
- With the help of trusted buyers advocates we’ve assisted numerous property investors buy at substantial discounts to where the markets were trading 9-12 months ago.
- We’ve helped other clients raise finance for renovations and developments, including even an owner-builder scenario (where the borrower builds their own home).
Refinances & Equity Releases:
- In once case we helped clients save over $20,000/yr by switching banks.
- We’ve also helped clients restructure their lending to reduce risk and better prepare for upcoming sale events.
- We’ve also helped clients release equity from their existing properties in preparation for good buying opportunities anticipated in the future. In once case we helped a client release $3.0m equity upfront, with minimal documentation required to support the use of the $3.0m.
Systems & Processes:
- We’ve achieved the above whilst implementing new systems and processes to support the ‘higher-touch’ experience our clients have been asking for.
- To help clients make informed decisions we’ve also delivered weekly educational content through our blog and podcast, and we’ve also headlined two seminars on lending, one for clients and another for specialist referral partners.
- We’ve referred many clients to specialists in areas like property, risk, accounting and legal matters, and we’ve done this with zero referral fees (uncommon in the industry) – our sole interest is that our clients obtain high quality advice, and have positive experiences.
Looking forward:
- 2019 promises to be an eventful year with house prices expected to dominate headlines, with the royal commission delivering it’s final report in February, and with the federal election expected mid year.
- Clients are advised not to panic, and to ensure they have both a finance and property strategy in place that they are comfortable with. Please reach out to Dan if would like to book an appointment to discuss this (you can book an appointment here).
Feedback:
- Your feedback is always welcome, positive or negative, it helps us further improve our service offerings.
- You can leave a review on Google or LinkedIn, or you can just email hi@longproperty.com.au
- Please also let us know any specific topics you would like covered on the podcast.
Holiday availability:
- We’ll continue to be available (phone and email) over the holiday period, please just be aware the Lenders and solicitors/ conveyancers tend to operate on a skeleton staff basis between now and Monday 7 January.
In January, we look forward to welcoming Rachel as the newest member of our Long Property team! We will properly introduce Rachel at a later date.
Here’s passing on a big thank you to all our clients, business partners, friends and family. Your support has enabled us to provide positive outcomes in-line with our four core values:
- Give, don’t take
- Relationships are everything
- Our focus is on quality
- We enjoy the work
This is highly rewarding and it motivates us to do more of the same in 2019 and beyond.
Best wishes over the holiday period.
