I spent six years selling houses before I started financing them.

Mortgage broker on the Northern Beaches, writing loans through MortgageWorks for professionals, business owners and anyone whose finances do not fit a template.

Call 0419 169 166 More about me

Jack Greentree with his dog Schooner at home in Belrose — Jack Greentree, Belrose NSW

Why it matters

Most brokers have never sat on the other side of the table.

Every broker in Sydney will tell you they will find you a good rate. Almost none of them have run an auction campaign, sat across from a vendor, or watched a deal wobble three days out from settlement.

I spent six years as an agent at Richardson & Wrench in Double Bay before I wrote a single loan. I know what the agent is thinking, what the vendor has already been told, and exactly where a finance clause is going to hurt you.

Six years selling them, six years financing them. Twelve years in and around property across the country, buying it, selling it and financing it, so the money side of a deal is not new ground for me.

Every loan I write goes through MortgageWorks, an independent broking firm I have been part of since not long after it started. You are dealing with one bloke, with a firm and a compliance team behind him.

That is not a sales line. It is the reason people who find me without a referral end up staying.

I would rather set a loan up properly today than win it this week and have you unpicking it in two years.

Who I work with

The files most brokers would rather not open.

If your income does not arrive as a payslip on the fifteenth, you are exactly who I am set up for.

Self-employed

Sole traders, contractors and business owners. Two years of returns, add-backs, and a lender who reads them properly rather than running them through a calculator.

Company and trust structures

Complex structures take longer and the paperwork is heavier, which is why a lot of brokers avoid them. Those are the ones I like.

Professionals and executives

Time poor, want it set up correctly the first time, and would rather deal with one person the whole way through than a call centre.

Anyone who has been knocked back

Lenders weigh a credit history very differently from one another. A no in one place genuinely does not mean a no everywhere, and it is worth having someone look properly before you accept it.

Files I have worked

Three that were not straightforward.

Names and identifying details are left out on purpose. Every situation is different and none of this is a promise about yours.

When one lender says no

A first home buyer came to me after being knocked back. He had made some mistakes with credit years earlier and his own bank would not look at him, which he had taken to mean the door was shut everywhere.

It is not. Lenders weigh a credit history very differently from one another. We found one that would take the full picture into account, got him pre-approved, and he was in his first home a few months later.

Everyone's situation is different and I would never promise an outcome. Being told no once is not the end of it, and it is worth having someone look properly before you accept it.

When circumstances change

A client got back in touch after a few quiet years, following the death of his wife. His lender would not restructure the loans across his investment properties, which left him stuck with an arrangement that no longer suited the situation he was now in.

We looked at the whole portfolio and worked through moving it to a lender who would structure it the way he actually needed. I also put him in touch with a financial adviser I trust, because a good chunk of what he needed sorting sat outside what a broker should be advising on.

Knowing where my job stops is as useful to a client as knowing how to do it. Nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice, and situations differ.

Complicated structures

A self-employed couple running their own business through a company and trust structure wanted to refinance and release equity to buy an investment property.

On paper it is fairly ordinary. In practice a lot of brokers will not touch a complex self-employed file, because it takes longer, the paperwork is heavier and there is more that can go wrong. The largest loan I have settled is eight figures, so it is unlikely anything about your situation is new to me.

Every application is assessed on its own merits and lending criteria apply. Past files are not an indication of what any lender will do with yours.

Worth a conversation before you go to a bank.

No obligation, no application, and I will tell you honestly if I am not the right person for it. Give me a call or send a note and I will come back to you.

Call 0419 169 166 Send a note

Belrose NSW By appointment Northern Beaches and Eastern Suburbs