You've finally found this place that you're after. You want to get the loan application in place, all settled, all ready to go so you're not delaying any settlement, and getting that house as soon as you want. But then you've got this pesky mortgage broker following you up, asking for all these little minor things in terms of an actual statement for this, that, and the other. What's the point, and what's the purpose? Why is your mortgage broker being that much of a pain in the backside? 

The problem with that is, is there could be major ramifications later on. If all those people have lied on their loan applications, can't afford the loan in the future. So lenders now, they're actually after more proof of what you've actually got, and what you could potentially spend. What do I mean by that? Well, credit card. I've had a lot of people come to me and say, "We've got a credit card, but we don't put anything on it." That's fine, and that's a good thing that you don't do that, and sometimes we want to keep those things separate, just for emergencies. 

But, the bank wants to see what you can borrow. So, if you've got only $100 outstanding on your credit card, and your mortgage broker is following you up constantly and asking for these statements, you might be asking,"What's the point? There's only $100 on it." But if you've got a $5,000 credit limit on it, well, then you could effectively borrow a further $4,900. And that's what the bank wants to see.

As is usually the case with these sorts of things, the standards are set by the lowest common denominator. So, it's not necessarily you; it's the other people out there that are trying to fudge it. Now, how are they doing that? Well, there's so many technological advancements nowadays that there's a lot of things that they can do to try and fudge pay slips and bank statements, and all of sorts of things. Now, the banks are onto this. They've actually got ways of checking to see whether or not anyone has fudged the application or the statements they've got. So there are little hidden messages on certain statements that the banks can look for to see whether or not this is legitimate, or it has been tampered with.

They do data sharing, as well, which mean that if there's a fraudulent application with one bank, well, then they've got an obligation to be able to pass it on to other banks as well. So you can't just try and shop it around to see whose defenses are weakest. The bottom line is, if you can put up with our pestering, there is a reason for it. And if you plan to lie anyway, don't call us.