On the home stretch
November 9th 2018
With the pending arrival of their first child, exciting work opportunities and a healthy nest egg saved, the lure home to Australia was too great for expats Joel and Lauren.
After three and a half years working in San Diego, California, the niggle to ‘settle down’ back in Sydney had become a tug.
And Lauren laughs, ‘mum would have disowned me If we didn’t come home!’
Little did they realise how complicated this seemingly simple decision, would prove.
“Once we made the decision to re-locate back to Australia we made sure we were really organised, embarking on a home loan preapproval process well in advance so there was less pressure once we were ready to start house hunting,” Lauren explains.
“As it turns out, this process became somewhat of a nightmare, and it’s only thanks to Invest Blue’s Credit Adviser Carol O’Shea, that we managed our way through it.”
Holding a healthy portfolio of investments, property and a strong cash flow, the couple was initially surprised the loan requirements were so complicated.
Surprise that fast turned into frustration.
“We understand that the banks are being very cautious at the moment, but because ours was an international move, we had new jobs, and with me being pregnant, it was an incredibly difficult loan to secure.”
“The documentation we had to provide was extensive – proof of salary, proof of maternity leave, proof of HR policies, letters from past and future colleagues – if we hadn’t had Carol wading through the paperwork required, we would have been extremely overwhelmed.”
Having known Carol for many years personally, Lauren admits she was always going to be her first ‘point of call’.
“I trust Carol completely, and I knew she would get the job done – although never could I have realised how imperative she would prove.”
“Carol was amazing negotiating with the bank to cut out some of the unnecessary paperwork.”
All of this, to Lauren’s relief, was done directly between Carol and the bank, without overburdening the young couple needlessly.
“We will be forever grateful to Carol, an international move, while pregnant, was never going to be easy – we had two dogs to fly home, furniture to ship, jobs to finalise – we wouldn’t have managed organising the home loan on our own.”
Communicating initially via email, ‘Carol was super prompt, so there was never an issue doing business internationally’, once home the couple had a number of face to face meetings to try and finalise the loan.
“By the time we moved home I was quite pregnant and ready to start nesting – we still didn’t have a loan, let alone a home and it had become quite a stressful situation, but Carol was reassuring the whole time.”
Lauren laughs that in the end, ‘like everything we do’ it all came down to the wire.
An open house in North Curl Curl, the loan finally settled and their offer on the home accepted – all within 10 days, with three weeks to spare before baby arrived.
And with baby daughter Piper arriving a week overdue, “I even got an extra week of nesting and settling in,” she smiles.
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