First home buyers
Your first home in Cairns, without the guesswork.
Deposits, grants, pre approval, settlement. Renaee has walked hundreds of locals through it and explains every step before it happens.
Who this is for
Never done this before? That is the point.
This is for renters ready to stop paying someone else's mortgage. Couples saving hard at Trinity Beach. Young families eyeing Edmonton and Gordonvale where the land is. Anyone who has opened a bank's first home buyer page and closed it again because none of it made sense.
First home buyers get the most out of a broker for one reason: you do not know what you do not know. Grants you did not realise you qualified for. Schemes that let you skip lenders mortgage insurance. The difference between pre qualification and pre approval, which matters a lot when you are standing at an auction. Renaee's job is to know all of it so you do not have to.
How it works
From first chat to first key.
The first chat costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Renaee looks at your income, your savings and your spending, and tells you honestly whether you are ready now or a few months away. If you are close but not there, she tells you exactly what to fix. No hard sell.
When you are ready, she checks which government schemes and concessions you qualify for, then finds the lenders that suit your deposit size and work situation. You get a shortlist in plain English. She lodges the application, gets your pre approval sorted, and you go house hunting knowing your actual budget.
Found the place? She takes it from contract to settlement, working in with your conveyancer, and explains every document before you sign it. After you move in, she stays on it with a yearly review, because your first loan should not be your last good deal.
What Renaee needs from you
The paperwork, in one list
- Photo ID, a driver licence or passport
- Two recent payslips
- Three months of bank statements, including your savings history
- Statements for any car loans, HECS or credit cards
- Evidence of your deposit, and any gift letter if family are helping
- Your rental ledger, if you are renting
No idea what half of that is? Normal. Book the chat and Renaee will walk you through it, one document at a time.
Common questions
Asked at most kitchen tables
Less than you probably think. Some loans settle with a five per cent deposit, and government schemes can help eligible buyers avoid lenders mortgage insurance with less than twenty per cent saved. The right answer depends on your income, the price bracket and which schemes you qualify for. That is a twenty minute conversation, not a rule of thumb.
Depending on your situation there are federal guarantee schemes, the Queensland first home owner grant for new builds, and stamp duty concessions. The rules and amounts change, and the fine print matters. Renaee checks what you actually qualify for at the time you buy, rather than what a blog post said last year.
LMI is insurance you pay for that protects the lender, not you, when your deposit is under about twenty per cent. It can add thousands to the loan. Sometimes paying it is the right move to get in sooner, sometimes a guarantee scheme or family guarantee avoids it entirely. Renaee lays out both paths with real numbers.
Every formal application leaves a mark on your credit file, which is why scattergun applying to several banks is a bad idea. The broker approach is to check your situation first, pick the lender most likely to approve you, and apply once, properly.
Worth a look before your chat: the borrowing power calculator, the step by step process, and the suburbs Renaee knows street by street.