CASE STUDIES

How the tricky ones got done.

Situations the standard checklist would have bounced — and the pathway that funded them.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS1 · Self-Employed Home Loans

The electrician the bank couldn’t read

Situation: A sole-trader electrician, trading —, wanted to buy a family home with a — deposit.
Problem: Only one full year of tax returns — and that year showed heavy vehicle and tool write-offs. On paper, taxable income looked too thin to service the loan. Two banks said no.
Approach: We rebuilt the income picture the way a specialist credit team reads it: latest return with legitimate add-backs, — of BAS showing turnover trending up, and clean business bank statements. Then we matched it to a lender whose alt-doc policy fits exactly this profile.
Outcome: Approved for —. Rate carried a modest alt-doc premium, with a mapped path to refinance to mainstream pricing once the second full return exists.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS2 · Refinance / Self-Employed

Situation: A couple — both directors of their — company — on a rate they hadn’t reviewed in —.
Problem: Their income was structured as modest salaries plus retained company profits. Their own bank assessed the salaries alone, told them they “couldn’t service the loan they already had”, and declined the reprice.
Approach: Company financials presented with salaries, dividends and retained profits assessed together — to a lender whose policy explicitly counts them. Full comparison run across the panel.
Outcome: Refinanced — at a rate roughly — lower — about — a month back — plus an offset structure that actually suits how company profits flow.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS3 · Business Finance

Situation: A suburban café owner won a second site with — on the ABN — fit-out due in weeks, cash tied up in stock and bond.
Problem: No property security, a tight deadline, and the bank’s timeline measured in months, not weeks.
Approach: Two-lane strategy: an unsecured working-capital facility sized on — of trading statements for speed, with equipment finance carrying the coffee machines and kitchen against the assets themselves — keeping the cash facility small and the total cost down.
Outcome: — landed inside — days. Fit-out done, site opened, and the expensive facility structured to clear early without penalty.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS4 · Car & Asset Finance

Situation: A self-employed courier with a subcontract offer that needed a — — about — of truck.
Problem: One year of returns showing modest profit after every legitimate deduction, and a dealer “finance offer” with a balloon that would have hurt at term’s end.
Approach: Low-doc chattel mortgage against the vehicle with an established-ABN declaration — no full financials needed. Balloon sized to the truck’s realistic end-of-term value, not to make the repayment look pretty.
Outcome: Approved in —, settled in time for the contract start. Repayments fit the new revenue, and the structure left the GST position clean for his accountant.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS5 · Home Loans / First Home

Situation: An IT contractor on day rates — earning well for — across back-to-back contracts — buying a first home with her PAYG partner.
Problem: Contract gaps and an ABN-plus-payslip history made two lenders classify her as “unstable income” and haircut her borrowing power to nothing useful.
Approach: A mixed application: partner’s PAYG income anchoring serviceability, her contracting history presented with continuity evidence (same field, rising rates, current contract term) to a lender that assesses contractors on day-rate. First-home concessions checked and applied.
Outcome: Approved for — — around — more than the previous lender’s assessment — with a repayment they’d already stress-tested against a single income.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.

CS6 · Commercial Finance

Situation: A physiotherapist, — into a strong practice, whose landlord offered to sell the clinic premises for —.
Problem: Deposit mostly tied up in the business; personal financials complicated by practice reinvestment. Unclear whether buying beat renting at all.
Approach: First, the honest maths — ownership versus rent over ten years, including rate risk. Then an owner-occupier commercial structure with the practice as tenant, — down, assessed on practice cash flow with the accountant in the loop from day one.
Outcome: Settled at —. Monthly finance cost landed near the old rent — except now it builds equity, and the practice controls its own premises.

Representative scenarios. Details and figures are illustrative and are not a promise of any outcome. Every application is assessed on its own merits.