Liberty Finance

Discussion in 'Loans & Mortgage Brokers' started by Sydney_gal16, 29th May, 2018.

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  1. Sydney_gal16

    Sydney_gal16 Active Member

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    Has anybody used Liberty finance?

    How quick are their turn around times? Best rate for an investment loan P+I variable with them?

    Will check with my broker but keen to hear of any positive/negative experience with them?
     
    Sydney_gal16, 29th May, 2018
    #1
  2. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

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    I would generally prefer clients not to borrow rather than use Liberty.
     
    Terry_w, 29th May, 2018
    #2
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  3. rook2017

    rook2017 Well-Known Member

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    What about Pepper?
     
    rook2017, 29th May, 2018
    #3
  4. Sydney_gal16

    Sydney_gal16 Active Member

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    why wouldn’t you suggest them?
     
    Sydney_gal16, 29th May, 2018
    #4
  5. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

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    rates, terms and conditions. Watch out for rate creep.
     
    Terry_w, 29th May, 2018
    #5
  6. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    I think what @Terry_w is trying to say without saying it is: if you are at the stage of needing Liberty (or other "last resort" lenders) AND asking this question, you are probably better off sitting back and not buy. You should have exhausted all other option, AND the deal better be awesomely good AND you need to be able to cover higher repayments etc etc (and if the last bit were the case, you would not be looking at the last resort).

    There are legit times you use these - for example if you have enough cash to buy a property outright, and make an unconditional offer (or buy at auction), but decide you want to get a loan while you can to give you more flexibility in the future (which you have enough money to offset completely anyway).

    The Y-man
     
    The Y-man, 29th May, 2018
    #6
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  7. Rolf Latham

    Rolf Latham Inciteful (sic) Staff Member Business Plus Member

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    The primary challenge with non banks at that end of the borrow spectrum is that one needs to have a viable exit strategy

    We do tonnes of work with quite a few non banks, and there are non banks and non banks. Pepper and Liberty are the most generous in terms of lending cap - for now, and that brings challenges and opportunities.

    liberty holds the mantle as the highest servicing still " mainstream" lender.

    What that means, if you or the lender goes pear shaped, and you havent built a risk managed exit strategy - ie its your ppor, and you are @ Liberty purely due to borrow cap.......... and at moderate to higher lvrs...... then you can be at the mercy of what TW called creep.

    To be fair, for a non pro investor on PI rates for an owner occ lend in the 70 % or below lvr range, their rate is and has been quite sharp given that they have such generous borrow cap.

    its when one play with their IO investor and pro investor mark ups and > 80 % lvrs that you can rates with 6s in the front ouchie.

    As for rate creep, aside from their risk rated Pro investor rate increase I recall that Liberty have been pretty much in step with their ADI/Apra limited cousins ?

    ta
    rolf
     
    Rolf Latham, 30th May, 2018
    #7
  8. dabbler

    dabbler Well-Known Member

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    They were competitive at one stage, I used them as I prefer to stay away from larger lenders, but was turned off when they started charging more and adding loadings etc, so I would say if the choice is available, look for other smaller lenders that are like credit unions etc

    Apart from that, they are usually as quick as many lenders, and they do not play games that some big lenders have done when it comes time to discharge, so I have no issue using them when required.

    If your investing, you should structure anyway and spread out your borrowings.

    Plenty of info to read in the forum on this.
     
    dabbler, 17th Jun, 2018
    #8
  9. htopg

    htopg Well-Known Member

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    I have used Liberty.
    The reason for me to go for Liberty is that no other lenders could lend me 80% of an investment property I bought in auction in 2015.
    It was 4.45% then, higher than other lenders but I had no choice.

    During past 2 years, the rate went up form 4.45% to 4.8% then to 5.3% (thanks to APRA).
    I converted it from I/O to P+I and the rate came down to 4.8%.
    Later I moved in and requested for PPOR rate, and I was given 4.69%.
    Just recently, it increased to 4.88%.

    I then refinanced to Mortgage House's 3.99%, couldn't be happier :)

    To sum up,
    PRO
    Don't discount Liberty, it might be your only option

    CON
    When you tried to refinance, other lenders will probably ask you "why Liberty? do you have bad credit history?"
    * you have to explain that "Liberty was the only lender who could lend me the money I needed"
     
    htopg, 20th Jun, 2018
    #9
  10. Kassy

    Kassy Well-Known Member

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    Yep, I am with Liberty with one of my properties for the reasons above. They screwed us over a bit with the setup and aren’t customer focused in any way shape or form. It will serve it’s purpose for us though and we have a Mortgage Broker so we have someone to explain for us when we look to refinance it.
     
    Kassy, 20th Jun, 2018
    #10