How can you possibly link the Bachelorette and home loans?

I read this week that casting for Season 5 of the Bachelorette was getting underway at Channel 10. My son had his girlfriend over last year during the last season. This forced the household, including me, to watch the last two episodes of the Bachelorette (that’s my story, anyway).

The poor guys on the show really had to put their best foot forward – and inevitably there could be only one winner. The girl certainly seemed to fancy at least a few of the guys and it was a hard fought competition. It made me think of the Joust process. Joust promises to deliver a similar experience, but for home loan customers.

If you can picture yourself being the highly sought after female character in the Bachelorette… and the banks are the enthusiastic male contestants. Joust will launch in South Australia next month and will introduce an absolute first for how you obtain a new home loan. 

The lenders participating on the Joust platform will be putting their best foot forward and competing fiercely for the heart of the valued consumer. Just like the Bachelorette, there will be a very excited winner… you, the happy consumer. 

To see how Joust works visit www.joustnow.com.au. 

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder

Our 500-day start-up journey: It won’t happen overnight

There’s no shortage of content on entrepreneurship and start-ups. And a lot of what’s out there romanticises start-ups. It goes something like this…

The founders have a great idea. A terrific team is formed, who work long hours to design and build the product – which of course, solves a problem. Off to market they go. With fame and fortune just around the corner.

It’s not always like this, in reality.

The Joust team are looking forward to launch next month – and it’s a great time to reflect on our start-up journey. By the time we help our first customer, our team will have been working on Joust for approximately 500 days. A lot of late nights, early mornings and coffee hits.

We began mulling over our ideas late in 2014, and took the decision to create Joust in January 2015. In those early months, having a good idea and dreaming of what it could be was fun. We were optimistic, which fuelled the fire for all of those 500 days. Thoughts were focussed on how we would be helping customers in August or September 2015. A start-up takes a mountain of work and more importantly, a committed and dedicated team.

Forming a strong team is just as important as the great idea – and it doesn’t happen overnight. There are lots of pieces to our team puzzle, which fell nicely into place in 2015. At every turn, we discovered more had to be done. We required new skillsets at different points.

Finding that “angel” investment is crucial for many start-ups – and Joust was no different. After pitching and presenting for many months, our angel investment round finally came together in September 2015. By October, we had our funding to get us through to a planned launch. At that stage, it was planned for March or April 2016.

Now, we all love Christmas holidays but you guessed it – Christmas holidays interfered with our launch date. As 2015 drew to a close, we were still discovering more streams of work to be undertaken. 

In January 2016, our planning and scheduling meant we had a level of confidence about launching Joust in May 2016. Gratefully, our team continues to tackle the pile of work, which grows each day.

It’s now April, and we find ourselves just six weeks from our scheduled launch. Stress  levels, adrenaline and anticipation are all running high. Many people think start-ups become successful overnight. 500 days from initial concept to helping our first customer, is anything but overnight.

It’s all been worth it. The Joust team can’t wait to help hundreds of Australians achieve a fantastic outcome for their home loans.  Be sure to register at www.joustnow.com.au to be alerted as soon as Joust is available in your state. 

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder

What home loan calculators can’t do

Everybody seems to be getting researching these days. That’s the power of the internet.

If you’re a parent of high school aged children, you’ll be familiar with the “Research Project.” It’s part of the Year 11 and Year 12 school curriculum. We’re trained from an early age to research.

Researching, when it comes to home loans, is a good idea. Home loan calculators are often used to give us an idea of how much our mortgage repayments could be. But unfortunately, they don’t tell us everything.

Home loan calculators aren’t the complete picture

If you know your loan amount, loan term and interest rate, a home loan calculator can accurately estimate your monthly or fortnightly repayment amount.  But if you’re thinking about refinancing or increasing your existing home loan, then the ultimate mortgage calculator is Joust. 

By running a “Joust” on www.joustnow.com.au, up to seven lenders will bid against each other for your home loan business… in real-time.  You even get to set the time-frame for the bids to be received. Talk about full control!

Nowhere else can you hope to create this kind of competitive tension, with just the click of a few buttons – and from the comfort of your lounge chair.

With Joust, we do the matchmaking for you. Sit back and watch the live bids come back to you from the lenders – directly on to your laptop, tablet or mobile phone.  

The bids include your monthly or fortnightly repayments. So manually entering assumptions into a mortgage calculator seems a bit "old school" now, doesn’t it?

I bet our kids wish their “Research Projects” were that easy.

To find out more about how Joust works and whether it’s for you, or email us at info@joustnow.com.au.

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder

What’s wrong with honeymoons?

Honeymoon. You’re probably thinking of a white sandy beach, right? Sounds pretty great!

Well, honeymoon rates can be a big downer when it comes to home loans.

Lenders introduce honeymoon rates to new customers – luring them in with enticing headline interest rates.

Comparison websites only add to the confusion, making it complex to look for a good home loan rate. These sites generally list the standard offers available from lenders – and if they’re sorted lowest to highest, it’s likely that low “honeymoon” rates will be at the top of the list.

If you’re like most of us, we don’t scroll too far down a screen to look for dearer options. But there lies the danger. Unfortunately, all honeymoons come to an end.

Year two, and the honeymoon is over.

If you enter into a new home loan with a honeymoon rate, for perhaps the first year of your loan, you’ll enjoy an excellent interest rate. But then the honeymoon period expires and your rate changes to a standard variable rate – possibly for the next 24 years.

So, over almost the entire loan, you’re probably worse off than any new customer. In fact, there’s a chance that you will be worse off than most other bank customers.

At Joust, we put you, the homeowner, in charge.

The terrific lenders who have signed up to the new Joust platform have agreed to compete for your business on a “normalised” basis. This means that on the Joust platform you will always be comparing “apples with apples.” At last, no more confusion.

Anytime is a great time to “Joust” your home loan – but if you’re coming towards the end of a honeymoon period with your existing bank, get Jousting.

Find out more about how Joust works and whether it’s for you, or email us at info@joustnow.com.au.

Let’s find you a home loan that you’ll never fall out of love with. 

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder

Better Call Bill …..before accepting advice on fixed rate home loans

Interest rates are at a multi-generation low. This means it’s a terrific time to be a home loan borrower – but we’ve got a word of caution for you before you act on any advice about fixing your home loan interest rate.

Let’s start by looking at what a ‘fixed rate’ home loan is.    

Should you fix your home loan rate?

Fixed rate home loans are usually for a set period of time – often 1-5 years. After this time, the loan will usually revert to a ‘variable’ rate loan that fluctuates, normally with the Reserve Bank rates.

Although fixing your home loan makes budgeting easier and rate rises don’t affect you, you could potentially miss out when rates drop – so you’ll be paying more than you need to.

If rates go down below your fixed rate, you’ll be repaying more than the variable rate. Importantly, most fixed rate loans limit the amount of extra payments you can make each year.

Fixed rate loans may also have a ‘break’ fee, if you change or repay your loan within the set period e.g. if you sell your home.

According to Your Mortgage, the Government has abolished exit penalties on some mortgages – yes, some.  

Don’t be misinformed… take control of your home loan

Hard-working bank managers, home loan specialists and mortgage brokers rarely hold degrees in economics. It is simply unrealistic to think that these specialists can keep up with the mountains of domestic and global economic data that influence the future direction of interest rates.

My home loan is currently with Westpac so taking interest rate advice from anyone less qualified than Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans or his counterparts at the large Australian banks, really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  It certainly is a great time to be a home loan borrower but here at Joust, we encourage you to exercise a degree of caution before rushing in to any fixed rate offers.

Own your home loan – not just your house. Spend the time to understand why you have the loan you do, and if it’s the best loan for your individual needs. Only then can you get the best possible price you can. 

Find out how Joust works and whether it’s for you, or email us at info@joustnow.com.au.

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder

Staff discounts are not what they used to be

Back in the day, when it came to home loan interest rates, banks were very generous to their staff. In the 1980s, bank staff were eligible for home loan rate discounts, up to 55% from the standard variable rate.

Bank staff were saving up to 7 per cent.

Now, I’m old enough to remember the “bad old days” of home loan rates of 17.5%, but for the sake of calculation lets use 13.5%. Home loan interest rates hovered around this level for several years. Bank staff were entitled to a home loan rate of 6.5% – that’s a huge saving of 7% off the lending rate.  No wonder banks were considered such great employers.

In saying this, it was still well regulated and there were sensible restrictions on the amount a staff member could borrow.

Fast-forward to December 2014. I was fortunate enough to still be employed by one of the major banks – and enjoyed the benefit of a modest staff discount on my home loan. When I left the bank in January 2015, I was pleased to learn that my staff discount would be maintained. Now fast-forward again to May 2016 – to the date of Joust’s launch.

Taking control of my home loan.

I’m going to be one of Joust’s first customers. Why, you ask… when I’m already saving more than most? And it’s not just because I’m Joust’s Managing Director.

With my old staff discount, I’m currently paying an interest rate of 4.68% per annum. Yes, I am in a better boat than most, but there’s something I’m even more certain of – things change, and so do home loan interest rates. I’m confident that the best lenders in South Australia will compete hard for my home loan business.

Joust makes it easy for everyone to save money on their home loan rates… not just ex-bank employees.

I’m predicting I’ll be able to save as much as 0.60% per annum. I look forward to sharing with you all how much I’ve saved by refinancing my home loan using Joust – or as we like to call it “jousting my home loan.”

May your best rate win!

To see if Joust is right for you, click here. And if you’ve got any questions, fill in a contact form and we’ll get back to you shortly.

Mark Bevan, Joust Founder.