Please see below an email I sent out earlier today

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Hi, this is Graham Doessel from Mortgage Now,
Firstly, let me say thank you for your past enquiries, and please remember that Mortgage Now will always be here to help with all your financial needs.

As you have helped both me and Mortgage Now become the largest exclusive non-conforming brokerage in Australia, and my personal selection as a finalist in the 2008 Australian Mortgage Awards as non conforming broker of the year, it’s time for me to give something back.

Mortgage Now has become a major sponsor of the new and exciting reverse auction site, www.esuga.com, where the lowest unique bid wins!

Mortgage Now is offering through the www.esuga.com system, a $600,000 dream home package, AND a seperate $100,000 off your mortgage package.

All packages available on the www.esuga.com website are available as reverse auctions, where the highest bidder no longer wins.
(its a nice change to note that you could win these auctions for only a few cents)

I have included a presentation below to give you a better understanding of how www.esuga.com, works, so that you too can have a chance to be included in the amazing opportunities that www.esuga.com reverse auctions offer!

Kind Regards
Mortgage Now

Graham Doessel
Founder & CEO

Too see the full offer, please ckick here http://www.mortgagenow.com.au/icontact_esuga_email.html

I am Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

Graham can be contacted at Mortgage Now,

246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053

www.mortgagenow.com.au

or call TOLL FREE 1300 667-239

Graham built Mortgage Now from the ground up to become the largest non conforming Mortgage Broker in Australia in under 5 years.

Graham now has 11 different businesses that all focus on helping people in trouble.

Grahams latest project is the development of The Now Foundation, a self funded charity focusing on the little things we can do to improve our lives in big ways.

Credit Card companies are lying by omission - this quite simply means what they are NOT telling could be costing you many tens of thousands of dollars over the time it takes to pay off your credit card…

YES - this is going to be another Light bulb moment for many of you, it most certainly was for me when i worked out the following figures.

I am the Founder and CEO of Mortgage Now, Australia’s largest exclusively non conforming Mortgage Broker.  I also am associated with a number of other businesses that also specialise in getting struggling Aussies out of financial trouble.

I recently employed a GURU in one of the associated businesses.  He came to me at the start of this week and asked if i had a calculator that could accurately predict how long it would take to pay off the entire debt on a standard credit card.  I said that I didn’t and that I hadn’t seen one but I could create one if he needed it. ( I like to think I am a bit of a GURU myself when it comes to using EXCEL).

I set to work and spent a few hours researching how the average credit card company charge its interest, fees and charges.  What I learned was that there is no real ‘average’.  so I created a standard model that is somewhere in the middle.  (This means that any figures calculated could be a lot worse if you have a card above this standard model)

As the creditcard companies all levy fees and charges in different ways, I have not even included these fees.  All I have calculated is the spiraling interest rates… and they are seriousy  out of control..

OK, for a starting point, lets presume credit card companies are charging some where between 17% and 27% interest (August 2008).

EXAMPLE..

John and Betty have 2 credit cards, are paying of a small car, have a store card, and an 12 month interest free card.  They are renting and the rent has just gone up by $25 per week.

Food prices have gone up dramatically in the last 12 months.  John works full time and Betty works part time during the day when the 2 kids are in primary school.  John catches the train so Betty can have the car to pick up the kids from school each day.  Did i mention that petrol costs have almost doubled in the last 2 years..

As you can imagine, things are a little tough for John and Betty and looking at getting even worse.  John thought he’d do the right thing and contact one of his credit card companies and have a chat..  He has been finding it hard to keep up all of the payments and has fallen behind occasionally and been hit with late fees and charges.  This just makes it worse..  John called his credit card company and made an arrangement to pay off the card at a reduced amount each month, (at least he’s still paying right? hmmm… you be the judge).

The new payment amount is just 2% of the monthly amount which comes to $200 per month.. John thinks this will give him a little breathing space, and short term he is right… BUT……

If John is paying off his credit card at 2% of the monthly balance, it would mean in the simplest terms, that John is paying off his credit card at 24% per year.

Almost the annual interest of 25%, this means he is behind the eight ball by 1% before we get started.  But wait, it gets worse..  Interest is calculated daily on the daily balance, which means more money to the Creditcard company.  Then there’s the late fees and charges etc..

It gets worse, much much worse…

I did a calculation where the client told us they had a $7,000.00 credit card debt and they had arranged to repay it at $40 per month.

My Calculator ran out of lines at 1090 months and the figures were staggering.. almost beyond belief.

Just to give you and idea even if the credit card was only 24% or 2% Per month, this debt would have spiralled out of control to a debt of more than $18,000 in 5 years plus all of the late fees etc, and this is if you have made every payment that you agreed to make. ($40 per month).

Thankfully, we were able to help this client and we saved them a little over $88,000 in interest, but i was shocked to say the least.  I have been in finance for a long time and I had never worked out how much credit cards actually cost. This was a real eye opener for me.

As a service, I am giving away a FREE credit card interest assessment, valued at $197 to the first 100 clients that call my office and mention this offer.

I will personally (yes me, I will do it personally) look through your details and run the calculators and show you how much interest you are likely to pay and what your options are and if you qualify for our services.

I will email you your results within 7 days FREE of charge.  But this offer is only open to the first 100 clients. (it takes too much time to do any more than this).  Please make sure you mention this offer to get the Free Assessment.

If you would like to work out the figures for yourself, try this as a guide, you will get the idea

Int% / 365 * [days in month] * balance  + balance - repay = new balance (then start again)

Please be aware of your interest rates and make the largest payment you can to reduce the balance… it will save you buckets of interest.

I am Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

Graham can be contacted at Mortgage Now,

246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053

www.mortgagenow.com.au

or call TOLL FREE 1300 667-239

Graham built Mortgage Now from the ground up to become the largest non conforming Mortgage Broker in Australia in under 5 years.

Graham now has 11 different businesses that all focus on helping people in trouble.

Grahams latest project is the development of The Now Foundation, a self funded charity focusing on the little things we can do to improve our lives in big ways.

Well I’ll Be…  I received an email yesterday from Lauren James congratulating me on the placing as a finalist in the BEST NON-CONFORMING BROKER OF THE YEAR  category of the 2008 Australian Mortgage Awards.

To be very honest, I thought it was a spam joke at first, then I called to Lauren check and yep, I was nominated and have now been placed as a finalist..

Thank you to who ever nominated me for this award. 

What  does this mean?

It means that all of the hard work I have done to build Mortgage Now has been recognised to this point.  The stress I have placed on myself and my great team must be beginning to pay off.  We are rock solid on our customer service standards and sometimes this can be a challenge for new team members..  “this is what we do” is the most common claim i hear from new team members… I explain that “that is what you used to do, Now you work with Mortgage Now and we have raised the bar…”

Some of the ‘extras’ we do for our clients have new team members perplexed for a while and they do not understand why we would ‘waste’ so much time doing the little things for our clients.

I explain that that is what makes us so different. That is why we are the broker of choice with more than 5000 clients in our database.  That is why our testimonial file is constantly getting larger.  That is why my dream of being an ‘employer of choice’ is always inching that little bit closer.

We have managed to build a system (constantly refining it too) that allows Mortgage Now to settle a mortgage application in as little as half the time it can take other brokers.  We communicate with outgoing lenders and creditors and get the information we need in 24 hours, (not 3 weeks) .

Look out for the upcoming edition of the “Finance Broker” magazine as we are being featured in an article (cant say much more for now) that should give other brokers that ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.

Any how, I need to fill in a submission for the awards so the AMA can publish great things about all of the finalists in the MPA (Mortgage Professionals Australia) Magazine prior to the awards on the 26th of September 2008.

Again, I must convey my thanks to whom ever it was that nominated me for the award.  .. Thanks…

I am Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

Graham can be contacted at Mortgage Now,

246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053

www.mortgagenow.com.au

or call TOLL FREE 1300 667-239

Graham built Mortgage Now from the ground up to become the largest non conforming Mortgage Broker in Australia in under 5 years.

Graham now has 11 different businesses that all focus on helping people in trouble.

Grahams latest project is the development of The Now Foundation, a self funded charity focusing on the little things we can do to improve our lives in big ways.

.. coming soon

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a presentation Gotta keep the Customer Satisfied put on by my good friend Mark Creedon, the founder of  Business Insight Coaching.   The guest speaker was none other than the world acclaimed customer service GURU, Mr Bob Ansett. ( www.bobansett.com.au )

Mark gave the opening address and dedicated the evening and profits to Epilepsy Queensland. 

We then got to hear from Mr. Bob Ansett… How he started Budget and the things he did to make Budget number one in the Car rental industry in Australia.

I took pages and pages of notes and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak to Bob both before and after the address.

The single most important point clarification i got last night was -

• We are in business to create a customer - then to satisfy that customer

I have always known this and all of my businesses have focused on the customer experience.  Bob gave recognition of this point and clarity to how we can go from good to GREAT!

You will see many and varied innovations throughout my businesses in the near future.  We will continue to innovate and stay ahead of the competition by simply listening to our customers and finding better ways to make their lives easier.

I am very excited to know we are on the right track.  We already offer customer service to our clients that I have not seen in any other Mortgage Company anywhere in the world.   Our testimonial file is thick with letters of thanks from clients that would have otherwise been without options.

If you ever get the opportunity to hear Mr. Ansett speak, I would highly recommend it.

Thank you Mark, for putting on such a wonderfully inspiring evening.  I know I got more out of last night than I can possibly hope to put on paper.. I would also recommend Business Insight Coaching as Mark has been my personal and Business Coach since 2005 and I continue to work with him today.

I am Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

Graham can be contacted at

Mortgage Now, 246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053 www.mortgagenow.com.au

or call TOLL FREE 1300 667-239

Graham built Mortgage Now from the ground up to become the largest non conforming Mortgage Broker in Australia in under 5 years.

Graham now has 11 different businesses that all focus on helping people in trouble.

Grahams latest project is the development of The Now Foundation, a self funded charity focusing on the little things we can do to improve our lives in big ways.

 .. coming soon

That is a troubling headline.  Imagine that, one million families in mortgage stress by Christmas 2008.

What is Mortgage Stress?  That depends who you ask.. The best answer i can work out is if it hard to find the money to pay the mortgage (and everything else) then you are probably in mortgage stress.

Its all well and good to know what mortgage stress is, but what if YOU are the one in the stress..

What can you do about it?

That depends on your personal circumstances.  A few things you could look at in general are:

• do a budget and look at reducing your expenses.
• look at ways to generate more income
• refinance your home to consolidate debts into one payment
• sell your home

There are good points and bad points to all of these options.  Lets look at them one at a time.

Firstly,

• do a budget and look at reducing your expenses.

You can look at doing a simple budget (get a simple worksheet here ) and try to work out if you have any areas that could be ‘trimmed’ a little.  My experience tells me that almost NO ONE likes doing a budget and even less people actually follow the budget they develop.

If you spend the time to go through your expenses, you may as well follow through and try to impliment the savings you find.

Secondly:

• look at ways to generate more income

Perhaps only one of you is working (in a couple).. Perhaps you could ask for a pay rise.. perhaps you could take on a part time job.. perhaps you could turn your hobby into a small business.. perhaps you could sell products and or services on the internet or ebay?

These things are all ways others have generated additional income.  The down side is all of them reduce the amount of time you will have to spend with your family.  The work / life balance is something you need to be aware of and you’ll need to try to maintain that balance.

The upside is even an extra $100 per week can make a massive difference to a family budget.  worth thinking about..

Next:

• refinance your home to consolidate debts into one payment

This can often be a winner but watch the costs and the long term repayments.

I have seen clients save more than $1000 per month in repayments when they refinance their home and pay out all of those small loans and credit cards.  They end up with one payment (the mortgage) and they often free up so much money they can begin to save and have a life once again.

It all sounds great (and it is) but what is the down side here?

Be careful of refinancing, paying out all of the bills and then using the credit cards and running up the bills again… you may end up in worse trouble that you started in.  The best bet is to refinance  and then cut up all bar one small ($1000) emergency credit card.  When your credit card company sends you a ‘pre approved’ credit limit increase.. throw it in the bin… don’t say yes.. most people do and most people are in a lot of debt… you do the math..

The other are of concern is the long term effect of taking a $5000 credit card and putting it onto the home loan.. It will save you money out of your pocket each month, there is no doubt about that… But it may cost you a lot more in the long term, don’t forget that you are now paying this $5000 debt off over 30 years… there is a lot of interest in that 30 years..

BE AWARE!

If you can control your spending and you put extra money into the home loan every month, you will end up saving many thousands (possibly hundreds of thousands) of dollars in interest and possibly cut the 30 year loan down to as little as 12 years or so (even better in some cases).  This does mean you cant get a new big screen TV every six months but the savings make it well worth it.

And lastly:

• sell your home

This can actually be the best option in some cases..  recently i had a client that had been through a nasty separation and her partner was the main income earner.  She was left with the family home and the debt.  He had not made payments for a while and now the bank was threatening to foreclose.

We went through her options and while she could have refinanced, she would have struggled and one or two interest rate rises would have meant disaster…  She decided it would be better to sell the home as it had a lot of equity and she could walk away with a couple of hundred thousand dollars in her pocket and time to look around..

Her plan was to sell up, rent for a while and look for a cheaper home.  She and the kids could buy a new home with a large deposit and not have to borrow near as much as before and her monthly home loan payments would be a lot lower.

sometimes selling can be the right option, just be aware of the agents commissions and the legal fees when you sell and the mortgage fees and the legal fees when you buy again.

Lets hope things turn around sooner rather than later. 

What ever happens, Please feel free to call my team at Mortgage Now or Pro Legal if you need a helping hand.

I am Graham Doessel and this has been my comment

Graham can be contacted at

Mortgage Now, 246 Stafford Road, Stafford, Qld.  4053 www.mortgagenow.com.au

or call TOLL FREE 1300 667-239

Graham built Mortgage Now from the ground up to become the largest non conforming Mortgage Broker in Australia in under 5 years and now has 11 different businesses that all focus on helping people in trouble.

Grahams latest project is the development of The Now Foundation, a self funded charity focusing on the little things we can do to improve our lives in big ways.

5 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom

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1. Evaluate
2. Be Responsible
3. Become a Conscious Spender
4. Set Financial Goals
5. Be Proactive & Positive

Recently, I was going through some old documents and I found this little gem. This was prepared a few years ago and it is about time it was shared with you.

1. How you think is everything

Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment.

2. Decide upon your true dreams and goals.

Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.

3. Take action.

Goals are nothing without action. Don’t be afraid to get started. Just do it.

4. Never stop learning.

Go back to school or read books. Get training and acquire skills.

5. Be persistent and work hard.

Success is a marathon, not a sprint. Never give up.

6. Learn to analyse details.

Get all the facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes.

7. Focus your time and money.

Don’t let other people or things distract you.

8. Don’t be afraid to innovate; be different.

Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity.

9. Deal and communicate with people effectively.

No person is an island. Learn to understand and motivate others.

10. Be honest and dependable; take responsibility.

Otherwise, numbers 1-9 won’t matter!

The above is a general guide that you may find useful. If you can get your head right, everything else seems to fall into place almost by its self. My personal success only started to be apparent when I started to take notice and then consciously control my thinking and my attitudes.

Just a thought…

I received an email this morning from Capital First stating that they are suspending new loan applications immediately….

I have copied the email for accuracy…

This is interesting and troubling at the same time.  GMAC-RFC have pulled out of the Australian Market and this has meant the loss of jobs for several really good people. 

It means there is less variety in the non conforming lending arena

It means that a lot of conforming brokers are going to find it even harder to place clients mortgages than they did before.  This will probably lead to more struggling Aussies believing that they are beyond help and may possibly lose hteir homes because of it.

This is very troubling as that is simply not the case. 

While I have to agree that it is getting harder to find a home loan for some clients,  there are still heaps of options.

Mortgage Now became the largest exclusively non-conforming broker in Australia by helping more clients.  We do it every day and its all we do.  Because of this fact alone (its all we do), we have become VERY good at getting home loan mortgages settled.

If you are looking for a home loan and you have been told no, look around for a specialist non conforming broker. (Not a jack of all trades)  you need to have someone who knows what they are doing helping you.

Look around, you will find one if you look hard enough.  Unfortunately, because there is a lot more work involved in getting a bad credit mortgage accross the line, not too many brokers have taken the time to learn what is required to do it and do it well.

On My Mortgage Now web site ( www.mortgagenow.com.au ) you can get an idea of what we have done to help people that thought they were beyond help. Visit http://www.mortgagenow.com.au/testimonials.php . This is the main testimonials page and is constantly being added to.

In conclusion, I am sorry to see the departure of Capital First as they had a lot of promise as a lender in this country.  I feel mainly for the families that may be short one income for a while with any one that was let go today.

My Name is Graham Doessel and this has been my comment.

“As Australia’s largest Exclusively Non-Conforming Broker, Mortgage Now offers a real lifeline to small and medium sized business owners struggling with all types of debt, including tax debt. Mortgage Now will help them regain control of their finances by consolidating all of their business debts into one easy to manage loan, which enables them to settle their outstanding debts (including the tax debt), avoid legal action, and regain control of their finances” said Mr Doessel, Founder and CEO of Mortgage Now.

According to the ATO, tax debts grew 27 per cent in the 2004 - 2005 financial year to $9.6 billion and has been steadily growing ever since. This is largely due to small business operators with quarterly tax liabilities who pay their ongoing business costs in favour of their tax obligations to the ATO.

Mortgage Now’s range of products have been specially sourced to meet the needs of small and medium sized business owners and other self-employed. Borrowers benefit from lowest interest rates available in the non-conforming mortgage market as Mortgage Now has all of the known Australian non-conforming lenders on its panel of lenders.

“Our product offerings enable business owners to consolidate business and personal debts, allowing them to include ATO debt within their overall borrowings, usually with a substantially lower average interest charge which can significantly reduce the monthly interest bill and total outgoings,” said Mr Doessel.

“When debt has begun to spiral out  of control and throw in the mix a hint of impending legal action and we have written the recipe for enormous emotional turmoil.  This source of emotional stress has been known to lead to family upsets, divorce, and much worse.  Thankfully, there is light at the end of the tunnel and consumers and business owners alike can avail themselves of  the services of Mortgage Now to ease the burden and overcome these financial hurdles” Mr. Doessel said

“Mortgage Now understands that some business owners that would benefit from financial assistance don’t all meet the traditional requirements of the major lenders. Requirements like a minimum of two years financial history can be overcome quite easily in most cases,” Mr Doessel said.

 “Because we have a range of products that will take a variety of income sources into account, the small business owner has the benefit of lower interest rates than those usually offered as a low-doc borrower.  Some clients can even refinance their debts to as high as 90% of the property value – allowing them to consolidate all of their personal and business debt into one easy to manage facility,” he said.

Mr Doessel stressed the importance of staying in regular contact with your creditors and the Tax Office, then get good solid advice on your situation and look at ways of getting it all tidied up as quickly as possible.

“The last thing any one wants is to have the sheriff using a staple gun, tack a Supreme Court Notice of Eviction to the front door of your home,” he said

Thanks to everyone that has commented on my new blog.

It is making it even more fun.

It has been said that I like to get my opinion accross and now I have the ultimate platform.

Thanks everyone

I have also been found by Technorati.com… WOOHOO!

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