Avoid these 7 mistakes when buying your first home

Concreters often have the deposit sorted but get knocked back because their income looks irregular on paper, or they pick a loan that costs them thousands more than it should.

You're working long hours on slabs, driveways, and commercial pours, banking decent coin, and ready to stop paying rent. But between ABN income, cash flow gaps, and lenders who don't understand how the trades work, it's not as straightforward as rocking up to a bank and signing on the dotted line. The mistakes happen before you even lodge an application, and they cost you either the property or years of extra repayments.

Applying for pre-approval without a broker who understands trade income

Lenders assess concreting income differently depending on whether you're a sole trader, running a company, or on a mix of wages and ABN work. If you apply directly to a bank that wants two years of financials and doesn't factor in your recent growth, you'll get a borrowing capacity figure that's lower than what you can actually service. A broker who works with tradies regularly will know which lenders accept one year of tax returns for established tradies, or how to structure your application if you've only recently gone out on your own. Consider a concreter who earned seventy thousand as an employee, then went solo and earned ninety-five thousand in the first year. A mainstream lender might average the two years and assess him at eighty-two thousand. A trade-friendly lender could assess him at ninety-five thousand if the income trend is clear. That difference changes what you can borrow and which suburbs you can afford. You can read more about getting loan pre-approval before you start looking at properties.

Choosing the wrong loan structure because the interest rate looked lower

The lowest advertised variable rate often comes with no offset account, no redraw, and break costs if you want to refinance within three years. If you're saving tax in a company or trust and want to park cash in an offset to reduce interest while keeping it accessible, that cheap rate will cost you more in the long run. A variable rate with a linked offset might be point one or point two percent higher, but if you're holding twenty or thirty thousand in the offset, the interest saved outweighs the rate difference. A split loan can also make sense if you want certainty on part of the debt but flexibility on the rest. Locking in half the loan on a fixed rate gives you predictable repayments while keeping the other half variable with an offset for your working capital. Don't pick a loan product based on the headline rate without checking the features you'll actually use.

Not accounting for irregular income when calculating how much you can borrow

Concreting income can spike in spring and summer when the ground's dry and building activity picks up, then drop off in winter or when weather shuts down sites. Lenders want to see consistent serviceability, so if your tax return shows strong income but your bank statements show uneven deposits, some lenders will either decline you or reduce your borrowing capacity. The way around this is to provide a clear breakdown of contracts, show your average monthly income over twelve months, and use a lender that understands seasonal trade work. If you're subcontracting and invoicing monthly, keep your payment records clean and make sure your accountant structures your financials to show the income clearly. This is where self-employed loans for tradies come into play, because not every lender will assess you the same way.

Skipping the offset account because you think you won't use it

Concreters often carry equipment debt, a ute loan, or supplier credit, and it's tempting to throw every spare dollar at the mortgage to clear it faster. But if you pay down the loan and then need cash for a new float or to cover a slow month, you can't pull it back out unless your loan has redraw, and even then some lenders restrict it. An offset account linked to your home loan gives you the same interest saving as making extra repayments, but the cash stays accessible. If you've got fifteen thousand in the offset and your loan balance is four hundred thousand, you're only charged interest on three hundred and eighty-five thousand. The money's still yours, and you can move it instantly if you need to replace a screed bar or cover payroll. Some concreters also use the offset to separate personal and business cash flow without opening a new account.

Borrowing at the top of your range and leaving no buffer for rate rises

Lenders will often approve you for more than you should borrow, because they assess serviceability at a rate that's higher than the actual interest rate you'll pay. But just because you're approved for five hundred thousand doesn't mean you should take it if the repayments will stretch you when work slows down or rates go up. In our experience, concreters who borrow conservatively and keep their repayments under thirty percent of their net income have more room to move when they want to upgrade equipment, take on an apprentice, or ride out a quiet patch without selling the property. Work out what you're comfortable paying per month, then work backwards to the loan amount. If that means buying in a different suburb or waiting another six months to build a bigger deposit, it's worth it. You can check your borrowing capacity before you commit to a price range.

Paying Lenders Mortgage Insurance when you didn't have to

If you're borrowing more than eighty percent of the property value, most lenders will slug you with LMI, which can add thousands or even tens of thousands to your loan. Some lenders offer LMI waivers for tradies in certain occupations or income brackets, and others have lower premiums if you're buying in a regional area or using a guarantor. We regularly see concreters pay full LMI when they could have either waited another few months to hit twenty percent deposit, used a family guarantee to avoid it altogether, or accessed a lender with a tradie-specific LMI waiver. LMI protects the lender, not you, so it's dead money. If you're close to twenty percent, it's worth holding off or looking at a cheaper property to avoid the slug. You can learn more about no LMI loans for tradies and LMI waivers for tradies to see what's available.

Not getting your financials in order before you apply

Lenders pull your credit file, check your bank statements for the last three months, and go through your tax returns with a microscalper. If your statements show gambling, unpaid defaults, or regular overdrafts, your application will either get knocked back or you'll be offered a higher rate. If your tax return shows low taxable income because you've claimed every deduction under the sun, the lender won't care that you're actually earning more, they'll assess you on what's on paper. Before you apply, clean up your bank statements, close any accounts you're not using, pay off small debts, and make sure your tax returns reflect your actual earning capacity. If you've structured your business to minimise tax, talk to your accountant and your broker about how to present your income so it doesn't hurt your borrowing capacity. This is also the time to check your credit file and dispute any errors or old listings that shouldn't be there.

Call one of our team or book an appointment at a time that works for you. We'll run the numbers based on your actual income, not what a computer says you earn, and line you up with a lender that gets how concreting businesses operate. You'll know exactly what you can borrow, what the repayments will be, and which loan structure keeps your options open without costing you a fortune in interest.

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