Getting a foot in the door of your dream home might be getting harder, but talking to a mortgage broker could get you the keys more quickly.

Purchasing a property in today’s housing market is not for the faint-hearted. Would-be home buyers have only to turn on their TV – or check Facebook or Twitter – for the latest news informing them that their dream home is slipping further out of reach.

Purchasing her first home could have been a complex task for Lydia, who spent most of the year out of town, leaving little time to search for properties.

Lydia asked mortgage broker Nicholas Kirlew, of Arafura Finance Brokers Darwin, for help with a particular challenge in finding her first property – she was away from her home base for much of the year, so she didn’t have time to look for properties every weekend.

When Jane* approached Mortgage Broker Nicholas Kirlew, she wasn’t sure whether she could buy her first investment property. With good advice and a private treaty, Jane managed it at a favourable price.

Jane was referred to Nicholas, a credit adviser at Arafura Finance Brokers, by a financial planner who looked after Jane’s father.

“Jane was a very stable client,” says Nicholas. With 10 per cent of the deposit saved, a small financial gift from her parents and long-term employment, Jane was also happy to pay for mortgage insurance to secure a fantastic property.

Maximising the amount a lender will hand over to you isn’t about trying to take on unmanageable levels of debt. It’s a matter of taking a few simple but smart steps that could mean the difference between toiling in that ‘fixer-upper’ or owning your dream home using a Darwin mortgage broker for a home loan.

1. Shop around for lenders

Different lenders define income in so many different ways that it pays to use a mortgage broker who knows their way around what’s included and what’s not. One lender may allow share dividends as income, while another lender may not.