What does it do?

Funding Finder is an app that matches borrowers with lenders based on the information you input about the deal. The more information you put in, the better the match.

How does it work?

Funding Finder works like Tinder.

On one side, we have all of the lending products we’ve been able to identify in the Australian market.

On the other side, we have the information you put in about your deal.

The app matches up the two sides.

You get to see all the products that match the profile of your deal and then you can decide which ones look appropriate for you.

How do I get started?

You start by filling out basic information about the deal :

• How much do you need?

• How many months do you need it for?

• What kind of loan is it (e.g. short term, construction)

• If it’s a construction loan, what kind of project is it (e.g. residential apartments)

• How fast do you need it

Funding Finder comes up with a preliminary set of matches - in this case, 80 products fit the profile of the details that were input.

What happens next?

Next, you can either choose to have us call you and we’ll handle everything from there, or you can get a 50% discount on our fees if you continue to fill in the details yourself.

Results

As you input information about the deal into Funding Finder, the number of products goes down. This is because the tool is excluding products that don’t apply to your deal. If you change the information you’ve input (for instance, by changing the type of loan or when you need it), the results will change, as well.

You can scroll through the list of matches, which gives you the alias of the lender, the total estimated financing costs for your deal, interest and fees, typical time to settle, and more.

It’s common to see multiple products from the same lender. This is usually because the lender offers products from different parts of the capital stack (e.g. 1st mortgage and mezzanine debt), or has different geographical restrictions for different products, or has different pricing for different LVRs.

Lender alias

Each lender has an alias, which is simply a unique set of three letters.

Aliases are used instead of the lenders actual name for two reasons.

First, the Funding Doctor earns fees by matching borrowers with lenders, and if the lender names were used, some borrowers would go directly to the lender, thereby cutting the Funding Doctor out of its fee.

Second, the information presented is our best interpretation of the lenders’ indicative rates and fees, but it is not a guarantee that Lender XYZ will offer specific terms for any given loan. Lenders may adjust their rates to specific deals according to their own circumstances and commercial judgment.

Estimated financing costs

One of the most valuable features of Funding Finder, and one that we believe is unique, is that it estimates the total fees on each deal, so that you can compare different pricing structures.

For instance, which is less expensive, a commercial loan with a 2.0% establishment fee and 10.0% interest on drawdowns or a loan with a 0.0% establishment fee and 12.0% interest on drawdowns? Which is less expensive, a construction loan with 10.0% interest on drawdowns and a 0.0% line fee, or the same loan with a 5.0% interest on drawdowns and a 4.0% line fee.

Funding Finder splits the costs between up front fees (e.g. establishment and brokerage fees) and interest and line fees. The combined total estimated financing costs gives you a full picture of the probable costs of the various loan products.

Cost savings

Funding Finder saves you money in two ways.

First, our fee structure is 20% to 80% lower than traditional brokers, for whom the benchmark brokerage fee is 1.0% of the gross loan amount.

Second, if you save us the trouble of collecting the information needed to successfully obtain a loan, we will cut our fees by an additional 50%.

Funding Finder estimates both of these figures for you, allowing you to see the savings from using the site.

Confidentiality

Funding Finder is freely available to be used as a research tool, to see what’s on offer in the market and what the probable costs are for a given type of loan. You can also change your answers to see which changes get you the best deal.

All of this is done anonymously until you decide to apply for a funding product. Until then, neither we nor any of the lenders knows who you are.

You will never be contacted unless and until you give us permission to do so, and your information will never be passed along to any lender without your agreement.