Does the idea of taking on a tenant who has secured their bond via a loan fill you with trepidation? Loan company BondSure thinks that it might be time for you to reassess that mindset.
“It’s not about the affordability, because we’ve checked them on credit, it’s about that tenant having a choice to do something different,” said BondSure CEO Paul Mylott.
Tenants don’t only opt for bond loans because they can’t get enough cash together, says Mr Mylott, they’re just looking for more options and have other financial priorities.
The company ensures their checks, which include both credit and identity checks, make sure a tenant isn’t a bad financial option; so why else would a client look at BondSure as an option?
“It’s allowing Bill and Mary, who are perhaps getting married and don’t want to use their cash to get their new property, [to use the] money for a honeymoon or buy extra furniture for their new house. It’s really just a choice. Will the tenant be less beneficial? No, I don’t think so,” said Mr Mylott.
According to Mr Mylott, BondSure doesn’t expect to become the choice for all tenants, its business model is specifically aimed at 20 - 35-year-olds who are less flush with cash and would rather take the option of a loan to keep their money free for other things.
“Right now we’re seeing varying loans go through, we’ve had married couples, we’ve had young couples, we’ve had singles; we’ve just recently had a nurse on her own who applied and didn’t have the liquid cash,” said Mr Mylott.
PMs shouldn’t see the fact their tenant turned to BondSure as a red flag, says Mr Mylott, in fact it’s a better option for PM than a tenant who may have taken out a short-term loan to get the money and wouldn’t disclose that to a PM.
“The PM wouldn’t know that the other tenant had borrowed the bond through a payday lender, which is at a much higher interest rate. Our bond is paid directly to the agent’s trust account, not to the tenant,” said Mr Mylott.