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Born and raised in Cairns and the Atherton Tablelands, I started my career in Insurance fresh out of high school at local insurance brokerages, where I obtained my Diploma of Financial Services (Insurance Broking) and various other qualifications.
In 2012 I decided to take a career break and move to Canada for a few years. When returning to Australia, I relocated to Melbourne where I worked for one of the largest insurance brokerages in the world. After spending Covid being locked down in Melbourne, my family and I made the decision to return home to Cairns so that my daughter can grow up in beautiful FNQ and enjoy all it has to offer.
I began working with Astute GI in 2023 and I’m thrilled to be working for a local insurance broker, developing relationships, and helping locals with all their insurance needs!
We were recommended from friends to see Fei Chan to discuss buying investment property. He was very polite, friendly, sincere and honest. But most importantly, he has made it clearer for us on how to build our property portfolio for a better future. For that, I too highly recommend his service to others.
We have been using John since we bought our first house in 2008 and taken sound advice from him in all our finance dealing ever since; which has included, opening a business, building our second house and now purchasing an investment property. We trust the advice given to us and not understanding the finance world hugely rely on the knowledge given to us in making decisions. We thank Verena very much with her patience throughout each deal and her simple way of explaining the overwhelming fluff that the banks put on paper. Johns stickmen and drawings helped us immensely 🙂 We really feel like we have actually made some good friends when dealing with Astute.
First, Tania: Quite simply, a complete, caring professional. I am not sure where on the spectrum the amount of work she did to get us into our current home falls in her professional career (mind-blowingly easy, somewhat challenging, borderline impossible…), but to us it literally meant the world. The reason we came back to her (and Astute) is because of the level of care and attention she gave us–we don’t feel like a number, an account, a bottom line, or a percentage point. I would recommend her (and go back to her for advice) again and again and again; when we found ourselves in the position to invest and/or buy again, our first thought was we needed to talk to Tania before doing literally anything else.
Building on that, Astute: Again, I would (and do) recommend them to anyone when talk of buying a home or investing comes up. Long story short, I work for a guy named Scotty Garden, and there is very little under the Earth’s sun I would not do for him; ergo I take his advice on anything as gospel. When I causally mentioned a few years back that Michelle and I were thinking of buying a house, he enthusiastically recommended we talk to John Watts at Cairns Home Loans and we did, and John gave us solid, practical advice: Save a bit more and come back to us. And we did, because he looked after us as people (again not an account). He could have talked us into buying something we couldn’t afford, or buying something we didn’t really want, or (as one local branch of an unnamed John Symond-run group told us) we were grumpily told it was “unrealistic” to think of buying a home in our position. Working in tourism/hospitality, I appreciate the personal attention, as well as helping a local business continue doing what it does well.
Sorry to gush, but Michelle and I really do hold you and your whole team in the highest regard. Thank you again, and I will [not] try to stay out of trouble.
I found every time I rang the office with a query the phone was answered promptly. Gus and his team stayed in contact at all times either by email or phone just to make sure I had complete understanding of the forms I was signing and the procedures they were taking to finalise the loan. I was never left wondering what happens next.
Being newbies to town & the housing market, it was reassuring to have the guidance of Liam from Astute. We felt like one of his family by the extent of his efforts. His honesty, calming persona, knowledge & ability to explain the scary & unknown house buying process in our ‘speak’ was invaluable. Not to mention the fantastic custom home loan we have secured. I would highly recommend, and already have recommended, his services. Thank you again Liam and the Astute Team.
Gus was incredibly helpful and went above and beyond his job requirements. My partner and I were blown away with the high level of customer service and extra assistance he gave us throughout the process making the purchase of our first home a lot less stressful. Gus was prompt, professional yet down to earth and always contactable. Dan and I have already recommended his services to friends and can’t speak highly enough of Gus.
I had no understanding of how the insurance side of Astute worked. After my first visit with Peta I was blown away with how she explained everything to me. And what I didn’t understand she was happy to take the extra time to explain them again. I felt she was very thorough and when I left I was able to think about what suited my needs to make a decision on how I wanted to proceed. Thanks Peta for advice.
