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I’m a Gordonvale local and have been since I was about three years old. I was originally born in Camperdown NSW, but my family decided it would be better to trade the city life for the beautiful sun of Far North Queensland.
After graduating from Gordonvale High School in 2014, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with myself, but in 2015 I started my career with Commonwealth Bank in Cairns and never looked back. I moved around the Cairns area working in multiple branches, until I decided I wanted a little bit more adventure and moved to Manchester, UK, for two years with my partner Sam.
I had an absolute ball leaving Australia for the first time in my life and travelling to 18 different countries in Europe, despite my last year there ending abruptly because of the pandemic. While living in the UK I worked at HSBC UK as a Universal Banker and a Business Loan Processor for Covid-19 relief funds. I loved my time there, but I am glad to be back in the tropics near family, friends, and my dog Moxxi.
I was finally able to return home in December 2020 and found that I wanted something more than working in a bank. I am very excited to be working with Astute, a local business with a genuine care for our customers and helping them reach their financial goals.
Jimmydee.Bakerspittles@astutefinancial.com.au
136 Mulgrave Road, Cairns, QLD 4870
Jimmydee.Bakerspittles@astutefinancial.com.au
136 Mulgrave Road, Cairns, QLD 4870
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.
5 star service Love the Astute North QLD team, especially Billie. Thanks for your honesty and financial advice… will soon have a home for our family 🙂
Being self employed is always a bit of a struggle when it comes to home loans. The amazing team at Astute made this happen for us. Their down to earth yet professional approach is very reassuring. Excellent customer service and follow up throughout the process that made it less nerve racking. Call them or pop in, make the first step and I can gguaranteethey will do their best to make it possible. A big thank you to John, Damian and the amazing Shae- Shae who could teach a few things to hospitality people. Cannot thank you enough so I recommend you to everyone in need of a loan
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.
We just wanted to say thank you for all your help & hard work!
We would have been lost in this whole process without you.
Billie is friendly and genuine. She is knowledgeable about the products she talks about and comes across as someone who will work hard to get you the best possible deal.
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.
