Cornerstone Home Loans was established in 2012 by Director, Tracie Palmer. After a more than a decade running her own franchise under LJ Hooker Financial Services and 10 years as a branch manager with Suncorp, Tracie has developed an unwavering commitment to delivering holistic customer service.

Having connected with countless customers Tracie has found they are all crying out for the same things. Home loan customers are time poor. They want someone who will not only explain the nuts and bolts of an application but act as a go-between with lenders. They want a straight forward process, personalised service and expertise that they can fall back on should they need someone to go into bat for them.

The ‘cornerstone’ of any loan writing business is relationships and chief amongst these is the customer relationship. Cornerstone understands that any loan application is a necessary stepping stone toward the actual goal-realising the dream of home ownership or property investment. This drives Cornerstone’s customer-centric approach.

We recognise that each step in the lending process and each milestone in a customer’s financial journey is an opportunity to deliver on the Cornerstone customer service promise, deepen the customer relationship and strengthen Cornerstone’s business offering.

Cornerstone’s complete customer care approach ‘wows’ our customers through each step of the home loan process. Our success is borne out by the statistics. Our referral network represents 53.65 per cent of our total loan lodgements and many of these referrers are from existing customers.

Cornerstone has also carefully cultivated a network of business partners with a focus on those we share synergies and values with. It is important that our customers can expect the same level of service from our service partners, and that we can add value to the business of our referrers.

Many of our referral customers come to Cornerstone based on our reputation for delivering excellent customer service to investors and challenging home loan candidates alike. Customer feedback has indicated that a significant proportion of customers have worked with another broker who has not succeeded in getting their deal across the line. Cornerstone’s strong relationships with lenders and their BDMs, and an intimate understanding of their products and policy, puts us in the best possible position to service these customers. The Cornerstone team works with customers to help get their finances and applications in order and will generally not let a deal go until every possible avenue has been exhausted.

After a loan has settled, Cornerstone gets to work providing ongoing maintenance of loans as part of our “value add”. We continue to work with our customers and in consultation with our financial planning partners to keep our clients on track to achieve their goals.

A happy customer is often a repeat customer and this is also borne out by our statistics. Repeat business represented more than 48 per cent of our loan lodgements for 2022, or roughly half of those who presented for service. Feedback suggests customers enjoy the extra service and the intimate knowledge that Cornerstone develops about their circumstances, goals and their deals. Many long-term customers now send their children to us for their first home loan!