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One star broker has accidentally discovered the secret of being more accessible to his clients – moving 250 kilometres away.
Ian Simpson, who received Smartline's Franchise of the Year award, moved from Sydney to Mudgee in 2009, although he still retains a city office that he visits every two or three weeks.
Mr Simpson said his Sydney clients now have a better chance of getting hold of him because he no longer spends much of his day stuck in traffic and meetings.
"When someone is in the process of buying a house and it's time-critical and they're under pressure and there's stress, they want someone who is readily contactable," he told The Adviser.
"It doesn't matter whether they're just around the corner. What matters is when they ring, their number is in your phone and you say their name when you pick up."
Mr Simpson initially services new Sydney clients from his office in Mudgee, before he then meets the clients during his regular visits to Sydney.
He has also spent the past five years building a second client base in Mudgee. The town now provides 40 per cent of his clients, although only 20 per cent of his volumes.
Mr Simpson said one downside of working in the country is that a regional application generally involves twice as much work as a city application but only delivers half the loan size.
"The reason it's twice the work is because quite often regional borrowers earn less money, they have less savings, they have more credit issues, they're buying properties that are less desirable to lenders and so there's a lot more work in getting those loans across the line," he said.
"Before I had a business in Mudgee, a very small percentage of loans would get declined, but that has since increased quite a bit."
The Smartline award was assessed on numerous criteria, including loan volumes, growth of business, loan application quality and client service.
Mr Simpson placed 43rd in The Adviser's 2014 Elite Business Writers ranking after writing $86 million of loans in 2013/2014.
[Related: Why brokers should consider moving to the country]
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