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Victorian broker and Liberty Network Services adviser Derek Clark has been in the finance industry for 25 years.
After starting out his career with the banks, he moved into mortgage broking before setting up shop with Liberty three years ago.
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“I’m not your traditional broker who likes to deal with the PAYG, group certificate, 20 per cent deposit stuff,” Mr Clark says. “I like to go outside the square a little bit.”
Thinking outside the square hasn’t just added a few extra loans to his book. Specialist lending is now the bulk of his business.
“When I started out with Liberty Network Services, I was probably writing 40 per cent specialist lending and 60 per cent prime lending,” Mr Clark says.
“That has now turned into 75 per cent custom and 25 per cent prime,” he says.
Being a regional broker, Mr Clark says his local clientele often have a few more blemishes on their credit files or are self-employed.
“There are just as many of those customers looking to get into the market,” he says. “The banks have also tightened their purse strings in terms of who they are willing to take on as clients as well.”
Mr Clark says brokers shouldn’t be scared of writing specialist loans.
“They key to specialist lending is to make sure you have empathy with everyone you talk to,” he says.
“At the end of the day, it takes longer to actually break down the wall of a specialist client for them to disclose their past to you. But once you’ve got through that barrier, you’ve really got a lifelong client as opposed to a vanilla client chasing rate through the big four.”
