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A young Mortgage Choice franchisee has bought her own business premises as part of a long-term plan to grow and diversify her business.
Leteisha Pileggi, 29, finished runner-up in The Adviser’s Young Broker of the Year ranking last year. She recently invested in a 260 square metre site in Cannington, Perth, which is in the same suburb as the much smaller rental site she currently occupies. She is due to settle in March.
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“It came on the market and I bought it the next day. I was looking for a very long period of time and I have longer-term plans,” she said.
She forecast that the new site could bring in two or three loans a month on its own – it is opposite a shopping centre, situated on a main road and comes with prominent signage.
Ms Pileggi told The Adviser the office was overpriced but that the mortgage payments would be similar to the amount she is now paying in rent.
One risk with renting was that she could be evicted at the end of a lease, which would then force a costly and disruptive relocation, Ms Pileggi said. Her vision is to occupy the new office for decades rather than years. Another long-term goal is to use the larger premises to diversify into financial planning.
Ms Pileggi also has short-term expansion plans. The current site is too small to house anyone other than Ms Pileggi and her admin assistant. A second admin person will be added once she moves to the new office. She then plans to add another broker once that staffer is trained, possibly in the second half of the year.
Ms Pileggi told The Adviser it would probably take the broker six months before he started generating sufficient leads to justify his salary.
The Cannington franchise currently writes about $8 million of loans per month, she said. The new broker would help her expand that business – and also allow her to reduce her “unsustainable” workload and hopefully eliminate weekend work.
Ms Pileggi has owned the Cannington franchise since July 2011.
