Billion Dollar Broker Q&A: Anthony Alabakov, My Mortgage Freedom

ANTHONY ALABAKOV, MY MORTGAGE FREEDOM, VICTORIA 

Q: When and why did you become a broker? 

I started My Mortgage Freedom in 2010, so 12 years ago now.

I became a broker just off the back of working my father’s financial planning business. We had started offering brokering a couple years before then, but we were referring our business out to (what we thought was) a really experienced broker. But we were getting bad feedback so we decided to move away from accounting and ventured into mortgage broking.

Q: What kind of loans are you writing now? 

It’s diverse, at the moment. Over the years you become more confident in understanding lenders and understanding your clients, and through that I evolved from writing residential loans to commercial, development, and working with SME clients – whether it be their property finance needs or business finance needs. 

We’re probably still 70–80 per cent residential and the balance is commercial and development.

Q: How long did it take to hit the $1 billion milestone? 

It took just under 11 years. It’s not something I focus on because we’ve got other brokers in the business and we’re running a business, not an individual brokerage. 

However, recognising it in this instance has been great to do… It’s rewarding knowing that you’ve helped so many clients and you’ll continue to help clients. For me personally, the reward comes from seeing the clients come back their second or third time after starting their journey with me a few years ago. 

Q: What processes or techniques have you put in place that have enabled you to write such a large volume of business?

It’s definitely not physically possible on your own and you need to have a really good team around you. So I’m super fortunate. 

There’s a lot of things that need to go into the background. So you need to have really clear processes in the background to facilitate that.

We’ve got a three-stage process. First, the sales process (where the client deals with the broker, understanding their needs) and a team that runs the scenarios and pricing lenders and putting together a lot of the recommendations for me to then present to the client. 

Then we’ve got the loan processing team, who manages that application from loan processing and submission, up until the loan approval process.

And then it gets taken over by the settlement team and post-settlement team.

Q: How do you ensure a good customer experience while writing large volumes?

Our non-negotiable is we contact the clients every three days in the process. It doesn’t matter if there’s not an update… we contact them every three days to update them at every stage of the process.

We’ve got a validation system whereby the team members can’t take that next step until they’ve completed that task. So we are really big on that consistent client experience and ensuring we’re always working on these things. It is something that’s always evolving. 

So my strong suggestion is: never be happy with where you’re at with your business and the process, always be looking at improving it. We’re constantly getting workshops and team meetings to look at improving that. So we’re constantly evolving as a business.

Q: How does Finsure help you succeed as a billion-dollar broker?

On a strategic front, we’re always in contact with our aggregator. We have a real close working relationship and that’s something we’re fortunate to have. It took me quite a while to get going, so one thing I would suggest is partnering with an aggregator that’s going to give you the support and the mentoring that you need to propel yourself to be a billion-dollar broker as quickly as you can.

And getting someone to help with compliance, as Finsure does for us, having the support around you is going to really allow you to fast-track the billion-dollar goal.

Infynity has also been a huge benefit for us... It allows us, as a business, to really streamline our business operations and get the most out of every day.

Q: What do you attribute to your success as a broker? 

One thing we implemented across the business was a weekly activity plan. It’s something we do every week to attribute [what has led] to your success. For example, contacting a certain amount of referral partners or existing clients, having a certain amount of new client meetings for that week, or doing X amount of proposals. 

The other thing I would attribute is the open-door policy I have at the office with all our staff and making sure I’m always available for them. I hire based on attitude, not experience. If they have the right attitude, you can teach them how lending works. 

HOW FINSURE SUPPORTS BROKERS

HOW DO YOU HELP BROKERS WRITE HIGH VOLUMES WHILE RETAINING GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE?

We help them with internal processes to become more efficient. We’ve worked with thousands of businesses over the years and we’ve collated those lessons and provide them, by way of a library, to brokers like Anthony and his business, if they need them.

We have a number of auxiliary services on offer to brokers, so brokers can tap into those services without having to go to market themselves and waste time and effort trying to identify a processing service or bank statements or a lead generation system or even home and contents insurance. It’s about bringing those into the ecosystem so the brokers have a choice. 

WHAT MAKES THE COMPANY ATTRACTIVE TO HIGH-VOLUME BROKERS?

Firstly, we have a very low-fee model, which allows the brokers to maintain a high margin. And as they write more business, we – as a partner – support them, in that we’re not taking more of their share of wallet. That’s very important. 

Having large lender panels and diversified lender panels, I think is very important in providing brokers with the opportunity to find a home for every loan. A lot of brokers walk past opportunities because they don’t believe they can place them. But having an integrated panel that covers both residential and commercial, or diversified lending, means brokers have a wide range of opportunities.

We live by the mantra that compliance is a business enabler. And so everything we do at Finsure, particularly with our software, is considering compliance at the forefront and ensuring that it actually helps brokers grow.

And then the final part I would mention, is technology; providing a state-of-the-art technology piece while allowing businesses like Anthony’s to connect in through APIs and third-party services to bolster the offer by using systems in their own business.

IS THERE A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS FOR BEING A TOP-PERFORMING BROKER?

Attitude is key. You can teach someone to underwrite or to lend or to originate, but you can’t teach attitude. 

Successful businesses are the ones that have diversified their businesses outside of just a transaction, which might be just a residential mortgage. They’re in the business of building a business and not writing a loan. And as soon as brokers come out of that mindset and start thinking about building and working on the business, not in the business, I find that they start to step up and actually start to grow their business exponentially.

The other one that strikes me as important is discipline. Brokers who are successful are the ones that have built procedures and policies and have a business plan and have stuck to it. When the times are tough, they’ve stuck to it. When the times are good, they’ve stuck to it. And so discipline is a huge piece.

Simon Bednar

CEO

Finsure

You can find out more about Anthony Alabakov and how he runs his brokerage in The Adviser’s Elite Broker podcast.

Tune in to the episode with Anthony and Finsure, Billion Dollar Broker: How Anthony Alabakov, My Mortgage Freedom, settled $1bn in loans, below: