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Based in Nairne, South Australia, MoneyQuest franchise owner, finance specialist, and broker Nick Bartel was one of the recent winners of the Better Business Awards 2023, taking home the Editor’s Choice 2023, South Australia/Northern Territory Award.
In an interview with Nick Bartel for the Elite Broker podcast, we find out why he became a broker, why he chose MoneyQuest, what’s the most rewarding thing for him about being a broker, and some top tips for other new brokers.
Here’s what he said:
How long have you been a broker and why did you get into the industry?
I started broking back in 2013, so that would make it 10 years!
As for how I got into the industry, I remember when I was first looking at buying my own house and I had all these misconceptions about what was needed and the amount to deposit. Eventually, I got put onto a broker that helped me get my first house.
Afterwards, I suppose I was inspired to help other people because what you think is the case within lending is not actually the case!
How did you actually start off broking?
When I was working at the mines, I was truly keen to get out. I’d been studying financial planning before that so that was always the path I wanted to go down. At the time, rules were changing around what was required for financial planning.
If I hadn’t finished my course by a set time, I had to go get a degree in financial planning and it just got too difficult.
Fortunately for me, however, one of my in-laws knew a mortgage broker really well and they teed up a meeting with him. He wasn’t my broker at the time but we really hit it off and away from there. He ended up being a bit of a mentor for me over the years and helped me out a lot.
How did you go about choosing to work for MoneyQuest?
Mortgage Choice was a really good franchise to work for at the time for me and what I take away from the franchise network is there’s a lot of compliance stuff that they help you out with behind the scenes.
I remember one time when I was with Mortgage Choice, Mike Russell and his team came from MoneyQuest. I knew Mike for a long time given that he was the chief executive of Mortgage Choice and here he was in Adelaide talking to brokers about MoneyQuest. I had a couple of colleges that jumped over to MoneyQuest as well, so for me, it was that familiarity around people being in the business.
I’ve seen how Mike Russell’s worked in the past and I respect him massively as a CEO, he’s a broker CEO as opposed to a shareholder CEO, so for me, the decision was easy.
What sort clientele do you work with?
Borrowers are very diverse out here. There are a lot of self-employed people, first home buyers, refinancers, and even investors. The core of the business is probably first home buyers and I think that goes back to where I started and why I got into the industry in the first place.
I’ve always felt that owning a home should be possible and sometimes people think that it’s not. A lot of brokers won’t put the time into first-home buyers, perhaps.
What have been some of the highlights and challenges for you as a broker?
A highlight for me would definitely be getting that first home buyer who thought it wasn’t possible into their own home and just making that phone call to say, “Hey, we’ve done it!” That’s why I do it and that’s why I got into it.
A challenge in the industry is clawback and I don’t think I’m the only broker out there at the moment who would say that abolishing clawbacks would be the best thing for the industry, especially when banks are offering cashback!
How do you unwind and de-stress?
For me, it’s spending time with my family. I’ve got three kids and two dogs. It’s good to take the dogs out for a walk or go for a ride with the kids and get them out of the house.
That’s probably the biggest way I can unwind. Life is full on when you’ve got three kids and running your own business so it’s always nice to get a bit of downtime.
Do you have any top tips for new brokers?
Just get yourself out there. I think that’s probably the key. Go out and meet the real estate agents, the accountants, and build those relationships.
That’s something I didn’t do a heap of when I was first starting out but I didn’t need to. However, for the younger people, I can definitely see why that’s important.
Also, it’s important to look after people, if you do a good job for someone, they’ll tell their friends. I suppose even if you don’t, they’ll tell their friends, but it’s about having that moral compass of, “Would you do this for your grandma? Is this how you’d treat her?”
If you look after people, you’ll be rewarded for it, that’s probably been my core value when I started my business.
If you want to find out more about Nick Bartel and his MoneyQuest franchise in Nairne, South Australia, tune in to the Elite Broker episode, Service with a smile – how Nick Bartel is delighting clients in SA, below:
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