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From understanding the broking landscape in the early days to utilising tech in the right ways, brokers have weighed in on some of the latest challenges they’re facing.
During the Better Business NSW/ACT, run in partnership with NAB, brokers have shed light to The Adviser on some of the major hurdles they’ve encountered in the year so far.
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Learning the lay of the land
Mortgage broker at Mortgage Choice Colebee NSW, Terence Hammond, told The Adviser about some of the challenges he’s faced in his first 13 months of being a broker:
“I think, for me, the biggest challenge has been around juggling/setting up the structure of my business whilst also managing and bringing sales in, especially at the start.
“You start [thinking]: ‘I’ve got to get those sales in to pay the bills’, then all of a sudden, [you realise] you’re doing things really inefficiently. So, you start working on processing, but then your focus is taken away from sales. There’s just so many bits and pieces you have to learn.”
Mr Hammond also spoke about a particular hurdle he faced when it came to refinancing a loan for a client.
“I remember a loan through one lender and it ended up taking six weeks for a refinance to get a loan approved.
“I found it really frustrating not being able to speak to the credit team with that particular lender. It ended up just going backwards and forwards for days on end.
“It ended up being a very bad experience for the client, and I had placed them there because [the lender] was offering the best rate for that client. However, the dust is settled, and we were able to make that client happy, but it was still a struggle to get to that point,” Mr Hammond concluded.
Helping clients in a cost-of-living crisis
Director of CFC Financial, Kyle Manson, said that some of the biggest challenges he was facing was in helping clients understand their current position and setting realistic expectations.
“[It's about] the rising cost of living, rising interest rates, managing their budgets, and helping them to understand it. There are a lot of clients who are really stressed about their repayments and wanting to downsize, wanting to cut their expenses and their mortgage repayments.
“At the same time, there are a lot of clients wanting to get into more debt purchase properties and take advantage of what they see as another big growth year ahead and property.
“So, for both ends of the spectrum it really is managing expectations, helping them with the guidance and advice to manage their budgets to achieve those goals on both sides,” Mr Manson said.
Understanding tech and people
Founder and broker of Breath Loans, Ollie Lum, said one of the big challenges he’s faced is finding a balance between maintaining personal connections and integrating technology into the business.
“[The question is] how much do you have someone else do, while still maintaining your level of service? Especially as your [business is growing].
“Do you double down on tech, or do you back off tech until it’s changed? Do you double down on onshore, or do you double down on offshore? It’s all a question mark because there’s no right or wrong way [to go about it],” Mr Lum said.
He added that another challenge is making the decision to go “inside or outside of aggregator software”.
“A lot of really good brokers want to simplify things, and they are doing really well. They’ve got everything bolted into their aggregator platform.
“But the benefits from all the other tech that’s out there is probably going to ‘talk’ better with something else that’s not [in the aggregator platform]. So, it’s a question of when do we hit the tipping point of realising that it’s not actually better to have everything in the aggregator’s software?” he said.
Better Business Summit and Awards continue
The Better Business Summit and Awards roadshow continues over the next four weeks as it visits four capital cities.
Dates and locations
The Better Business Summit 2024 and Awards will be held in the following locations:
- Thursday, 22 February, at the Convention Centre, Adelaide
- Thursday, 29 February at Hyatt Regency, Perth.
- Thursday, 7 March at Sofitel Brisbane.
- Thursday, 14 March at The Crown Melbourne.
Click here to buy tickets to the summit and don’t miss out!
Did you know The Adviser Premium members can go to the Better Business Summit for free? Become a Premium member here.
For more information about the 2023 Better Business Summit including speakers and agenda, click here.
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