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In this Q&A, The Adviser speaks to Steve Rayward, partner at Rayward Conveyancing in Sydney.
Q. How long have you been dealing with finance brokers?
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I have been dealing with mortgage brokers in my practice for 14 years.
Q. Do you have exclusive or multiple broker relationships?
I have normally retained two or three preferred mortgage brokers to deal with, as their acumen and professionalism together with the knowledge of the lending systems and requirements for the different banks was a positive return to both my clients and myself. I do state for the record that the benefit I am talking about was a professional benefit and there [were] never any cash payment or retainer-type benefits.
Q. How do you choose which broker(s) to establish referral partnerships with?
In the early days of my practice, I was going around and meeting brokers and having dealings with them to see how knowledgeable and timely they were, and really whether they were working for our mutual clients or working for themselves. Their qualifications or accreditations were also an initial indication of what the technical or approval side should be like.
Q. Is this a two-way lead referral partnership? If so, how many referrals would you say you make to brokers in a month on average?
A lead referral partnership is not what I had really set out establishing. It was having the confidence in a mortgage broker to pass my clients on so that their position was optimised. Over the dealings that did transpire, it has become a situation where brokers do refer to us as they too are assured that we will do their best for their clients in our area of specialisation.
Q. What are the benefits to your business of this relationship?
The benefits to our business of referral relationships is the overall growth to our business, but also the great opportunity to introduce ourselves and our business to new clients. But also being able to provide these people with, overall, a professionally handled and mostly stress-free property transaction. Gaining personally satisfied clients from the referral side also generates subsequent referrals to the business, so it keeps on growing. On the [flip] side, having mortgage brokers that you have great confidence in their knowledge and abilities to handle my clients as required is both an emotionally rewarding result to both the clients and ourselves, but also to the broker to subsequently cross-refer.
Q. And what about the benefits to clients?
When we are dealing with property transactions that are normally stressful, emotional and big dollar deals, seeing them get the outside professional assistance to remove the negative factors from their transaction is the major benefit they receive.
