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Melbourne-based broker Josh Bartlett reached a significant milestone recently, settling $1 billion of loans less than 10 years after entering the broking industry. The former Loan Market broker attributes his success to a strong work ethic he inherited from his father, alongside strong teamwork within his business, and valuing client and referral relationships. As he begins his new role the managing director at Mortgage Advice Bureau Melbourne, we catch up with the busy broker to find out how he entered the billion-dollar club.
How and why did you decide to become a broker?
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I owned a gym for 11 years and my wife was a real estate agent, back in the day. We bought and sold a lot of properties over a period of about 10 years [and] I used to meet a lot of brokers. I think throughout that process I always loved the real estate path. I sold my gym and contemplated becoming a real estate agent or a broker. About nine years ago, I decided to become a broker because I thought there was a lack of skill and energy in the business at the time. I thought I could come out and do quite well.
Are there any transferable skills between being a gym owner and a broker?
Every skill was transferable. When you own a gym, you’re talking to people, building relationships, and helping people with their lifestyles and goals.
When you’re a broker, you’re building a relationship when you’re talking to people and helping with their financial wealth. The skills are exactly the same.
What kinds of loans do you write?
I like mixing my whole business up with a whole lot of different things. We have very astute investors but I also like to continue to work with first home buyers. Working with first home buyers keeps you at the forefront of their mind and there’s a lot of referral business that comes off the back of that, if you do all the right things. We work across areas such as debt consolidation, property investment, and first home buyers.
You recently surpassed the milestone of settling $1 billion of loans. What strategies and processes did you implement to reach the $1 billion mark?
I’ve been a broker for nine years and it took eight and a half years for me to reach $1 billion in loans. I’ve always been guided by the principle that it is only possible to ever set up processes if you have a lead source. Until I had a lead source, a referral business and referral relationships, it was hard to start building a business with no lead flow.
When I first started as a broker, I knew that the person who controlled the lead or could get the leads would be able to build a process around them. I created massive amounts of lead flows from the beginning. From there, I had to start building a team based on the volume I created.
How is your team structured?
It was just me in the beginning. I had one staff member three or four months into my business. For three or four years I had to deal with the pain of not knowing how to manage a team of people, while also being new to the industry... But over the last five years, I’ve maintained the same team. I’ve got two full-time client service managers, a part-time client service manager, and I’ve also got someone whom I’m now training to be a broker.
One individual person cannot hit these kinds of milestones. I’m not who I am without my team.
Where do you source your business leads?
In the beginning, 80-90 per cent of my business would have been from real estate agents. I would now say that 80 per cent of my business is from existing clients and referrals, with 20 to 30 per cent of that referred by real estate agents.
In my first year, I wrote $50 million and 80 per cent of it was through real estate agents. This year we’re tracking on $220 million, but $50 million of that might be real estate. But then the rest is all existing clients.
Why have you joined Mortgage Advice Bureau?
They had a good understanding of how I run my business and contacted me in October or November last year asking if I was looking to grow, and I said “yes”.
In their UK base, they’ve shown how they can build a business and help people build their businesses. Over there, there’s the head broker and there are five or six brokers who work underneath them. They’ve shown they can take an individual broker that writes good volume and build out their business. They’ll work as a team, instead of various self-employed brokers running their show.
I’m also moving due to their referral systems and their technology. They’ve got a referral tool portal and they work alongside their referral partners just like I have over the last eight or nine years.
What do you have planned for the future?
Growth! My plan now is: it’s not about me anymore. My plan was always to get to $1 billion as an individual broker. But now I want to transfer my sales skills and policy knowledge and I want to train other brokers.
I’m hoping we’ll hit the $2 billion mark in loan settlements in three or four years’ time. We’re also going to recruit brokers in the first half of 2020 – we’re looking to put two brokers on straight away.
What tips would you offer new brokers?
- Always do what you say you’re going to do.
- Stay fit and healthy and on top of your game.
- Never break a relationship.
- Always harness every relationship you ever make.
- Always get back to your client on time.
- Always treat every client and referral business with respect.
- Always answer your phone.
