How and why did you become a broker?
I was studying physiotherapy [for] my undergraduate degree. I [had] just moved out of college, and I needed more money to survive the cost of living in Sydney. I ended up working with [IFA Mortgages principal] Anthony O’Flynn and his growing business a couple of days a week just to make a bit more money. I ended up really enjoying it and falling in love with it.
I finished my degree, but I never actually worked as a physio. Anthony offered me a job, so I had the choice of trying to find a job as a physio or go down the broking path. I went down the broking path and haven’t looked back since!
Q. What kind of loans are you writing at the moment?
Mostly residential. But over the last few years, as the team’s grown, that’s given us the ability to allow different members of the team to focus on commercial and equipment financing.
Q. Is there any new tech in the broker space that you’ve found to be useful?
MyCRM, which Loan Market is constantly building, is just taking things to another level. When Podium merged into it, I remember how much time we saved processing every application and it’s only getting better.
And, the young boys in the office have started using Quickli.
I was actually very sceptical of this tool when it came out … and some of the brokers out there might also be hesitant to use something like this because [of] how intricate each lender’s servicing calculator is and how they all look so different. But it’s just so accurate! They tested it [on] the major banks and it was so close, like within probably 1 per cent variance most of the time. I found that quite impressive.
Some days now, I can have three pretty straightforward deals lined up and my processor can get three submitted quality applications in a day, which is fantastic.
Q. Do you have any challenges in writing loans at the moment?
My biggest gripe is physical documents. ANZ, you guys got to get onto DigiDocs because you’re one of the only ones at the moment that’s not doing it! I think it’s just ANZ of the lenders I’ve been using recently that [is] still doing physical documents.
One of the young guys in the office has just become accredited and it is such a foreign thing for him to need to go and meet clients to sign the documents! [DigiDocs] saves us a lot of time and I’m sure a lot of brokers will agree how much time just that simple change has made on increasing productivity as a business, while also saving paper.
Q. How do you choose your referral partners?
We get enough workflow coming through from the existing book, which is lucky. But now that we’re getting new brokers [coming] through … we’re starting to open up and get some new referral partners that we can have a long-term, standing relationship with over the next few years.
I’ll sit down [in] a meeting with a partner a couple of times before we look to establish a relationship with them. We’ll say: ‘Give us a deal, we’ll run it, and you can see how it goes from start to finish. You can get some feedback from your client.’
Because they’re putting their trust in us to work with their clients, we’ve got to make sure that they’re happy with the service level we provide.
It’s a bit of a two-way street; you’ve got to feel each other out.
Q. You’ve just marked 10 years in broking. What does the second decade look like for you?
I’m really enjoying being in more of a mentoring role now. I’m enjoying passing on that knowledge. I really love that aspect of it, so hopefully we will continue to build the business up and I can step away from full-blown broking and move into more of that.
Q. What tips would you give to new brokers just starting out?
Ask questions. You’ve just got to be thirsty for knowledge. There are so many little intricacies in broking that you learn over the years that you don’t even realise.
Have a mentor. I think it would be important [in] early days to meet with your mentor at least once or twice a week, if not once a fortnight. You need to go through what you have on your desk and go through each deal.
Don’t be scared to get rejected [and] don’t be scared to fail.
Tune in to hear more!
You can find out more about Luke Harborne and how he’s built his successful decade-long career as a broker in the Elite Broker podcast. Tune in to the episode, How this broker creates relationships that last, here.
