Mortgage Broker Career

I admit I've yet to find an exception

 

Az, I have exceptional circumstances, and I was able to grow sufficiently while employed—amazing mentor.

 

Part time can work to start, but it can't work permanently (depends on your visions for the business). If you want to earn a decent salary out of it, then full time is a must - at least aspirations to moving full time in a short time space.

Environments where it can work to start:

1. You offshore loan processing/credit to mentor (exceptional mentoring required or partnership - there are some good aggregator groups that cater to this).

2. You have an easy job thats flexible with time. I saw a FB photo of a 'stare at screen for 40 hours and do 10 hours of work' photo. That sort of job will do just fine.

3. Number of clients. In the first three months if you get 5-10 enquiries from external sources, your doing well. Of those, 2 may turn into actual settlements...and those settlements may not happen in those three months! Its quite easy to handle this sort of volume, its trickle trickle trickle.

4. Full time brokers are typically very professional about their business. We don't see it as a part time thing. Most here would dedicate a significant portion of their days/lives to making it work and would've gone through some very testing scenarios and files.

5. Growth. Its just hard to grow your business to what you want it to be when your in part time mode. A part time approach often promotes

Reality is it takes a few months to get all the ducks lined up before you can even write loans - you can do all of this before starting out. Spend a few months doing some actual training (not coursework) by reading posts, learning scenarios, reading policy, meeting brokers, networking, etc etc etc. All this can be done part time.

Once you actually get some business or have made a base level investment, then go out there and start kicking some serious goals!

Cheers,
Redom

 

Good stuff - there's a tip for you @York Polides
How long was it between leaving your job and earning a full time wage again?

 

Well said. Great wisdom Rolf. Thank you

 

Hi YP,

Well done for thinking about following your passion. As most say follow your passion and you will never work a day in your life.

I am a little different from most on this forum, I have moved into the brokering industry from an Accounting background. My passion is numbers and educating my clients and hence my property knowledge is probably less than most here

For me I love educating my clients through the budgeting, cash flow, funds to complete, policy, structure, features and rebates available, rarely talking about the actual property!

I tried to hold my full time accounting role and broker 'part time'. It simply didn't work, it meant more stress, staring at computers after midnight and doing 2 jobs at a level I was not satisfied with. If this is something you want to pursue, suggest you set yourself up whilst in a full time position and transition across.

Plan, think about who your client is - it can be a little overwhelming if you try and capture the whole market. Think about who you would like to deal with FHOB, investors, retirees , SMSF, self employed, credit impaired, non-citizens, off the plan etc. From that list pick a couple you want to specialise in and hone in your skills from there (the experienced brokers on this site, can probably handle all) But for the first couple of years, become an expert in a couple of segments - that way you are confident in the plan and policy. Nothing worse than getting the leads and being completely green on that subject (sure you have to start somewhere)

Once you think about who your ideal client is, develop a plan on how to source leads (through aggregator, network, website, social media, referral network) how many leads do you need from each source. Again don't spread yourself around too much!

For me, I can never over service a client - always communicate to your client and don't hide negative news. Clients appreciate this.

Finally budget on not receiving any funds for a couple of months and for cash flow it might be ideal to find something to compliment the cash flow (i.e an hourly rate job within the same industry)

Good luck and if you want to chat via phone PM me

Thanks

 

Hi YP,

Re Mentoring have a chat to aggregators too, they should be able to give you some names.

Have a chat to them and see how you go?

 

Thanks for the tip Teshy.

 

MB is not a 9am-5pm job let alone a part time job.

There are always going to be bombshells you need to address when someone drops the ball even if you are the most organised and pedantic individual.

I would suggest going full time.

 

I agree - it's the unexpected stuff right before settlement that add a heap of stress and trying to manage that with another full time job would be incredibly difficult from both a logistical and mental perspective.

It could end up making you do a sub-standard job of both. If your current work is very flexible it might be more manageable.

 

Bit of insight on my behalf....... I also was hoping to do broking on my days off initially but was advised against it by my mentor even though I do a 4 on 4 off roster! I've been fortunate enough to be processing loans/a client manager for the brokers on my days off and after doing this for last 15 months I'm glad I never went straight into broking. I'm even more glad I never did it part time....

I've come to realise if you really want to excel in this business you really need to under promise and over deliver and the only way you will do that is by knowing the processes (time frames etc) like the back of your hand. My mentor (has won numerous awards/wrote huge volumes/started from scratch in multiple cities and excelled) believes it takes 2 years to achieve this.

As Rolfe said, if you go all in and have nothing to fall back on, then you are far more likely to make things work and put in the hard yards to be successful.

This will be me in approximately 9 months. Am I scared to be going from a comfy full time job with guaranteed income? You betcha. But the excitement of actually building a business that I'm passionate about and feeling like I am genuinely contributing to peoples lives in a positive way far out ways any fear.

 

I'm super keen to get into this sort of thing with Mums & Dads who have no interest in having a huge portfolio! Huge value in my eyes for people who are keen to apply the principles of budgeting etc.

 

Thanks you @miximitosis for your input. The consensus amongst all contributing brokers is along those lines. So at least I know what I must do if I will pursue this. Has made things much clearer for me. Thank you.

 

Well a good combination would be a one-stop-shop as conveyancer and broker. It's more assuring for clients to have someone do both for them.

 

I don't know that the compliance elements of conveyancing would be justified for a broker to do both. We refer a lot of business to a particular conveyancer, but it's not enough to sustain a business in its own right, they have other referral sources as well. If you tried to do both they conveyancing would be secondary to the broking and I do wonder if the compliance costs would justify it for the volume of business.

If you had several brokers all generating business, then having a dedicated conveyancer in the office would probably be worthwhile and useful, but I don't think an individual could really do both as effectively.

 

I think @Terry_w does this. He mentioned something about keeping them very separate as far as entities go. There was some kind of conflict of interest issue.

 

I do some conveyancing for some clients some times, just to keep me from forgetting how to do it. But I generally don't do it as conveyancing is cut price and full of risk. More risk when acting in 2 roles with potential conflicts arising.

Brokers get paid about 5 times more than conveyancers with half the work and half the risk.

 

My first solicitor/conveyancer was also my broker. It was very convenient having both files in hand whenever I had questions etc instead of going back and forth. Well I only used the broker for doing the legwork and chasing anyway, I told him upfront which loan I wanted and he agreed it was a good deal. He can't recommend a better alternative suited to my needs.