What does it take to be a Top 100 broker?

MPA Top 100 Broker 2021 - Specialist Mortgage
Speaker1: [00:00:13] Hello, everyone. My name is Rebecca Pike, and I'm the editor of
MPX Magazine. I'm joined today by Helen Davis from Smaltz Group, who has made it
into our annual Top 100 Brokers list for 2021. Welcome, Helen. Thank you very much.
Congratulations for making it into our top 100 list this year. What do you put your
success over the past 12 months down to?
Speaker2: [00:00:38] I guess overall, it's just hard work, you know, the market has been
crazy. You know, the prices have been going through the roof and people have been
jumping in to try and secure their their home, their future home. You know, before you
know, they they literally get priced out of the market, you know, so I've seen a lot of
expats that have been returning back to Australia due to COVID. And you know, and it's
just been this the volume, you know, just the sheer volume of of people of, you know,
the the price points that, you know, has just been completely crazy. What have been the
biggest
Speaker1: [00:01:24] Challenges over the last year and how did you overcome them?
Speaker2: [00:01:29] I guess the biggest challenge has been the time that it takes to
get an approval because most of the clients I deal with live overseas. You know, there's
a limited amount of lenders that we can look at because a lot of the banks don't lend to
people living overseas with foreign income. And because of that, the and the volume of
the amount of loans that the banks have had to process together with all the, you know,
the documents that they have to go through. It takes a lot of time. And so the
assessment time has completely blown out. You know, at one point we were looking at
over a month. So by the time you submitted the loan to the bank, it would take a month
before they would pick it up. So it just became a logjam. And, you know, managing
clients expectations when they want to go to auction next week and then they, you
know, they've got to wait a month to get a loan approval. You know, it is hard, you know,
so so that has been the biggest challenge, I think, for twenty one.
Speaker1: [00:02:41] And why is the top 100 list so important for you as a broker? And
how does it feel to be in this year's list?

Speaker2: [00:02:49] You know, it's it's this recognition, right? You know, I mean, you
know, you work hard. I mean, I've been doing this for 20 years now. You know, I've
never, never sort of put myself forward for anything. And this year I just thought, you
know, it came into my email box and I thought, OK, you know, I'll put myself forward
and. And yeah, it's been it's great, you know, it's it's it's great to be recognized for for the
work that you do.
Speaker1: [00:03:20] Thank you so much for sharing with us, Helen. I'm so happy to
have you in the list this year. Thank you to everyone watching online. The top 100 list
will be out in December, where you can read more about Helen and the other brokers
for making waves in the industry. Thanks for watching.