Mortgage brokers are more flexible now - Skipton BDM

Advisers' agility in a fast-changing market earns praise

Mortgage brokers are more flexible now - Skipton BDM

Brokers are becoming more receptive to being flexible in their approach to mortgages, according to business development manager Isha Thomson (pictured), who also believes the intermediated market will only continue to grow.

In her role with Skipton Building Society, covering Scotland for the lender, Thomson works closely with brokers, and she identifies something of a shift in advisers’ approach to their task.

“In the market that we have, and from what we've seen over the last couple of years and how quickly things can change, brokers are definitely a lot more receptive now to being agile and flexible and looking at different ways of doing things,” she told Mortgage Introducer.

“I take my hat off to brokers. We see how fast-paced the market is - it's a difficult job for them to navigate and make sure that they're always abreast of what's happening with lenders, what's happening in the trade press, what's happening in the news.”

Skipton has received a lot of attention for its first-time buyer innovation, Track Record, which takes account of tenants’ history paying rent, as part of their mortgage applications. First-time buyers are essential for boosting business, suggests Thomson. She emphasises the importance of encouraging them on to the property ladder and urges more government support, particularly in Scotland – noting how integral these borrowers are to a healthy sector.

“First-time buyers are key to the market and its full cycle, because without them we don't then have the next first-time buyers and so on and so forth,” she said. “There needs to be a bit more stimulus in the market, a bit more innovation to support first-time buyers getting on to the property ladder. We really need that type of customer to stimulate the market.”

Brokers have a key role to play in guiding first-time buyers, and indeed borrowers, across the market, Thomson suggests – she anticipates a lot of remortgage business this year.

“It's all about relationships, isn't it?” she said. “You want somebody that's relatable, that just takes you under their wing – a broker that has the knowledge, and even if they don't have the knowledge, takes the time to go away and research, to ensure they're giving the customer the best outcome.

“Communication is the biggest thing – it is really key to gaining trust and always following through for the customer. So much of our market is intermediated already and that's only going to continue to grow as we move forward.”

Read more: Brokers, how much do you value your mortgage administrators?

The importance of sharing knowledge

Thomson runs her own sessions with brokers every week, covering different areas of the market, and believes it’s a productive initiative. “It's a really good way for brokers to come together,” she enthused. “To just keep that knowledge ticking over.”

Her own expertise has been built up over more than a decade in the business. Thomson has come a long way from the start of her career when, having dropped out of university because it wasn’t for her, she worked in hospitality. She wanted more structure to her working day, and initially eyed a job as a primary school teacher, until a position at TSB materialised. She worked her way up in the business, before moving to Skipton in 2022.

Thomson has steered away from pursuing the underwriter route in her career, because she enjoys the personal contact a BDM role offers her.

“I really enjoy getting in front of new people, meeting them and having a conversation, and that job didn't really give me that,” she shared. “I really like to get to know the brokers that I support. I like to get under the skin of their businesses as well, to see not only how can we support their customers and get these mortgage offers over the line, which is what's most important of course, but also how can we support their businesses.

“I love it when somebody phones me and we'll have a chat and we talk about their cases and look at how we can flex to support their customer.”

So what, then, is the key thing Thomson has learned in her career, so far?

“The best business lesson I have learned is to never assume and to always ask questions,” she observed. “No question is a stupid question.”