Industry needs to educate that there are options, urges specialist lender
As work habits in the UK continue to evolve and change, the mortgage industry needs to address a perception among the self-employed that they won’t be able to borrow, according to an expert from the specialist lending sector.
Adam Sheldon (pictured), national account manager at Kensington Mortgages, believes there is a need for greater education of those who work for themselves and whose living and work circumstances are becoming ever more complex.
“There is a perception gap,” Sheldon told Mortgage Introducer. “They believe that they're less likely to get a mortgage, that lenders won't look at them because of the way that they're set up or because they're retaining income in the business, to grow. It is true there are more rejections, but we know there are options to look at retained profits, net profits, that sort of thing. As an industry, we've got a job to educate them that there are options available. We need to think about ways, collectively of how we make mortgages more inclusive.”
The question remains - how does the mortgage sector get the message across to self-employed workers that they can own their properties?
“We're an intermediary-only lender,” Sheldon said. “Does it lie with us to go out to the public or do we have to provide tools collectively as an industry for brokers to do the education piece for customers? If you look at successful brokers who support the self-employed really well, there's one thing they've got in common - they actually talk about it.
“They've got sections on their websites about what they do, so whether it be self-employed mortgages, whether it be for customers with credit blips, they put case studies on there, and some have got podcasts. They'll ask for reviews and they'll put them high up on the website.”
He continued: “You need to meet customers where they want to be met. A customer who’s researching self-employed mortgages is probably more likely to find you and actually be more reassured to go with you.”
How clued up about self-employed borrowing are brokers, does he think?
“I think it varies, to be honest,” Sheldon said. “There's always more to learn. There's always more that can be done to support underserved borrowers. The one thing I'm curious about is the psychology of what causes customers to make the decisions they do - that behavioural aspect of the industry is probably an area that is not talked about and thought about enough.”
Read more: Specialist mortgages demand more time, brokers say
Sheldon believes that successful brokers share some key qualities.
“The best brokers that I've had the pleasure of work with are very customer obsessed,” he reasoned. “So, they build a proposition around the customer and completely obsess over it. Being really customer-centric is crucial. We're in the service industry - everything's got to be in service to the customer.”
He added: “I guess the thing they've most got in common is they're just really good with people - great listeners, great problem solvers, they network really well and have got great lender relationships. I often say that the lender-broker relationship is symbiotic. We need each other in order to survive, so those communication channels have to work both ways.”
