As vanilla cases decline, brokers who diversify their toolkit stand to gain from rising client complexity
Alan Greenin entered the mortgage profession five years ago after more than a decade in construction recruitment. When COVID-19 halted hiring overnight, he made a rapid pivot.
“All of my clients [were] not recruiting for six months,” he said. “And I [couldn’t] really survive with nothing coming in.” He completed his CeMAP during lockdown while homeschooling his daughters. “It was the quickest I've ever done revision in my life,” he said. “I absolutely love mortgages compared to recruitment.”
Moving beyond the high street
Greenin noted that some brokers may face challenges when working with cases that fall outside the mainstream.
“If they're used to using the high street lenders, because they like very vanilla [cases], anything that's slightly, I call it spicy, they really don't like,” he said. “You're going to really stumble [when you come] across any kind of adverse credit. Self-employed people are quite tricky as well.”
Rather than tackle everything alone, he emphasises the value of peer support. “Good tools and having a good network of other brokers around you who have got a lot of experience tends to help,” he said. “In the beginning, I [thought] I'm going to do it all on my own, and just one WhatsApp to somebody [requesting information] and you’ve got the answer within five seconds… saves a lot of time.”
Finding solutions faster
When a case doesn’t meet standard criteria, Greenin turns to master brokers and sourcing platforms to reduce time and improve confidence.
“We do have packages, so master brokers - if we're really struggling on a case and you think it’s going to be beneficial to go somewhere else, they might have had experience with [something similar] before,” he said.
He also uses Knowledge Bank and Mortgage Broker Tools to quickly match scenarios to lender criteria. “I can have a lender within an hour these days.”
A recent example involved a client in a debt management plan who had already been declined. “A quick look on my sourcing and my research found a lender that was open to it,” he said. “I spoke to the underwriter, ran through the case, and that case has just completed on Friday.”
Compliance and client clarity
With non-vanilla cases, Greenin said brokers must be rigorous in how they document and communicate client scenarios, particularly where higher interest rates or vulnerability are involved.
“You definitely can't overlook the affordability and checking to make sure that all the documents that you've got are fully compliant, aren't fraudulent - they're the ones that really stick out these days,” he said.
Clear and proactive communication helps set expectations. “With the adverse credit, these clients are normally quite vulnerable… so if you're going to an adverse lender, the interest rate is going to be higher, it's probably going to be higher fees - being as clear with them that this is the route that we can go down now, it is going to be more expensive.”
To avoid future misunderstandings, Greenin keeps written communication simple and direct. “I do bullet point all of my emails to make sure that everybody is 100% understanding what's going on, and then the best case scenario if we get through this rocky period.”
He’s also encountered many clients who were poorly advised in the past. “The amount of cases I pick up from a few years ago where they haven't got a clue about what's going on with their mortgage and they've been on a variable rate for, I had somebody that's been on a variable rate for three years, paying interest that they didn't need to pay.”
A changing borrower landscape
Greenin said that adverse and complex cases are becoming more common, and will likely continue to rise.
“I think the adverse and spicier cases are on the rise, without a shadow of a doubt,” he said. “We're still coming out of the COVID era where incomes were stretched so much, house prices haven't stopped increasing, our salaries haven't gone up that much, energy prices are going up again… people are missing payments.”
He’s also monitoring the possible rollback of government protections. “The mortgage charter… I hear that might be coming to an end,” he said. “They now have to give you a year to kind of get your finances in order because of the mortgage charter… But I did hear rumours that it might be going.”
“Just ask the question”
Despite increasing case complexity, Greenin’s message to both clients and brokers is simple: don’t assume there are no options.
“I don't like to be doom and gloom because I like to try and find solutions to things,” he said. “I do get a lot of people in my DMs that are very worried about certain things. All they need to do, that's what I say to everybody, is just ask the question.”
In a market where fewer cases fit the standard mould, knowing who to ask, and being willing to ask, can make all the difference.
