From relationships to confidence building, and maintaining integrity
Every day is a school day in the world of mortgages, it seems – there is always something new to learn. While much of this may involve becoming acquainted with new products or lenders’ updated criteria, working day-to-day in the sector offers opportunities for longer-term business lessons, which will shape how many of the industry’s professionals approach their work.
Ryley Solferini (pictured left), is an Edinburgh-based, mid-twenties entrepreneur and self-employed mortgage broker whohas learned the importance of building relationships rather than transactions.
“Whether this is personal, or professionally, one single relationship can change everything for you,” Solferini said. “Don't go for the grab of money first, build the relationship, enjoy the process. Some of my best clients have sent their friends and family because I built a relationship that pushed me further than just a transaction.” He added: “Value first has never let me down. If you are providing so much value to someone, they will feel obliged to come to you. It's human nature. They will connect with you enough to want you to be the person guiding them through it all.”
Hannie Mason (pictured second from left), director and broker at Mortgages with Hannie, highlights believing in herself as a key lesson she has learned in her career to date. Mason believes a lack of confidence holds a lot of people back. “They just don't have the confidence or belief in themselves to do something,” she reasoned. “My lack of confidence in myself in the past has held me back significantly, and on so many occasions. Whether it's making decisions or wanting to do something, obviously you still have those moments of doubt, but I'm very much in a place now where I've learned that by just trusting my gut, believing in myself, and having that confidence to do it, it'll either work out or it doesn't. My mindset now is what's the worst that could happen? If you don't do it, and you don't try, you won't know.”
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Let everyone know what you do
George Binnington (pictured second from right), from Binnington Mortgages, has come to understand the value of sharing what you do. “In my career so far as a mortgage broker, I’ve learnt that you need to let everyone know you’re a broker,” Binnington said. “When it comes to mortgages, possibly 95% of the population are potential customers needing your services, but that statistic means nothing if they don’t know you’re a broker. As a result, I post regularly across multiple channels, have some adverts out there and wear my branded fleece everywhere.”
Broker Nouran Moustafa (pictured right), who writes high value mortgages, considers an important business lesson for brokers is maintaining their integrity, even when there are opportunities for lucrative business. “Your pocket will be screaming, ‘you can make this money out of the person three times in five years, why are you fixing their mortgage for five years?’ - because that's the right advice,” Nouran said. “So, I would say the biggest business lesson I learned so far is to keep my integrity over my pocket because I should never, ever allow myself to give someone wrong or misleading advice for a couple of thousand pounds, even if these thousands would mean that I can change my car every year, or I can buy a brand new Rolex every couple of months.”
Meanwhile, Steve Humphrey (pictured inset, above), director of brokerage The Mortgage Pod, suggests that trust is an important industry lesson. “Work out who you can trust and then take them with you as far as you possibly can,” Humphrey said. “If you make life good for them, they'll make life good for you. So that ethos has been applied to my business since day one. We want everybody that's associated with this business to have a positive experience. We don't need to be a multi-million pound business, that's not where we're aiming to be. We just want to focus on quality and that’s for staff and customers.”
For Marianne Lombardi (pictured inset, above), from Agree Mortgages, taking the time to get to know a client, their background and understanding why they do what they do has been key to her broker role. This can include why certain events like adverse credit have happened to them. “It’s so important when putting a case forward to make sure this story is there for the underwriter to understand too,” Lombardi shared. “This info doesn’t necessarily have ‘a box’ so it may be a separate memo or a call. I’ve had declines go to offer and things out of criteria go to offer on occasion, when this is done. So, it’s not the computer saying no mentality - it’s a human touch of understanding a situation.”
Rebecca Ward-Thomas (pictured inset, above), principal mortgage broker at Realm Property Finance, commented: “I think that the best lesson for me is to know your strengths and not get stressed about the things that you aren’t as good at or don’t enjoy as much. My strengths are building relationships with people and giving great mortgage advice. The technical things aren’t my forte, so I work with other likeminded businesses to help with this. It means that my full focus can be directed towards what I love the most, helping mortgage clients.”
She added: “Another lesson is to remember that everyone is a prospective client, so even though they might not need a mortgage right away, they could remember a great conversation that they had with you years ago and use you once the time is right.”
Broker Dharminder Singh, from Mr Singh Financial, urges honesty. “I think the best business lesson is being open and honest with clients with everything, and availability to clients to answer their questions throughout the process. That's it – it’s simple. I follow one thing - treat the client the way you want to be treated as customer. And it’s been working. I have clients who have been coming back to me since I started as broker.”
