Colin Lamb of Mortgage & Finance Solutions is on the 10th place of the MPA Top 100 brokers of 2016.
10 COLIN LAMB
Mortgage & Finance Solutions
Doubleview, WA
Aggregator: LoanKit/Finsure
Total value of residential loans FY 2015/16: $151,802,056
Total number of residential loans FY 2015/16: 323
Colin Lamb is back in the big league – not that he ever really left. After topping the list in 2013, when he was also named Broker of the Year in the Australian Mortgage Awards, Lamb had two quieter years in which he still wrote substantially over $100m in loans. What makes Lamb’s success this year particularly interesting is that he’s added over $40m to his total in a year in which WA’s housing market and wider economy took a turn for the worse.
“It’s been tough in WA”, Lamb reflects. “There’s a lot of clients shifting and defaulting because of the loss of a job and things like that. The last 12–18 months hasn’t just been writing business; it’s been looking after people who’ve been in trouble.”
Lamb has a number of other tasks besides this: guiding his new real estate business The Agency, his broker marketing business Your Client Matters, and taking on a new telesales staff member.
Having full ownership of The Agency, he says, has “basically allowed us to have a bit more control over where business is coming from, and set KPIs for the agents to refer”. Meanwhile, the new telesales staff members have been getting back in contact with old clients and generating repeat business. Lamb has been “reaping the rewards” of this combination of changes, he explains.
Running multiple businesses while writing loans requires support, and Lamb is one of an increasing number of brokers outsourcing loan lodging and compliance. He also has two PAs and another supporting staff member. Other brokers should do the same, he urges: “Anyone who’s writing over $3m a month should be considering a PA, whether part-time or even sharing a PA with somebody. I’ve had PAs for the last 10 or 12 years, and basically a mortgage broker should never be licking the back of a stamp.”
Not licking stamps frees up Lamb to talk to current and potential clients, not just as an initial appointment but throughout the loan process. Being able to face the client throughout the process, including document sign-up, has direct benefits for leads, he says. “I did one this morning and already got a referral from that … every broker that doesn’t do doc sign-ups doesn’t deserve those referrals because it’s not full service.”
Mortgage & Finance Solutions
Doubleview, WA
Aggregator: LoanKit/Finsure
Total value of residential loans FY 2015/16: $151,802,056
Total number of residential loans FY 2015/16: 323
Colin Lamb is back in the big league – not that he ever really left. After topping the list in 2013, when he was also named Broker of the Year in the Australian Mortgage Awards, Lamb had two quieter years in which he still wrote substantially over $100m in loans. What makes Lamb’s success this year particularly interesting is that he’s added over $40m to his total in a year in which WA’s housing market and wider economy took a turn for the worse.
“It’s been tough in WA”, Lamb reflects. “There’s a lot of clients shifting and defaulting because of the loss of a job and things like that. The last 12–18 months hasn’t just been writing business; it’s been looking after people who’ve been in trouble.”
Lamb has a number of other tasks besides this: guiding his new real estate business The Agency, his broker marketing business Your Client Matters, and taking on a new telesales staff member.
Having full ownership of The Agency, he says, has “basically allowed us to have a bit more control over where business is coming from, and set KPIs for the agents to refer”. Meanwhile, the new telesales staff members have been getting back in contact with old clients and generating repeat business. Lamb has been “reaping the rewards” of this combination of changes, he explains.
Running multiple businesses while writing loans requires support, and Lamb is one of an increasing number of brokers outsourcing loan lodging and compliance. He also has two PAs and another supporting staff member. Other brokers should do the same, he urges: “Anyone who’s writing over $3m a month should be considering a PA, whether part-time or even sharing a PA with somebody. I’ve had PAs for the last 10 or 12 years, and basically a mortgage broker should never be licking the back of a stamp.”
Not licking stamps frees up Lamb to talk to current and potential clients, not just as an initial appointment but throughout the loan process. Being able to face the client throughout the process, including document sign-up, has direct benefits for leads, he says. “I did one this morning and already got a referral from that … every broker that doesn’t do doc sign-ups doesn’t deserve those referrals because it’s not full service.”