Loan book grows rapidly as it helps clients, supports charities
Rebecca Morgan loves to help people, something she has pursued throughout her career whether working in human resources, supporting important charities or now as a successful mortgage broker.
Morgan (pictured above left) is the lead broker at My Mortgage Concierge, a brokerage based in Sydney’s Homebush West.
The brokerage is part of her family’s business, Sattout Accounting Services, run by Morgan’s father, Sam Sattout, and brother, Matthew Sattout (pictured below with Morgan), who are both tax agents. Sam Sattout set up the accounting firm over 40 years ago and expanded into mortgage broking in 1998.
My Mortgage Concierge is the new name for the brokerage which Morgan has led since 2014 and has enjoyed incredible loan book growth of 399% in the last 10 years.
Morgan is supported by fellow broker Sid Sarkis, (pictured above right), a full-time broker support person and a part-time admin staff member.
Morgan worked as an HR adviser for Fairfax Media and the ABC for four years before joining Sattout Accounting Services in 2006 to support her father.
“He was already broking and had been since 1998 but he’s also a full-time tax agent, so he was juggling both,” said Morgan. “So I came in and provided the broker support services.
“I was loan processing so back then were completing application forms and typing up cover letters and faxing them into the banks – everything was very manual. Dad was only servicing his accounting clients and it [the brokerage] just started to grow over time.”
Morgan said her move from HR into the family business was motivated by an opportunity to grow both the accounting and broking divisions, and for a lifestyle change.
‘’I wasn’t well at the time and I needed a job close to home, that was a little bit more flexible.”
Between 2006 and 2013, Morgan had her two sons and when her youngest boy was one, Morgan’s dad suffered a second heart attack and needed to reduce his stress levels.
So Morgan became a mortgage broker and in 2014 took over the running of the broking business, which has now been rebranded as My Mortgage Concierge.
Broking was a natural career progression for Morgan.
“My passion is helping people,” said Morgan. “On top of the charity work I’ve done and coming from HR, I wanted a job where I was helping people.
“I saw broking was a way to help people get what they wanted financially – to buy their own home. It was a natural fit. I’m not an accountant – I understand tax, but I wanted something where I was having those conversations with people and adding value, helping them to forward with their own goals.”
Supporting important charities
Sattouts supports Little Wonder, a parents’ fundraising and support committee that raises money for the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital neonatal intensive care unit, as well as Vinnies NSW’s mission to feed the homeless.
Morgan said both of her boys were premature babies and a group of parents came together in 2009 to form Little Wonder and support the RPA’s neonatal ICU where their children were cared for.
“The focus was on parent support and helping people understand that they're not alone in the journey that they're going through and there are other people who understand what’s happening.”
As well as funding incubators, ventilators and other equipment, Little Wonder worked to make life less stressful for parents of premature babies.
Morgan said the group renovated a room within the neonatal unit where mums expressed milk to make it feel more welcoming and less like a “sterile hospital room”, and organised gift bags to give out on key dates such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day and Christmas.
While she’s had to step away from being actively involved in Little Wonder, Morgan still supports its work and has some good friends who run the committee.
Morgan and Sattouts also support Vinnies NSW, which started during COVID when they donated about 800 boxes of groceries to people in need. Morgan is part of a group of people who volunteer for Vinnies’ Brekky Van on Sunday mornings, which feeds people who are homeless in Sydney.
The business also purchases food supplies, putting together snack packs for Vinnies to distribute to people.
Morgan said now the brokerage has committed to donate $100 to Vinnies Van Services NSW for every loan settled in FY2025.
Building growth at My Mortgage Concierge
When Morgan took over the broking business she said she wanted to get an “outsider’s view” of the brokerage to ensure it was operating as effectively as possible, so she joined a two-year mentoring program run by Nancy Youssef of Classic Mentoring.
“This helped me to reshape everything we were doing, putting in place new processes and systems,” said Morgan.
Since 2014, the brokerage has grown just under 400% in loan book size.
“We don't settle a huge volume every year, but our book is very clean. We have no arrears and our discharge rate is under 1%,” she said.
The brokerage has developed close, ongoing relationships with clients, attracting customers who wanted to build a property portfolio or renovate their homes. It offers insurance, residential, commercial and SMSF lending and caters for company and trust borrowers.
“Our approach is simple: we treat every client as part of our extended family and provide personalised, comprehensive support throughout their journey to build wealth through a property portfolio,” Morgan said.
When Morgan started running the broking business she said about 80% of leads came through the accounting practice, mostly self-employed clients. “Now it’s about 75% that are existing clients or client referrals and around 20% are accounting referrals.”
The growth of Sattouts broking arm is also evident – initially broking generated about 20% of the business’ overall income, now it’s around 50%.
Morgan said historically many of the broking clients were repeat property investors, buying properties every 12 to 18 months. “But in the last two years since interest rates rose, that has slowed down and we're finding now our first-time buyers category is growing.”
While the accounting service generated clients for the broking business, Morgan said it was now happening more often in the other direction, with first time buyers purchasing investment propert and needing the services of an accountant.
“They might have been earning a salary before and lodging their own tax, whereas now they starting to invest and diversify, so they need that advice.”
