Success built on referral relationships, tech automation
Innovative mortgage brokerage Manage Your Loans is celebrating its first anniversary, enjoying significant growth and winning awards.
The business has built its success quickly with a focus on technology and strong referral relationships including an exclusive partnership with membership warehouse retail giant Costco.
Since it was set up by co-founders Josh Payne (pictured above left) and Andrew Carey (pictured above right) 12 months ago, Manage Your Loans has expanded its team, which now includes six brokers, two loan processors and support staff, introduced new initiatives and won multiple awards.
These include being featured among MPA’s Top Mortgage Employers for 2024 and Elite Women 2024 (for Manage Your Loans CEO Peta Siebert); Australian Broker’s 5-Star Mortgage Innovators 2024; and as an excellence awardee in the Australian Mortgage Awards 2024 Bankwest New Brokerage of the Year category.
“It’s been an incredible year of growth, both for the business and our partnerships,” Payne said. “Our team’s dedication and ability to create meaningful connections with clients and partners have been key to our success.”
MPA caught up with Siebert to discuss Manage Your Loan’s distinctive approach to mortgage broking which aims to empower its customers financially by combining technology, education, expert advice and strategic partnerships.
Manage Your Loans’ origins
Siebert, who has 33 years’ experience working in the mortgage industry including managing a number of brokerages, said Manage Your Loans was founded by Payne and Carey, who previously worked in the mining and insurance industries, respectively.
“They said, ‘We’ve got businesses in both of those ecosystems – what will support it?’ and they said, ‘Mortgage broking is the perfect fit’ because you need finance for mining and you need insurance associated with finance requirements,” said Siebert.
The pair bought a Mortgage Choice franchise on the Sunshine Coast and operated that for a few years to learn how a mortgage broking business works. Siebert said they had a heavy focus on digital technology, artificial intelligence and business ecosystems (also known as networks).
Both Payne and Carey are now based in Darwin, where they set up the Manage Your Loans business.
Siebert, who is also an MFAA mortgage broker mentor, said the brokerage has a virtual model with all staff working remotely from their homes in Darwin, Queensland, NSW and Victoria.
Partnership with Costco
Cosctco is a US multinational firm which operates membership-only warehouse retail stores all over the world, including 15 stores in Australia.
Siebert said Costco had moved into offering financial services as well as products and in November 2023, Manage Your Loans launched a groundbreaking partnership with Costco Australia, giving the brokerage access to offer its loan products and services to 3.2 million Costco members in Australia.
“Of these members, 2.1 million are mortgage holders,” Siebert said.
Under the exclusive partnership, Costco members can access Manage Your Loans broker services and if they settle a loan through the brokerage (which has access to more than 50 lenders through AFG) they receive a certain dollar value on a Costco Shop Card based on the size of the loan.
Siebert said Costco had been seeking to partner with a brokerage and Payne and Carey were successful in winning the bid, with the help of Effi Technologies, which provides Manage Your Loan’s CRM.
Once they secured the Costco partnership, the co-founders brought Siebert into the business, which she joined in October 2023.
Siebert said Payne and Carey were keen to launch the brokerage as fast as possible, so “we did a really quick turnaround with broker recruitment and putting systems in place”.
The Costco relationship has been a successful one and is currently generating about 50% of the brokerage’s business, she said.
Partnering with an organisation that provided services rather than just products was a new process for Costco.
“Taking something from a product to a service is a very different marketing strategy, a very different customer feel,” said Siebert.
“When customers go into the store for that product that they're after to buy and when they walk out, when they see what the services are it's not a priority unless it's a need or unless they see it in marketing.
“So that has taken a little bit longer than what Costco and us were expecting with the volumes of leads coming through, but when the leads do come through, they’re high-quality.”
As a digital business, Manage Your Loans has API connections that connect straight through from the Costco services website, and through EDM marketing, to the brokerage. Its services are also featured in Costco store brochures as well as its quarterly magazine.
Siebert said because the business’ services were mass marketed, rather than tailored to individuals, it required a bit more work to build Manage Your Loans’ brand, reputation and the community’s buy-in but this would eventually happen.
Other referral partners
Siebert said internal growth had been complemented by extending exclusive offers through other key partnerships with trusted brands such as TorFX, Conveyancing.com, Qikio, Credit Success, Hospmen, One IT Services, The Property Collective, Ultimate Business Consulting and most recently Real Estate Central.
“These partnerships enable us to provide comprehensive financial services to our clients, from foreign exchange solutions to property services.”
Rather than doing things manually, the brokerage has automated its processes, with referrals flowing both ways between partners.
“So when a client says yes that they're interested, it will then ask them a few more questions and API the referral straight across … which means the business on the other end, the client will get a confirmation to say thank you for your inquiry, we’ll be in contact shortly,” said Siebert.
Client information is held in Manage Your Loans portal, encrypted and transferred securely across to the partners’ tech platform.
Siebert said their partners benefitted from working with a brokerage that had a good reputation, service and security, and the businesses were helping each other to continually grow.
Manage Your Rate
The business also recently launched Manage Your Rate which utilises open banking (with the customer’s consent) to review client’s home loans.
“We get updated information through Manage Your Rate on a daily basis so we know when is the right time to speak to clients is where we can save them money,” Siebert said.
“We've got the ability to say to the client, ‘OK, is $500 a month worth you refinancing, is it $1,000, is it $200? What's your price?’ – because everyone's different.”
Manage Your Rate uses technology and AI to assess the client’s current lender rate and lenders on the panel to determine dollar value savings and interest rate savings.
“It’s making sure the loan amount is being assessed at the right time … once the calculation comes through, it's automatically allocated to our team to make a phone call to the client.”
RBA cash rate call
Asked for her thoughts on what the Reserve Bank of Australia might do about the official cash rate on Tuesday, Siebert said it was likely the RBA would keep the rate on hold at 4.35%.
While inflation had fallen, if you took out the effect of government subsidies lowering power prices, inflation hadn’t dropped enough to warrant the RBA cutting rates.
“It’s going in the right direction, I just don’t think it’s a big enough move,” Siebert said.
How does your brokerage make the most of referral partnerships? Comment below.
