Investor: Grant Matthews

GRANT MATTHEWS
Franchisee, Smartline 
Cheltenham, Vic

How do you go about bringing in investor clients?

I have a CRM model, so regular emails on interest rate movements, anything interesting in the market. The way I bring in investor clients is it’s nearly all word of mouth. And I think the key to it is the two most important calls you make: the call to the person who has been referred to introduce yourself and make an appointment, and also the call to the person who referred to thank them and follow up with a small gift – even if the lead doesn’t go through. That tends to generate business.

Are there any common issues you encounter with investors?

The biggest issue I encounter with investors is a bit of a fear. The biggest fear people have is vacancy, so we mitigate that – we try and set up a buffer like a small line of credit. With damage to property, we explain to them they have good landlord’s insurance and really it’s only going to cost an excess on an insurance premium. With interest rate movements we have a bulk email system where we alert our clients of interest rate movements in the fixed rate markets. We also send out what the RBA and futures expect with rates, and we also show them historical data on interest rates and where they have moved to.

How demanding are investor clients?

Far less demanding than first home buyers. They have more of a macro view than a micro view. So they are not as stressed about every little fee and every little issue with the loan.

Do investor clients require much education?

They definitely seek education in those areas, and we try and steer clear from all these companies that try to push their products and pay us a fee. We avoid all that. We try not to get involved in the recommendation of property because, for example, if it was shares, you wouldn’t recommend which shares to buy, but people always seem quite happy to recommend which properties to buy. I do recommend buyers’ advocates to people that have no experience.

What are the long-term benefits of taking on investor clients?

One of the main benefits is your loan volume. If you’ve got a larger percentage of investors on your loan book, your loan book average per client is going to be much, much higher. So for the same amount of work, in theory every client has a certain amount of need and the same amount of work. If you’ve got a higher percentage of investors, then you’ve got a higher return for your ongoing service level requirements.

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