Shore Financial MD Alex Nochar explains why partnering with a real estate agency is good for business.
Shore Financial managing director Alex Nochar explains why partnering with real estate agency Richardson & Wrench holds some tremendous opportunities.
MPA: How long have you worked in mortgage broking for?
Alex Nochar: I’ve been in mortgage broking for four years. I was in car financing in the UK, then I came to Australia and did that for six years here. I was looking for a change of lifestyle and a different industry, and moved into mortgage broking.
MPA: Did you start up Shore Financial from scratch at this point?
AN: I worked as a broker for McGrath offices for the first three years. They had a good model where we got lots of leads. And then we were looking for something bigger and set up Shore Financial at the start of this year.
We [Nochar and Shore Financial director Theo Chambers] were both at Oxygen. We were in the top three writers and were looking for a bigger opportunity, having been there for two or three years. The Richardson & Wrench opportunity came along, and we jumped on it.
We’ve always been looking for an equity position in a company, and we’ve set up Shore as Richardson & Wrench’s partner. That started in January with the sole purpose of providing financial services to their whole network.
MPA: How big is their network?
AN: They’ve got in excess of 100 offices, so it’s a huge opportunity. They’re probably one of the last real estate agencies that doesn’t have anything in place. The plan is to service the whole network with a slow rollout, starting in Sydney and then progressing into Queensland. We’ve already got a guy based in Brisbane, and we’re recruiting now.
MPA: Has the partnership generated a lot of leads already?
AN: In the offices we’ve launched in we’re starting to get some really good feedback. We’ve already had leads start to come through. It’s all about building relationships and training people.
Agents tend to work with brokers on an ad hoc basis when they need someone to sort their finances out. We’re much more proactive. We believe that as an agent you should be properly qualifying your buyer and understanding what position they’re in from a finance perspective – and asking whether they’re ready to go and whether they’d like a second opinion. If you do that consistently with buyers, you can get a lot of enquiries.
MPA: How does the referral model work in terms of remuneration?
AN: The agent will receive a commission for referring, and so will the office. It is a numbers game and there’s an opportunity to create an awful lot of enquiries so that the brokerage can get a constant stream of leads.
MPA: Are you still generating leads via traditional methods?
AN: We’ve been in mortgage broking for three or four years. We both settled fairly substantial numbers during that time, and from that you get a natural carryover – clients refer clients. But we’ve got new brokers joining our team, and they’re doing well. We’re targeting younger brokers who tend to be a lot more hungry. And that’s what we’re after: people with a good attitude who can drive the business and work with the real estate agents.
MPA: How big is your team at the moment?
AN: We have a team of eight, and that includes a financial planner and commercial specialist. Obviously, to service 100 offices we will be looking for more brokers. And we are getting phone calls regularly from people looking to get involved.
Our core focus is residential property. We have a commercial specialist that just does commercial, and they’re two very different beasts. And the financial planning and risk insurance comes as a perfect add-on: you need to make sure that people have the appropriate levels of insurance. It’s our job to make the client aware and give them an introduction to someone who can review that process for them.
