Rising Star sets up his own brokerage
A passion for serving customers and helping them to achieve their goals has motivated award-winning broker Nicholas Hakim to set up his own mortgage brokerage.
Hakim (pictured above), is one of the 35 brokers in Australia aged under 35 to be named in MPA’s Rising Stars in 2023. He was also an excellence awardee in the 2023 Australian Mortgage Awards Young Gun of the Year.
He was working for Smartmove Professional Mortgage Advisors at the time he received these accolades.
Hakim started mortgage broking career at Smartmove in 2020, and he has now branched out on his own as the founder and principal broker of Sydney-based Skyline Brokers, which he set up in March 2024.
MPA spoke to Hakim about his career journey and why he decided to set up his own business.
Hakim’s career in financial services began at CommBank in 2013. He spent seven years at Australia’s biggest bank working as a senior sanction analyst, financial hardship specialist, collections officer and home loan consultant.
He said this was a crucial part of his career where he built up his customer experience and service skills. “That’s the number one aspect of being a broker in my opinion,” Hakim said.
“I’ve always aspired to get into lending but it took me a bit longer than anticipated because of the Royal Commission at the time – that’s when I was deciding to get into the market – around 2017/2018, so it got pushed back to 2020.”
Becoming a broker in a busy market
Hakim joined Smartmove in September 2020, spending six months in the brokerage’s academy learning the foundations of being a broker, including dealing with banks and lending policies.
After being allocated to a team leader in March 2021, Hakim started writing loans but said his writing really took off in the financial year beginning in July.
To be eligible for Rising Stars, nominees had to have written more than $15 million in loans from October 1, 2021, to September 30, 2022. Hakim notched up an impressive $42m in loans.
He was fortunate to have joined the broking world in a hot property market during COVID, when interest rates were at record lows.
Hakim said there were also other reasons why he achieved writing $42m in his first year.
“I was putting my hand up for everything that came across my desk. We had a WhatsApp chat they would send leads through and I was like a robot.
“But I also had a very strong referral partner in my accountant, who was referring a lot of clients to me at the time … I would say my tenacity and my eagerness to grow were the main focus for me.”
Hakim said he wasn’t focused on winning Rising Stars.
“I was just doing what I wanted to do, what I love to do and that was to write as much as possible. I enjoy the process.”
Hakim said he even tackled lending scenarios he was unfamiliar with or didn’t have experience in.
“I personally believe that’s the best way to learn a specific scenario – for example if they said in the WhatsApp chat we have a client that’s looking to purchase, they don’t have a deposit but they have a guarantor.
“If I didn’t have experience with a guarantor I’d still put my hand up because going through the process itself is the best way for me to learn about that policy or that aspect of the finance world.”
While being a Rising Stars winner gave Hakim the confidence to keep going, he said it was not the end goal. “There’s a lot of brokers out there that don’t get recognised and are quite successful.”
Lessons learnt
Asked what he had picked up from his time at Smartmove, Hakim said he learned that it was important to build rapport with clients and understand their objectives.
“Work based off what they’re looking to do as opposed to what’s in your interest.”
The second most important thing was building relationships with BDMs and stakeholders.
Hakim said having excellent relationships with clients, BDMs, stakeholders and employees was crucial to achieving success.
Setting up Skyline Brokers
Hakim, whose aggregator is LMG, set up Skyline Brokers in March this year and described the business as a boutique financing and mortgage brokerage firm.
“We’re focused on achieving clients’ financing and property goals and making sure they’re number one – putting them on that pedestal and making sure their needs are met before anything else.”
While going out on his own had always been a goal, running his own brokerage had come earlier in Hakim's career than he expected.
“I genuinely don’t look back – it’s the best decision I’ve ever made,” Hakim said.
“This is a growth opportunity – I had a great foundation in my previous role, learning about what being a broker is. I have grown enough and learnt enough to branch out and grow my own personal brand and business.”
Skyline Brokers was focused on building relationships and achieving customer satisfaction.
Currently, Hakim is a solo operator but he said he wasn’t fazed by doing everything himself.
He expected the business to grow slowly but he said he knew it would build towards success. Hakim said it was important to be prepared and have financial backing before setting up a brokerage.
“If you have the mentality and expectation that you’re going to get out there and smash it and start making money straight away, you’re probably going to fail.”
The fact that he wasn’t married and didn’t have kids also meant the timing was right to run a business.
Hakim said as the business grew he would hire support staff to help out with admin while he focused on generating business.
Skyline’s main lending segment is residential, mostly first time buyers and mums and dads, including refinancers and the self-employed, although Hakim is also accredited for commercial and asset finance too.
“SMSF lending is becoming very popular in the market, so I am educating myself about SMSF lending – there’s a lot of opportunities there,” he said.
