Making one’s name in an already-established brokerage is far from easy, but that’s exactly what Top 100 Broker Stephanie Duncan is doing at Tiffen & Co.
When you think ‘mortgage broking powerhouse’, Canberra doesn’t usually come to mind. Yet Australia’s tiny capital doesn’t just punch above its weight in political terms – it’s long been the home of leading brokers and established brokerages.
Stephanie Duncan (nee Brennan), of Tiffen & Co, is one of those Top 100 brokers making a name in her own right, entering our Top 100 on the back of $70,814,642 worth of residential loans over the past financial year.
It all could have gone very differently, however. Working as a teller at ANZ in 2003, Duncan was looking for a change in direction, and financial planning was it. However, fate – or rather, romance – intervened. “I was dating a real estate agent at the time,” Duncan recalls. “He threw the option of becoming a mortgage broker at me. [The industry] was pretty unregulated at the time, back in 2003.”
Duncan might have had a long-term interest in finance – her father was an accountant – but no lending experience as a broker, no lending experience in banking and no Cert IV. After a rejection from the first brokerage she approached, Duncan needed someone to give her a shot, and the Mortgage Detective (which merged with Tiffen & Co in 2008) was it. “I said I was interested. They pretty much interviewed me on the spot, and I started the next week,” she says.
Today, industry entrants with Duncan’s experience would work in assistant roles, but Duncan joined Mortgage Detective as a fullyfledged broker, which even then was quite unusual. That also meant starting on full commission, and luckily Duncan’s real estate ex-boyfriend gave her an advantage. “I spent a lot of time at real estate agencies and that was how I worked it and got my referrals and got going.”
Thirteen years on, Duncan is still going, and has gone from a promising young broker to a leading figure in one of Australia’s most awarded independent brokerages. Duncan has prospered from targeting specific client groups, including marital separation cases.
When it comes to divorcees, Duncan believes she’s benefited from being the only female broker at Tiffen & Co. “I do have some really good relationships with family lawyers and have a lot of that business coming through. I think because I am a female I’m maybe more empathetic to people like that.”
Furthermore, as Duncan notes, it’s not just female clients looking for female brokers. “I would say I actually deal with more men going through the separation process than women to be honest.
Brokers as an industry are still overlooking what is a significant client group, Duncan believes. “I’ve really tapped into the family law stuff, because unfortunately it is needed more and more these days… I would always have multiple court cases going through my book regularly.”
Being a woman in the industry
Being a woman in an industry perceived to be male-dominated has had wider advantages in terms of networking, Duncan notes, but these are not unlimited. “There are a lot of women networking groups that I’ve been able to tap into, which I guess is a referral source that is not readily available to the guys here. But all in all, despite being a female in a male-dominated industry, I don’t really put myself forward to be anything different to the other guys in the industry.” Some clients simply prefer a female broker, Duncan argues.
Duncan’s approach to networking has changed as she’s become an established broker. “I’ve been in the industry for a long time now, so I’ve steered away from doing the organised referral groups around town, which is great for people starting out in the industry, but now I have my own connections I create my own referral groups.”
These groups are quite different from the pressurised, work-driven environment of organised networking, Duncan explains. As well as once-a-month coffees, they also organise events, such as cooking classes, for a similarly-minded group of people.
“We try to do something fun,” she says. “I tend to network with people that are of a similar age and experience to myself. I network with people I like and have a lot in common with and enjoy spending time with, rather than throwing myself into a big group of people I don’t know. We become better friends and I think that generates a better quality of referral.”
Driving Tiffen & Co’s overall strategy
Duncan is not simply a leading broker but is now involved in steering a leading brokerage. In 2012, she became a shareholder of Tiffen & Co. The move “made a massive difference… understanding the guts of how it all works and how all of us can work together to achieve a common goal in the business.”
Duncan is still a broker, but being involved in management has changed her approach. “It gives you a completely different viewpoint on what you’re doing from day to day and what you’re trying to achieve,” she says.
So, what is Tiffen & Co trying to achieve? According to Duncan, their main task is safeguarding a reputation for excellence while continuing to improve their processing. “We’re always striving to be one of the best in the industry. We are still independently owned, which we’re really proud of. We’ve generally got four of us in the Top 100. We’re in the Top 10 consistently.”
One recent change was hiring a specific staff member to deal with existing clients. “We saw a need for our clients to have someone specific looking after that, because there is a lot to be done, and we find our PAs can get a little bogged down in this rather than looking for new business,” Duncan says.
Moreover, finance and broking are not Duncan’s only passions. In 2008, she completed the Kokoda Track, the gruelling 96km trek through Papua New Guinea’s jungles made famous by Australian troops in World War II. “I tend to go on little tangents where I try and challenge myself with things,” says Duncan. “That was one I came up with for some friends and signed up that night.” It helped that Duncan is a huge CrossFit enthusiast, attending the regional competitions four years in a row.
Looking at the industry today, Duncan says it’s become harder to enter, and suggests that new brokers take a different route to her own. “Canberra’s one of those places that’s pretty cliquey, and if someone is starting out in the industry, it can be tough. If I was to come into the industry these days, I’d be hunting down the best broker in my area and wanting to come in as a PA. I’d be wanting to sink my teeth into it in terms of going to client appointments and getting in front of clients and getting that knowledge as fast as possible.”
Mr Fluffy
Despite the name, Canberra’s ‘Mr Fluffy’ asbestos scandal is anything but funny. It has, however, provided a great deal of work for Tiffen & Co’s brokers.
Two companies, colloquially named ‘Mr Fluffy’, pumped dangerous asbestos into thousands of homes in the ACT and beyond in the 1960s and ’70s. In 2014 it emerged that the number of affected houses could be larger than originally thought, prompting the government to buy back 1,022 properties from owners in order to demolish them.
This has put a corresponding number of buyers on the market, says Tiffen & Co managing director Gerard Tiffen. “From a terrible situation, the positive side is it has created a lot of work.”
Mentors and mentoring
Unlike many brokers, and particularly those in established brokerages, Duncan does not identify any single individual as a mentor, instead identifying with several. “I’ve always kept some sort of mentor in my life, with different aspects of my life, not just work,” she says. Many of these mentors are not brokers, Duncan adds. “Success isn’t just driven by your career, it’s the person themselves that are successful, and you can place them in any industry... It’s more the mental aspect and it’s not necessarily related to mortgage broking.”
Stephanie Duncan (nee Brennan), of Tiffen & Co, is one of those Top 100 brokers making a name in her own right, entering our Top 100 on the back of $70,814,642 worth of residential loans over the past financial year.
It all could have gone very differently, however. Working as a teller at ANZ in 2003, Duncan was looking for a change in direction, and financial planning was it. However, fate – or rather, romance – intervened. “I was dating a real estate agent at the time,” Duncan recalls. “He threw the option of becoming a mortgage broker at me. [The industry] was pretty unregulated at the time, back in 2003.”
Duncan might have had a long-term interest in finance – her father was an accountant – but no lending experience as a broker, no lending experience in banking and no Cert IV. After a rejection from the first brokerage she approached, Duncan needed someone to give her a shot, and the Mortgage Detective (which merged with Tiffen & Co in 2008) was it. “I said I was interested. They pretty much interviewed me on the spot, and I started the next week,” she says.
Today, industry entrants with Duncan’s experience would work in assistant roles, but Duncan joined Mortgage Detective as a fullyfledged broker, which even then was quite unusual. That also meant starting on full commission, and luckily Duncan’s real estate ex-boyfriend gave her an advantage. “I spent a lot of time at real estate agencies and that was how I worked it and got my referrals and got going.”
Thirteen years on, Duncan is still going, and has gone from a promising young broker to a leading figure in one of Australia’s most awarded independent brokerages. Duncan has prospered from targeting specific client groups, including marital separation cases.
When it comes to divorcees, Duncan believes she’s benefited from being the only female broker at Tiffen & Co. “I do have some really good relationships with family lawyers and have a lot of that business coming through. I think because I am a female I’m maybe more empathetic to people like that.”
Furthermore, as Duncan notes, it’s not just female clients looking for female brokers. “I would say I actually deal with more men going through the separation process than women to be honest.
Brokers as an industry are still overlooking what is a significant client group, Duncan believes. “I’ve really tapped into the family law stuff, because unfortunately it is needed more and more these days… I would always have multiple court cases going through my book regularly.”
Being a woman in the industry
Being a woman in an industry perceived to be male-dominated has had wider advantages in terms of networking, Duncan notes, but these are not unlimited. “There are a lot of women networking groups that I’ve been able to tap into, which I guess is a referral source that is not readily available to the guys here. But all in all, despite being a female in a male-dominated industry, I don’t really put myself forward to be anything different to the other guys in the industry.” Some clients simply prefer a female broker, Duncan argues.
Duncan’s approach to networking has changed as she’s become an established broker. “I’ve been in the industry for a long time now, so I’ve steered away from doing the organised referral groups around town, which is great for people starting out in the industry, but now I have my own connections I create my own referral groups.”
These groups are quite different from the pressurised, work-driven environment of organised networking, Duncan explains. As well as once-a-month coffees, they also organise events, such as cooking classes, for a similarly-minded group of people.
“We try to do something fun,” she says. “I tend to network with people that are of a similar age and experience to myself. I network with people I like and have a lot in common with and enjoy spending time with, rather than throwing myself into a big group of people I don’t know. We become better friends and I think that generates a better quality of referral.”
Driving Tiffen & Co’s overall strategy
Duncan is not simply a leading broker but is now involved in steering a leading brokerage. In 2012, she became a shareholder of Tiffen & Co. The move “made a massive difference… understanding the guts of how it all works and how all of us can work together to achieve a common goal in the business.”
Duncan is still a broker, but being involved in management has changed her approach. “It gives you a completely different viewpoint on what you’re doing from day to day and what you’re trying to achieve,” she says.
So, what is Tiffen & Co trying to achieve? According to Duncan, their main task is safeguarding a reputation for excellence while continuing to improve their processing. “We’re always striving to be one of the best in the industry. We are still independently owned, which we’re really proud of. We’ve generally got four of us in the Top 100. We’re in the Top 10 consistently.”
One recent change was hiring a specific staff member to deal with existing clients. “We saw a need for our clients to have someone specific looking after that, because there is a lot to be done, and we find our PAs can get a little bogged down in this rather than looking for new business,” Duncan says.
Moreover, finance and broking are not Duncan’s only passions. In 2008, she completed the Kokoda Track, the gruelling 96km trek through Papua New Guinea’s jungles made famous by Australian troops in World War II. “I tend to go on little tangents where I try and challenge myself with things,” says Duncan. “That was one I came up with for some friends and signed up that night.” It helped that Duncan is a huge CrossFit enthusiast, attending the regional competitions four years in a row.
Looking at the industry today, Duncan says it’s become harder to enter, and suggests that new brokers take a different route to her own. “Canberra’s one of those places that’s pretty cliquey, and if someone is starting out in the industry, it can be tough. If I was to come into the industry these days, I’d be hunting down the best broker in my area and wanting to come in as a PA. I’d be wanting to sink my teeth into it in terms of going to client appointments and getting in front of clients and getting that knowledge as fast as possible.”
Mr Fluffy
Despite the name, Canberra’s ‘Mr Fluffy’ asbestos scandal is anything but funny. It has, however, provided a great deal of work for Tiffen & Co’s brokers.
Two companies, colloquially named ‘Mr Fluffy’, pumped dangerous asbestos into thousands of homes in the ACT and beyond in the 1960s and ’70s. In 2014 it emerged that the number of affected houses could be larger than originally thought, prompting the government to buy back 1,022 properties from owners in order to demolish them.
This has put a corresponding number of buyers on the market, says Tiffen & Co managing director Gerard Tiffen. “From a terrible situation, the positive side is it has created a lot of work.”
Mentors and mentoring
Unlike many brokers, and particularly those in established brokerages, Duncan does not identify any single individual as a mentor, instead identifying with several. “I’ve always kept some sort of mentor in my life, with different aspects of my life, not just work,” she says. Many of these mentors are not brokers, Duncan adds. “Success isn’t just driven by your career, it’s the person themselves that are successful, and you can place them in any industry... It’s more the mental aspect and it’s not necessarily related to mortgage broking.”
