You may not realise it, but mortgage brokers are in demand. While persuading home movers of the need for your services may be as difficult as ever, new ‘clients’ willing to pay for your time have appeared. The providers and lenders have long since realised that brokers are ideally placed to become business development managers (BDMs) to promote their products to advisers. But they are not the only ones. With the importance of technology ever increasing, specialist software companies, who also see financial advisory businesses as their main market, have discovered the benefits of employing professionals who are both qualified and experienced in this marketplace.
A complex business
Mortgage broking is a more complex business than ever before, with increased regulation adding to that complexity. The size of the average file can now run into hundreds of pages and if you rebroke a case every two years the size of the file will keep increasing. Without technology you can’t successfully cope with these issues. You can’t offer your clients the best and most appropriate product from the thousands on the market, unless you fully embrace technology. In short, you can’t be a successful mortgage broker without technology. Technology has become an integral part of every successful business – in every industry. For example, more and more lenders are looking at electronic document transfer to allow them to progress cases and one packager/lender now offers case submission to completion based on electronically submitted documents – no hard copies.
Understanding brokers’ needs
With such constant change the importance of technology can only continue to increase. For firms to provide effective solutions to brokers and for lenders to provide competitive mortgages, they have to understand your changing needs. And the people best placed to understand those needs are, of course, mortgage brokers themselves.
So, why do mortgage intermediaries leave behind the profession they’ve been part of – possibly for many years – to join a lender, a software company or one of the other companies that provide essential services to the industry?
One of the attractions is that, of course, they aren’t actually leaving the industry. They are still part of the industry they begrudgingly love, and they can make good use of the skills and knowledge that they have acquired. Many aren’t sorry to leave behind the unique stresses of being a mortgage intermediary – although every job has its own challenges.
For some intermediaries, jumping ship and working for a software company, lender or provider is part of their exit strategy or a planned career change. It’s also true to say that as the market is consolidating and getting harder to make a living in, some people just want out. Reduced commissions and procuration fees along with longer working hours for less money have also added a degree of disillusionment to the role of the broker.
Selling comes naturally
The typical role ex-mortgage intermediaries tend to find themselves doing ‘on the outside’ is business development. Meeting and selling products and services to people comes naturally to them, although the key difference is that they are working with businesses instead of consumers – for many that is another attraction.
However, working for providers, lenders or software companies isn’t for everyone. It’s very much a team affair with many different people often involved in the same project – another difference from life as a mortgage intermediary.
Credibility
The major benefit to the new employer from employing a former mortgage broker is not only knowledge and expertise in the market – it’s also credibility.
If you believe that technology is the key to a mortgage intermediary’s future success, your future may lie with a provider or software company that holds the same beliefs.
