Last year, house prices reached new highs, largely due to the stamp duty holiday which was designed to keep the market going during COVID, and transaction volumes exceeded all records, said Clare Beardmore.
Advice firms should join forces to boost business pipelines, according to Clare Beardmore, head of broker and propositions at Legal & General Mortgage Club.
Last year, house prices reached new highs, largely due to the stamp duty holiday which was designed to keep the market going during COVID, and transaction volumes exceeded all records, said Beardmore.
In addition to this, according to figures from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association’s (IMLA) Mortgage Market Tracker, advisers processed a record number of cases in H1, and felt more confident about the market’s outlook than at any point since 2018.
She said: “This is all, of course, excellent news and a fantastic achievement given the difficulties we have all faced since the start of the pandemic.
“So much work has gone into generating these headlines, with many advisers having worked round-the-clock, month after month, to get the best possible results for their clients.”
However, she went on to explain that things are starting to shift.
Though she expects the purchase market to remain very buoyant this year, Beardmore said it is unlikely to hit the astronomical highs seen throughout 2021, meaning advisers should face a steadier stream of work.
“This is positive, and we need a community of brokers that feel rested and ready to tackle the challenges facing the market in 2022,” Beardmore added.
However, while adviser activity last year was primarily reactive, in response to changing lender criteria, customer needs, and ways of working, Beardmore believes there is now an opportunity to be more forward-thinking.
She explained that this means finding ways to pair clients with the best mortgage for their needs in the most efficient way possible.
Beardmore said: “Great product sourcing functionality is certainly key in this respect, but technology can help in other ways too.
“A strong CRM system is key to nurturing your relationship with clients in a time-efficient way that benefits both parties.”
Furthermore, Beardmore pointed towards conversations and referrals, which can be managed at any hour if need be, being suited to the increasingly flexible way that the world conducts business.
Beardmore explained that, for a long time, some have seen referring business as a faux pas and a sign that a brokerage could not tackle a given case.
In a busy, complicated, and ever-growing market, Beardmore said referring business due to capacity overload or a specialist enquiry should not be viewed as a lost opportunity, but as a chance to forge meaningful relationships with other advisers that may be able to better help clients.
At the end of the day, Beardmore believes that providing a greater quality of customer service, by referring business where necessary, creates a better business reputation for the wider mortgage market.
In doing this, she said, relationships are not only strengthened with clients but also with other intermediaries, opening the door to reciprocated referrals and boosted business pipelines.
“Fortunately, through initiatives like our SmartrRefer network, advisers can quickly and easily refer client cases to a network of approved specialists, supporting more niche applicants with ease,” Beardmore added.
Overall, whether an adviser needs support with finding a specialist in the bridging, equity release, buy-to-let, conveyancing, high-net-worth or even self-build sector, Beardmore said sourcing a specialist provider does not need to be any more complicated than sourcing a mainstream mortgage product.
In the world of mortgage advice, the value in embracing a referral culture is two-fold, according to Beardmore.
She said: “By connecting customers with specialist or alternative advice where necessary, customers are receiving the best possible outcome, which then translates into a better business reputation among clients.
“Secondly, relationships are forged between businesses, leading to a culture of referrals which benefits the entire market.”
Beardmore outlined that everyone has had to get to grips with integrating more technology into their lives over the past 18 months and, pandemic or not, she believes technology will remain key to supporting adviser workflows.
The rise in the use of technology has been seen across the vast majority of businesses within the UK since the start of the pandemic.
“Using the latest tech tools to refer business not only offers a seamless and efficient solution to a once laboursome task, but also opens the door to subsequent referrals that boost business pipelines,” concluded Beardmore.
