SPEAKER_01: 0:10

Now, if you listen to the previous episode on how do we get paid, you might be wondering, well, if all the mortgage advisors relatively get paid the same, commissioned by the bank, what would make a certain advisor better or worse than the other advisor? What makes a mortgage advisor good? So I've got James in the house. Hello, James.

SPEAKER_02: 0:29

Hello.

SPEAKER_01: 0:30

What will make a mortgage advisor a good advisor?

SPEAKER_02: 0:35

Well, I think we need to be getting back to people and keeping in communication and letting them know what the hell's going on. Like, for example, if somebody gets in touch with one of us, you know, we're not gonna sit on that email for two or three days. We're gonna get back to them straight away and say, look, this is what we're gonna do. We'll we'll we'll be setting up an appointment as as quick as we can. So I mean, I think we've run a bit of business because people get they don't want to sit back and wait, right? If somebody's contacted you for a service and they don't get anything back, then I I think you're re relating this to the phone call I just had, aren't you?

SPEAKER_01: 1:14

Yeah, so we just had a really interesting one in the car as we were driving in. A client rang to say, I was catching up with a friend for coffee, and I was mentioning to my friend that I'm looking to buy an investment property, and my friend kept saying that I need to contact you because I just contacted another mortgage advisor a week ago. I still haven't even set up a time with that mortgage advisor. Versus with me on the phone, we set up a time, I'm gonna see them, we're gonna sort it out. And the appointment was even after hours while the kids are in bed and stuff for them. So I think this is an absolute key in our industry, is communication is the key. And if we are not responding as fast as we can, then we shouldn't really be in this industry. That's my firm belief.

SPEAKER_02: 1:55

I do remember the one of the things that you said to us very early on, which is every well, somebody said it to us, I'm pretty sure it was every two or three days if you're working with a client, you need to be in contact, updating, you know, and so that's I mean, I very much do that, and you do feel a bit guilty if you've got nothing new to report. Because we do have to wait a little bit if once your application is with lenders. So sometimes you're just going back to them with no news. We're waiting. Yeah. That was me. And a follow-up, yeah. You're trained well. That was like something you would say.

SPEAKER_01: 2:23

You're trained well, James. But it is correct. Like often I would say to clients, even if I don't have news, I'll be saying, Hey guys, just popping in to say hello, and that I have no news for you. But at least I'm here for you, and they know that they're not forgotten. Because for us, it could be a a client out of 50, right? But for them, we are the only advisor they're working with. So we are constantly on the top of their mind. And we want to make sure they know that they're also on top of our minds. And by keeping in touch with them every couple of days after the application has been submitted, allows us to stay in that space with them that they know they are important and they do matter.

SPEAKER_02: 3:00

Yeah, and because it's a stressful process, right? If you think even when we buy houses ourselves, yeah, it's still, even though we're in that industry and we're advising other people, you know, you do forget what a stressful process it is buying your first home.

SPEAKER_01: 3:12

Awesome. So, communication. What else would make mortgage advisor good or what would make a mortgage advisor bad?

SPEAKER_02: 3:20

Well, I would say, well, I'm trying not to think of anything bad that I've done.

SPEAKER_01: 3:25

Let's think about other people.

SPEAKER_02: 3:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:27

Well, recently um we had one where, for instance, a mortgage advisor, again, a client came to us after leaving the other advisor. And what the other advisor did, nothing really too bad necessarily, but what that advisor did is they only applied for one lender because they thought at that time that was the best option for a client. The client unfortunately left that mortgage advisor, came to us. We applied to several banks and we had several different outcomes.

SPEAKER_00: 3:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 3:53

And we managed to score the best terms for them and the best rates for them by going through that exercise. So I would suggest that sometimes we do have to apply to different places, although we don't want to, because upfront we should know all the policies and we should know all the cashbacks and rates. But often you cannot predict which bank has appetite for new clients, which bank doesn't have appetite for new clients.

SPEAKER_02: 4:18

Yeah, and it's changing all the time, right? I mean, that's just a natural part of our process now. Every time we submit an application, it's three or four lenders that it's going to. Once you've done it for one, it's not that much harder to do it to the others. And I think that's the main the main pro about going with somebody like us, because we're going to give you lots of options and you get to choose the best deal. And I'm dealing with somebody right now, and they they've got two options on the table. One that they went direct with with Kiwi Bank, and then another that we're working with them. Our offer's probably gonna be better, but you know, it's gonna be up to the client to decide which one they want to go with.

SPEAKER_01: 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:56

But you know, it's all about giving the client options, what's the best deal for them? It's not necessarily about interest rate, it could be it could be getting 25-year loan term instead of a 30-year loan term. That that's that's helped us a little bit recently. Yeah. A couple older clients.

SPEAKER_01: 5:10

Exactly. So what else, as a parting thought, what else could identify a mortgage, a good mortgage advisor versus not so.

SPEAKER_02: 5:18

Well, I don't really like doing the background stuff. Like you're looking at a scenario of the of the applicant or the clients, and you're actually making an effort to see what's what's what are the options for them rather than just assuming that this is this is what the best option is. So you're getting to know them quite well uh throughout the process, so that actually by the time you get to the point of doing the loan structure, you pretty much already know you know what what's gonna work for them. You still go through that process, yeah, but just taking the time with every single client is quite informative.

SPEAKER_00: 5:55

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02: 5:56

So that would be another thing. And being factual, actually, know what you being really careful about how you know I know we're saying that you've got to be in communication every couple of days, but what you're saying is really important. It's very easy for information to get misconstrued. Yeah, you know, you've got to really reread your emails and how your your messaging is.

SPEAKER_01: 6:17

So, how would someone know, let's say they're a first-time buyer, they've never used a mortgage advisor. How would they know the difference between Bob and Sam?

SPEAKER_02: 6:26

That's a very good question.

SPEAKER_01: 6:28

Gosh. What would be the first sort of feel to go? Oh, I'll go with Bob. I'll go with Sam.

SPEAKER_02: 6:33

What about James?

SPEAKER_01: 6:34

I'm keeping it like us out of the you know, otherwise I'll be very I'm just stalling for time. You know, in my mind, it would be Google searches, yeah, is quite good.

SPEAKER_02: 6:45

So you would probably want to be too old for Google searches.

SPEAKER_01: 6:49

You would probably want to do a Google search. That would be my first review. Google. Yeah, Google reviews. A lot of clients I have coming through at the moment are from the Kiwi First Time Buyers page or you know, one of those Facebook pages where people ask for recommendations on hey, can you tell me who is a more good mortgage advisor? And then you'll get like 120 different comments. Where it's uh sometimes I feel like it's a bit of um popularity contest. But yeah, I would say Google search because if the company is well established, like for instance, you know, my company has been around over seven years, so I've got Google footprint out there, and people should be able to see the reviews read for themselves from other real people. The other thing I would say probably again is word of mouth, really. Ask ask your friends, ask who had a good experience or bad experience.

SPEAKER_02: 7:38

Yep. Well, you've got to be able to back up your brand, right? So you might be out there, you might be have a really good everybody knows you, but uh you've also got to have that effectiveness that you've done a really good job. So it's got to be pro positive brand awareness. And I I think you've got that. I like I walk around, I walk around town with you and everybody knows who you are. Nobody's running ducking for cover or anything.

SPEAKER_00: 8:03

That's a wrong town. Let's go back home and then you'll see it completely different.

SPEAKER_02: 8:08

Well, it's a bit like it's a bit like when I'm walking around with my with my brother around Palmerston, you know, he's really well known. Yeah, and everybody's saying good day, Andrew, and all that kind of stuff. And it's like, wow. I mean, nobody knows me when I'm walking around town.

SPEAKER_01: 8:23

Just it's all about time. Soon they will. Yeah, sooner will, especially with their hair, James.

SPEAKER_02: 8:27

Well, I'm working on it. I'm working on it. I'm getting a lot of good compliments lately about my hair.

SPEAKER_01: 8:32

So and that's another thing as well. What uh how can you tell the difference between a good mortgage advisor and a bad is sometimes appearances, you know. If we are looking after ourselves, if we are uh presentable, you probably want to deal with someone that's presentable. I'm not talking about flesh cars, I'm not talking about expensive jewelry, I'm talking about your own personal appearances. Yeah, because you you do want to deal with people. You do judge.

SPEAKER_00: 8:55

I love the out loud.

SPEAKER_01: 8:57

Yes, you do. But but we are as humans, we do tend to take first impressions, and that's what I often hear as well is that the first impressions do matter. How do you come across to get the right balance? So, like not to be pretentious, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 9:12

Like you could all dress up in the flash suit with the tie on and things like that, but is that really gonna get the right mess message across to the people that are buying the first home? They want to be able to relate to you, and I think from what I can understand from first home buyers, they don't like people rocking up to their house looking like that and being pretentious and like the big I am, right? Exactly. And the so that's why it's great for me. You know, I just drive around my Hyundai. We get the message.

SPEAKER_01: 9:42

We get the message. Awesome, James. Thank you so much. It was awesome to have you to share your thoughts on this one. And for those that are listening, if you've got any topics for us that you'd like to cover, please let us know by messaging us, leaving us a comment, and sharing the love of spreading this podcast because we already have thousands of downloads and we would not be able to be here without you listening to us. So thank you very much, and until next time.