Mortgage brokers play an important role in ensuring borrowers get the right loan for their financial situation. The average borrower has more choice than ever in the Australian lending landscape and while they may be spoilt for choice, many are overwhelmed by the options available.
This is where your expertise comes in, allowing you to provide tailored advice for your customers. Here’s five ways you can maximise your value proposition as a mortgage broker.
1. Borrowing capacity
As a broker, one of your primary responsibilities is ensuring customers aren’t borrowing beyond their means. By conducting a comprehensive assessment of their income, expenses, assets, and liabilities, you can accurately determine their borrowing power.
Graham Wolfe, Head of Industry Intelligence at the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia (MFAA), agrees that keeping borrowers on the right financial track for their ability, needs and goals is vital.
“A top mortgage broker will take a good hard look at your income, assets, and existing debts to make sure you don’t overstretch your finances. It’s our job to get you into a home loan that fits your budget, not put you under mortgage stress.”
By spending time discussing your customers’ needs you can ensure greater financial stability and a positive, ongoing working relationship.
2. Finding the right lender
Your customers rely on you to help find the best solution for them. With 4,000 different residential home loan products available in Australia across over 100 lenders, according to Canstar, navigating the market can be confusing for borrowers.
This is where your expertise as a broker becomes invaluable. Your in-depth knowledge of lenders’ policies, interest rates, fees, and the nuances of various product features enables you to guide borrowers and find the most suitable product. Your expertise in analysing each borrower’s circumstances, such as their employment status, credit history, and long-term plans, allows you to create a shortlist of competitive loans that match their specific requirements.
3. Ensuring lending compliance
There are more than 700 pieces of legislation and regulations that govern the Australian lending landscape, according to the Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia’s 2022 Report.
Borrowers rely on you to decipher these pieces of legislation to ensure that every aspect of their loan is above board and correctly prepared. By guiding your customers through the loan application process in a transparent fashion you are increasing the chances of their loan applications being approved in a timely fashion. By staying abreast of changes in lending policies and legislation, you can provide valuable guidance throughout the entire process.
4. Using technology to your advantage
Good brokers stay abreast of changes in the industry, including technological advances that can optimise their time. New tools are constantly being developed and refined to save brokers time on everything from day-to-day admin tasks to sending alerts when a customer is at risk of leaving.
Hound offers a variety of analytics that help you stay on top of things in an efficient way, including access to your client’s current loan product and interest rate details. One of the best time-savers is access to Open Banking which provides live access to your client’s data – no more waiting on hold with the lender to get this information.
5. Providing ongoing support and advice
We don’t need to tell you that there is more to being a broker than just securing the best loan for your customers. As a trusted advisor, you can provide ongoing support and guidance to borrowers as their circumstances evolve. Whether it’s refinancing, debt consolidation strategies or investment property acquisitions, your expertise can help navigate complex financial decisions.
Research from the Agile Market Intelligence Broker Report 2022 found that around 60% of borrowers use the same mortgage broker for subsequent loans, with many maintaining relationships spanning over 10 years.
Nurturing relationships from the beginning is the best way of ensuring an ongoing, successful relationship. Hound’s platform helps you maintain customer retention through a variety of triggers that alert you to loans at highest risk of leaving.
By assessing borrowing capacity, finding the right lender, ensuring compliance, leveraging technology, and providing ongoing support, brokers can deliver immense value to their clients.
Speak to us about how Hound can help you help your clients.
