Our In-House Mortgage and Finance Broker
The relationship between an agent and mortgage broker is fast becoming the critical link that sets successful Agency teams apart from their competition. Adding a trusted in-house mortgage and finance broker to our Ray White Holland Park Agency hasn’t only provided a supplementary source of qualified leads, but also improved the value and quality of our agents service offerings.
My goal as the Principal of Ray White Holland Park is to provide our agents with the tools and information they need to succeed. To help achieve this, we’ve built a team of professionals around our agents who are dedicated to providing support throughout the buying and selling process.
Their role has a dual focus on both the client side of the business, together with our ongoing in-house professional development program. However his role begins as a source of free advice for our agents.
Free Advice
By offering free advice on home loans, personal loans and business finance to our agents and their clients, the value which these agents can then provide our vendors and buyers significantly improves. Our agents also have access to a dedicated team who do all of the legwork involved with each loan application through to approval, again improving their service offering. This allows them to differentiate themselves from the competition, by adding another level of service to their business and improving their knowledge of the Real Estate industry.
More importantly, having access to a broker for advice saves our agents time, increases their knowledge of the industry, and enables them to have more control over the sales process. If a broker is involved in a transaction, agents can also have a higher degree of confidence in the deal being successful.
Attract New Listings
More than 50% of home loans in Australia are now sourced through brokers. To us, this says that customers want choice, and someone in their corner to negotiate and bring them the best available options for their loan. Brokers are also paid a trail income for each loan by the banks, to look after the client for the life of the loan. This means they are in contact with their clients regularly, and are best placed to generate return business when the client decides to sell or buy a property in the future. As more Australians choose to source finance through a broker, this source of new listings will continue to be a central part of our agent’s business models.
Premium Buyers
By working closely with our agents, our team are able to improve the quality of the buyers we provide to vendors – and hence allow agents to sell properties at a premium. From a vendor’s perspective this improves the sense of quality around the agent, as they can deal with pre approved buyers that have an understanding of their financial situation and limitations. Attracting these buyers through our in-house mortgage and finance broker is crucial to selling properties at a premium.
Professional Development
Adding a new layer to the internal professional development for agents is, in my opinion, the most important role which our in-house mortgage and finance broker plays. A key cost for agents to develop a sufficient level of understanding of the issues surrounding property finance is time. That’s why we make sure our agent’s have the knowledge to talk to customers and engage with them on a intellectually sound level, through our ongoing training programs.