You know what, being in business, sometimes you get so caught up trying to build your business that you forget that not everybody knows exactly what you do.
So this is that Blog –
Sure, I post and write a ton about the property investing side of wHeregroup, (probably because I think it is the most fun and certainly the most satisfying), but we are also a large mortgage brokering business. So much so, that we don’t even need to advertise this part of the business.
So let’s talk about that… (don’t worry there will be some property talk in here too, so don’t hit the close button just yet!)
The obvious question that we are often asked is, “what makes us different to any and every other mortgage broker or bank?” Well, fourteen years as a mortgage broker means we know what we are doing and the wHeregroup are not just a one man team like the vast majority of mortgage brokers are.
What benefit is that to you?
Well it means, firstly, we have capacity to write many more loans by having multiple staff running the mortgage side of the business. This means that whilst we are in appointments, your mortgages are still being looked after.
No longer can a loan be simply lodged with a lender and the lender takes care of getting it through to settlement. Since licensing and new regulations for mortgage brokering have come in, we are now responsible for so much more than simply lodging it online with the lender. Every deal takes many man-hours to process, so the single operator broker cannot possibly look after their clients whilst they are trying to sign up new loans.
Writing the volumes of loans that we write also means we are always up to date on many millions of different loan scenarios clients may require. Knowledge is power.
These same volumes mean that we are ranked as Top Tier Brokers with all of the major banks. The general public don’t realise that brokers have rankings with each lender based on the volumes they write with them. Even in our world, loyalty pays and the banks reward you, the client, for this loyalty. Being in the Top Tier means that we are given faster turnaround times for the banks to assess your loans and yes, at times, we can offer better interest rates than other brokers and even the banks themselves. (Just a point though, the loyalty doesn’t change what we earn from them. The difference in commissions is very little between all the banks now. Maybe a schooner difference!)
Have you ever noticed that over a few years, your once awesome interest rate becomes average, and you see there are better rates being offered on the TV? Well that’s where Maria comes in. Maria works as our post settlement mortgage officer. It’s her job to monitor and maintain your great rate. Most of you by now would have had a call from her to touch base to see how things are going with your lender. If applicable she can arrange for you to have a loan review to see what options are available to you.
Add to this, Maria is there to make sure that immediately after settlement your loan has been loaded with the banks correctly. You would be surprised how many errors we find and rectify straight after settlement! She confirms the discounts we have negotiated for you have been applied, if applicable, offset accounts have been linked, and that everything is as it should be when discussed with you and Rebecca.
Does the average broker or bank teller do that?
Quite often when new property investors want to invest with us, we are asked if they can use their own mortgage broker. In some instances, this is allowed but only with mortgage brokers who refer lots of clients to us, as they know our processes. They are on our approved broker list, as we know they are also good operators, who can get a deal done. They also know we are good at what we do in relation to property investing, so we work as a team to help out our mutual clients to create wealth through property investing.
Sure we want the deal, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.
But the reasons we insist on writing the mortgage is because much more importantly, we mainly buy properties from vendors who are either in financial distress or have huge motivation to sell. Real estate agents offer us houses not on the market, or before they list them to the general public. This accounts for around one third of the houses we buy. They also tell us about price corrections on houses along with information about the high motivation of vendors. I am sure some of this info was not meant for our ears, but we are not breaking any laws. We simply act on this information. So for this reason, we must ensure that the finance is approved 100% of the time. We cannot afford to have one deal fall over due to finance, as this is detrimental to our relationships…
Years ago, we did allow clients to use their own brokers and we had some deals fall over, as the broker had not submitted the deal correctly and the lender declined the deal. Or, they submitted the pre-approval with a lender who did not do a full assessment of the loan before pre approving. Many people walk into a branch and are told, ‘yes, they are pre-approved’, yet they have not supplied the bank with one single document nor signed an application form. BOTH OF THE ABOVE EXAMPLES ARE NOT TRUE PRE APPROVALS.
When this happens and a deal falls over, the real estate agent loses faith in our ability to get a loan approved. As a result they then don’t offer us the houses off the market, nor do they tell us the crucial information we need to buy undervalued houses. One agent can be worth 20+ houses to us. Hence, you can see our reluctance to allow external loans, as we are very protective of our relationship with our real estate agents.
So, now you have your loan and everything is running fine, our service doesn’t stop there. wHeregroup is always monitoring interest rates and reviewing fixed rates across the board. No point having cheap interest rates if we don’t lock them in!
Loan reviews are done on your behalf even though you may not know. If we can see value in letting you know about another lender who is offering an awesome interest rate, then we will be on the phone to you straight away. Why give the banks more of your money? Better in your pocket I say!
We have many happy repeat clients who return to use our finance services when buying a new home, or to re-finance their existing lending. For those clients who have a portfolio and then come into a complex situation in their investing strategy, well that’s where Bec and I step in and work out the numbers plus a bit of a plan.
Hopefully this outlines what we offer on the mortgage side of the business. Feel free to touch base for a chat when you’re looking to buy a property, even if we are not buying the house for you…