Welcome to brokermentor.com.au
Broker Mentor was created by the Directors of Vision Mortgage Solutions to build an online resource to help our team to build and run their businesses. Our business is about providing support, including back office administration, lead generation, credit representation and finally mentoring and coaching brokers to help them to achieve their career and financial goals. We recognised some time ago that while there are many resources available to teach brokers the technical aspects of submitting loans, the missing element in the industry is the guidance of professional coaching to help people to start and to grow their business. Now that the MFAA requires new brokers to enlist in a mentoring program for their first two years in the industry, this service has become even more important to our members.
We have been mentoring brokers since 2003 and over this time we have worked with many brokers to help them to build successful businesses.
Over the years we have helped many brokers to build successful businesses, and Broker Mentor was created to help us with mentoring both new and existing members of our team. Whether you are a full member or an associate members still studying your Cert IV, this website is designed to help you to connect with other brokers and to provide the information you need to help you to grow your business.
To register, click on the Login button and follow the instructions to register.
Once you have logged in as a registered user, the Facebook forum link will appear in the main menu. You will also then gain access to our document library.
We encourage you to post messages in the appropriate areas of the forum as the site is about gathering the experience and thoughts of the entire network, but please be aware that the Forum is moderated and offensive of counter-productive posts will be removed.
To find out more about us or our mentoring programs, please call 1300 797 144 or email info@visionms.com.au
In the meantime, we hope you enjoy our site.
Regards
Michael Calam
Managing Director
Vision Mortgage Solutions
|
The Third Week of the Month |
|
Written by Michael Calam
|
|
Friday, 20 March 2009 08:09 |
|
Sometimes the best laid plans of mice and men go astray. It's the Friday of the third week of the month and here I am, blogging for the first time this week. It has been quite a hectic week. Avid followers of my tale will recall that the third week of the month is supposed to be the week where I finish off my appointments and continue any follow-ups from the last 2 weeks. Well, there have been 3 factors at work for me this week which made this week absolutely flat out. The first is a great thing, I was referred on to new customers and so have had many more appointments than I had originally anticipated for the month. That's always a nice thing so I'm not complaining at all. The second isn't so great. There is a rush on at the moment. First home buyers and investors looking to take advantage of low interest rates and the governments generous FHOG package have tripled and quadrupled the volumes of business for many lenders. I'll take a special mention here of RAMs and St George as the only 100% lenders, as well as CBA and Westpac who've also been very busy. How does this impact me? Well many of my clients have been chasing an answer to their applications as well as Real Estate Agents and Solicitors wanting to know the status of applications as finance due dates approached. In many cases I've had to extend the finance dates on contracts as there is simply no way that these deals will be assessed in time. Obviously this makes many people, buyers, vendors and the other professionals who service them - very, very nervous. Our job is to keep everyone informed and so at the moment I'm doing a lot of informing and co-ordinating. Important note to all, please make sure that in the current market you set expectations appropriately from the outset. Advise the client and the Real Estate agent early on that things are VERY slow and then keep them and their solicitor informed along the process. The third factor for me this week has been that our Aggregator has just changed their software for the payment of commissions. While this doesn't sound like a big deal, both Amanda and I have had to be trained in the software and then reconcile every single row of data in our loan book. It's all working fine, but there was a lot of extra homework for both of us that we hadn't anticipated. But, this job, once done - stays done so we've embraced the change, put our heads down and got on with the job. It has certainly been a busy time though. I hope that everyone out there is busy because there is a lot of work out there for brokers in the current market. |
|
|
Written by Michael Calam
|
|
Friday, 13 March 2009 07:12 |
|
While there are many ways to grow your business, networking stands out as one of the most effective methods for small businesses. Last night I was given a lesson in networking. I had been contacted by a guy who wanted to know if I could spare some time to talk with him about how he could build his network and grow his new venture. He'd been given my name by someone who knew that I was quite entrepeneurial and this served as the introduction. I was quite happy to meet this guy, simply because networking is a two way street. But, I was ambushed, he wanted to invite me to join Amway. Now I personally don't have any issues with Amway, many years ago I had a look at their business model and I liked many aspects of it, but it is just not for me. Quite simply I could never justify the prices of the items from their catalogue to myself and this then made it impossible for me to then onsell them. You have to believe in your product or service. But, to the credit of Amway, this business has been around since 1960 and literally has millions of members world-wide. Whether you hate it or love it, you have to acknowledge the success of a business that has survived for so long. And the whole business revolves around networking. It's about building effective networks and encouraging and inspiring others to do the same. Amway has a formula for this approach and they have simply formalised their process. There is a lot that we as brokers can learn from any network marketing businesses. All of these businesses have sales programs and courses on how to close deals and to build your networks. While your business is definitely not a network marketing business, it is a business that will thrive if you can build the right network around it. So, my suggestion is to take notes and learn from these businesses. Throw out the aspects which don't work for you but focus on the elements which you can utilise in your business. My meeting was certainly not all negative. I politely declined the offer to join Amway and provided each of the two guys who had met with me with my business card and an invitation for me to take some time out with them to review their finances and help them to buy their first home. Let's face it, if they're going to be building wealth through their network marketing, I can certainly help them to achieve their dream homes with the right finance. |
|
Written by Michael Calam
|
|
Tuesday, 10 March 2009 07:34 |
|
It's funny how Google and other search engines have changed certain aspects of our lives. My yellow pages are now used as a prop for my desktop monitor. The two volumes add just enough height to the monitor to bring it eye level, the recommended position according to workplace health and safety. I've been researching some of the opportunities for brokers to advertise for free and there are plenty out there, particularly in the search engine space. Try typing in "Free business directory" into Google (clicking Australian Search only of course) and you will literally see dozens of websites which act as business search engines. You advertise your business for free on these locations and suddenly you are visible to both people searching through that particular site and through the Google search engine. What are you waiting for? Start advertising your business today. |
|
|
Written by Michael Calam
|
|
Thursday, 12 March 2009 06:50 |
|
I learned a valuable lesson yesterday. I make a practice of contacting and introducing myself to the other professionals involved in each new home loan purchase. The real estate agent and the solicitor are my primary contacts. With every new purchase I make a point of calling each of these parties, introducing myself and advise them of the expected timeframes for finance and the lender details. I do this simply because it makes everyone's job a lot easier if we are all working together. It also makes it much easier to extend finance dates or settlement dates if I've already established a rappoire with these professionals. Remember that Real Estate agents will quite frequently try to push these dates forward as they don't get paid until the deal settles so they want this to happen as quickly as possible. If you leave it to your client to liaise with all of these parties then there is always the possibility that your clients may be talked into unfavourable terms. So what happened yesterday? A Real Estate agent that I dealt with a month ago for one particular client had remarked a few times to me that he was really surprised to have the broker keep him updated along the way. I was happy with the feedback but thought no more of it, I mean this client was on the Northside and likewise so was the Real Estate agent so I didn't anticipate any further contact after the deal settled. That Real Estate agent contacted me yesterday and asked if I would mind having a look at his own finance as he'd spoken with his existing lender and they were unable to help him. He said that he thought of me because I had been so proactive with his previous client. The point I'm making is that in the process of helping a client, I have excellent exposure to several possible referral sources. Without even attempting to do so, I had formed a relationship with these guys which led to a possible business lead. I honestly hadn't looked at it from that perspective before (ok, maybe I'm not as bright as I thought I was) so suddenly I've seen the golden opportunity presented from each deal. Possible referral sources and a reason to add these professionals to my database. And... there is no reason why, once you have established a relationship with these professionals, that you can't ask them to consider you for any future finance needs. You learn something new every day. |
|
Second Monday of the Month |
|
Written by Michael Calam
|
|
Monday, 09 March 2009 07:55 |
|
I'm back! Last week was a wonderful week for us. Business was busy, which is always a good thing, but the culmination of the week was our son's wedding. It was a very small family affair and we were all very happy to see both our son and his new bride so clearly enjoying the day. My wife Sandra, took about a million photos and so the happy couple can start their married life with permanently etched smile lines on their faces. We wish them both the very best. But of course, with all of the excitement I have been off-air for a few days. The net result for my first week of the month was that I did achieve my goal in appointments set for the month. It was a close run thing as I was effectively working on a four day week and ended up having a few clients who needed their appointments last week, but we got there. Incidentally, our trial of the new telemarketers is still a work in progress as they are only just starting to gear up. However, this seems reasonable to me as the first step in their process is the setting up of the scripts etc. So this week for me is the time of completing the appointments. I have two tonight, one tomorrow night and another two on Wednesday night, so the next few days will be busy with researching and conducting these interviews. Incidentally, I'm noticing that I'm receiving many requests for personal loans at the moment, is anyone else experiencing this? I'd be very interested to hear from people about their experiences with personal loans as I've heard several different viewpoints of this market and the processes for submitting these types of deals. |
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 9 of 15 |
