Career change advice needed - Mortgage Broker

th05

Hi everyone, I am after advice on the route and future working as a mortgage broker / advisor. I have not yet begun working towards this and am doing my research to ensure it is the correct path for me.

Background - I am a 44 year-old male and have owned my own business for 18 years and earning well. Without explaining the complexities, I will just say that although the business continues to operate well, I feel it is time to make a change.

Like everyone, I have lived to my means but lately I have been working to make my own outgoings as low as I can and could now get away with earning around £30k for a period of time, it makes it tight and not where I want to be long term but for a year or two, it would be ok)

Is £30k in the short term still unlikely though?

Thank you for reading and for any replies.

ACG

Where do you begin with this...
I am not trying to put you off, but our job is not a sales job. Those days are long long gone. Now it is also about doing the right thing and documenting it. We probably spend 2 hours talking to a customer all in all. The other 6-8 hours is spent doing paperwork and compliance.

In your industry now, if you do a bad job then they have to take you to court (assuming you disagree) within a certain timeframe. In our industry, the customer can make a complaint from now until the end of time. There are companies out there actively looking for customers to make a complaint to get compensation for even the slightest blip in your file - you might not have done anything wrong, but if it is not documented you may still lose.

I would see if you can sit in with a broker to see what is really involved, because I think you are in for a bit of a surprise.

- If that has not put you off...

Our job is a lot more than just finding the cheapest deal. Any idiot can do that. It is knowing the finer details, the quickest, the most lenient, the lenders most likely to accept a case. The customer may fit criteria but still get declined, it is our job to understand that. All of that knowledge takes time to build up and so you will probably find working with another company for at least 12 months, if not longer will be beneficial.

In order to get CAS you need someone experienced and qualified to sign you off. Typically you would end up doing 5-10 cases with perfect files before obtaining CAS. You can obtain that by working for an estate agents, another brokerage or a bank. Most go down the first or the last as that gives you a large amount of customers in a short space of time.

How much can you earn - this will depend on the route you go down. I think £30k in year one is doable, but only if you go down the employed route. It took me until my third year to earn that.

I am not trying to put you off, but your post reads like you are some delboy and could sell sand ice to eskimos, which may be the case - but that is not what the job entails, certainly not with a reputable company.

th05

Thank you for the reply and perhaps I need to re-write my opening post if it has given the wrong impression. It was longer and more detailed and I edited it to make it more concise and perhaps the missing parts would have given a different impression.

My business involves a lot of paperwork, research, working on my financials, spreadsheets, invoicing software, projections and strategizing. Most certainly not a delboy type at all. I work hard, and studiously to get results, do not expect overnight results or to get rich quick.

I am looking for a trade and am attracted to this as it combines some of my strongest skills - listening to people, working with people, sales, financials, figures and number crunching and even head down and completing paperwork.

But I have commitments, a large family and do need an income level. I have found that to get more of what you want, just want less and I do not want much, but to pay my bills and support my family but around £30k would be what I need, although with savings, I can take less and dip into that to top up for a while and would if I was confident it was a for a limited time of a year or two.

Thanks again for the time to reply

ACG

Sorry, I was not accusing you of being del boy, just ensuring that you did not think it was a case of seeing a customer, selling them anything you can for the commission and job done. As I say, those days are long gone.

th05

I am glad those days are long gone. Part of the attraction is dealing with people who want to be dealing with me. They have come to a mortgage broker because they have a need and want someone to help them get something they dearly want. You are helping them reach a goal and if you do a good job and find them the right deal and they successfully buy a property, I am sure they are grateful and you can feel pleased with what you have done.

dunstonh

and could now get away with earning around £30k for a period of time

£30k would be at the top end for an inexperienced mortgage adviser in the early years. Half that would be more likely. But still possible to get to 30k but it will involve luck, location and what type of business you have joined. You can't cold call. You can't door knock. The biggest issue for any new adviser is where they get their clients from. Rural areas can need 8 times the mortgage count to earn the same as a mortgage broker in London.

Over half of all new advisers leave the industry within two years, Usually in a financially worse position than when they started. The most common reason is lack of clients.

Like most IFAs, I don't do mortgages any more. The days of being able to be a jack of all trades have gone. Some still try it but they are the classic master of none. I could no longer justify the time it takes with mortgages along with the increased time it takes with investment class business. However, I employ mortgage advisers. All but one of mine are experienced and also ex IFAs who dropped their IFA status as they were doing more on the mortgage side. They still earn a lot of the investment class side through what they refer over.

For the first time, I am taking on a new employee who is training from the bottom up to become an IFA in around 6 years time. They will be doing every role in the office from admin support initially through to mortgage adviser then paraplanner and ultimately IFA. I have avoided new to industry for a long time but decided to give a youngster a career path as the other issue is that the age of existing advisers is getting older.

middleclassbutpoor

Have a look on here for what roles are available and salary etc.

https://www.reed.co.uk/jobs?keywords=mortgage%20adviser

I understand the industry quite well as I work in Financial Services myself and as you have been told, the qualifications are only a very small part of the jigsaw to be successful in a career. It takes someone who has interpersonal skills, can juggle many items at once and also deal with working long hours and not really being able to switch off. As an example, you see lots of posts on here of customers thinking about their mortgage applications/progress at weekends - guess what, I bet the Advisers spend their weekends at times thinking about their customers applications. Holidays become more difficult to switch off from and guess what, you better like targets in your early days because you will need to be profitable to keep in the employed world. Whilst it's not about 'selling' and it is about doing the 'right thing for the customer' - it's still a commercial world and you need to be earning your keep.

You will definitely be looking at employed roles to start off with so the above link - if you narrow your search to your locality this should give you an idea of opportunity.

You should also consider that the best route into the industry is probably not through a bank/building society as you are very limited in what you can offer and whilst that would build up the skill set. You should consider probably looking at the bigger estate agency groups as they will give you an insight and chance to build your experience in working with multiple lenders etc.

Finally - when you do get into a position of working for yourself - a whole heap of other expenses come your way for insurances/liability cover and as has been mentioned, complaints central as the industry has become a target for claims companies (which I hope changes for the better now they are becoming regulated by the same regulator).

It can be a very rewarding career but like anything, it will take many years for you to get where you want. You will need to build a customer base (don't even think about taking customers from your employed role) and you will hopefully grow your customers and then get some coming back for remortgages (if they current lender doesn't get in there first). You will need to invest in marketing and lead generation, aswell as potentially premises etc.

The final bit to consider is that robo advice is going to develop and whilst there are many views out there for the benefit a human being can bring to the advice process, this technology will no doubt have an impact on the industry. You only have to look companies like Habito and similar to know that this is the start of things to come.

You will no doubt get some advisers who don't think their roles will go and I agree, trying to place cases may still be required but I think as the lenders become more 'robo' than human, then all those humans working in banks are likely to become brokers and that means increased competition.. You tend to find that when this happens, only those with the brand/reputation and correct offering will survive.

Probably does sound very depressing but it's just to get you to think about the bigger picture - as I say getting the qualification is only the start of it.

th05

Thank you for the indepth replies

The next question is the best route in to get a rung on the ladder. For someone who would be (at that stage) CeMap qualified but with no work experience, what would be the advisable path? I have looked around via indeed, reed, total jobs and various other employment sites and some experience, even just a year, appears to be a pre-requisite

haras_nosirrah

try the bigger estate agents - countrywide, sequence etc

kingstreet

I'm 52 and I've been in the business 34 years, having started straight from A levels.

I would not do it again, if I had the choice.

th05

kingstreet wrote: »

I'm 52 and I've been in the business 34 years, having started straight from A levels.

I would not do it again, if I had the choice.

Do you mind me asking why you feel that way?