Training as a mortgage advisor query

plainandsimple

I know this isn't what this section of the forum is for, but I'm hoping a mortgage advisor reads this and can answer a few questions, please.

I'm considering doing CeMap training with the intention of joining a network as a self-employed advisor and being supervised by the network while I gain competent advisor status. I believe there are a few networks that accept newly qualified advisors, please correct me if I'm wrong.

What I really want to know is how viable it is to be a part-time self-employed advisor and how much of my workload could be carried out outside normal 9-5 working hours?

Any advice on starting a career in this field would be greatly appreciated.

ACG

If you were applying for your biggest ever purchase where so much can go wrong, would you want someone dealing with it outside of office hours?

Passing the exams is relatively easy. The harder bit is learning criteria and quirks and understanding where if a case fits criteria and passes affordability, it may still get declined at the credit check stage or by an underwriter.

When a customer or an underwriter or the estate agents are calling you for updates or to discuss the case, what happens when you are doing your other job?

I have taken on a new trainee broker this month who will be working her current job 6 hours a day and will be around from 3pm. I am picking up her cases during the day, partly because shes a trainee (qualified but without CAS), so it helps me keep on top of how she is doing but it also means she still has a wage whilst she is building up a pipeline. I have basically told her I will do it for 3-6 months, but after that she will need to leave her job or leave us.

Ordinarily I would not do that, but I was quite impressed by her so I made an exception as I hope in the long run it will pay off.

Verix

I'd be nervous about going self-employed straight away personally. I would rather go in to any employed role because i would struggle to see where your leads will come from. Lead generation has to be one of the toughest parts of the job when you are starting out. I'm sure there are a decent amount employed trainee advisor positions available around the country.

I would say that there is loads you can do out of normal office hours. Most people you see will have jobs and so want appointments in the evenings or weekends, most lenders systems are available out of hours. As ACG has suggested, the difficulty will be getting and providing updates to clients, lenders, estate agents and solicitors who are not going to be available outside of normal hours. I don't know if the job can really be done on a part-time basis, especially when you first start and are having to learn every process from scratch which means it takes three times as long as an experienced advisor to do.

Good luck. It can be a very stressful job but also a very rewarding one when you are helping get people their dream home.

dunstonh

What I really want to know is how viable it is to be a part-time self-employed advisor and how much of my workload could be carried out outside normal 9-5 working hours?

No. Those days have gone.

You wont just be dealing with mortgages. You will also have compliance requirements for your company. Being a network member takes some of those away but there are still some things you need to do. And when the network say they would like to come and do an audit next month, how are you going to do that if you are at work elsewhere?

Also, being part time, you are not likely to do that many mortages yet your costs will be broadly similar to those that are full time.

Over half of new advisers fail and leave the industry within 2 years. Usually in debt. You would be going into this with handicapped by a job. So, unless you have a really good source of out of hours mortgage cases and an employer who is sympathetic to you taking client calls and lender/solicitor etc calls during their work time, you are more likely to fail.

How do you intend to get clients? Lack of is the most common reason for failure.

haras_nosirrah

I am a 'part time' mortgage advisor
I work tuesdays and thursdays day times and mon, wed and fri evenings and occasional saturdays as I have young children

I put part time in air quotes for a reason

I still have to work during the days I am not meant to be working

I am fortunate to have an administrator who does quite a lot of the chasing but even so I am still constantly checking emails through the day and sorting stuff that can't wait

you couldn't do this around another 9-5 job
could you maybe go part time at the other job as that is the only way I could see you being able to do this part time

I am lucky in that I do an average of 15-20 mortgages a month but I have been advising for 13 yrs. As a new started it takes time to build up a client bank and you need to think where are your referrals going to come from?

kingstreet

I do 50 hours a week Mon-Fri.

I also do one Sunday in three "on call" for the builders who introduce to us.

I could work 24 hours a day, seven days a week judging by the calls and emails we get at abnormal times. We got a call at 21:51 last Saturday night!

I would not do this again, if I was at 18 now.

LRmortgage

I would say it’s nearly impossible to be a Broker our of normal business hours.

For one, I spend hours a week on the phone to lenders who are generally only open from 9 to 5.

amnblog

Open from 9 to 5 and making progress for about 40 minutes

LRmortgage

Hahaha yeah. Some lenders you’re lucky to get through on 40 minutes and then get to speak to someone who doesn’t understand their own criteria and you call back and hold for another 40 minutes to get the correct answer!

plainandsimple

Thanks for the replies. You've given me quite a bit to think about. I don't actually have another employed position. I am self-employed and would be giving up my current self-employment if I pursued a new career as a mortgage advisor. The main reason for my query around out-of-hours flexibility is I home educate my children, so during the day my time is taken up, but I can still make calls etc. It would just be a matter of understanding how many calls / how much time calls would take during normal 9-5 hours. My current business is completely online and I work evenings when the kids are in bed and weekends and Wednesdays when my husband is home. Wondering if I could find a similar balance as a mortgage advisor.

ACG

I doubt it.
You may do 0 mortgages one week and then the next week you may receive 10 enquiries.

Speaking personally, no 2 weeks are the same. I may have 1 week where I am sat watching box sets (typically December/January time and a few weeks when the kids start the 6 weeks holidays and go back to school). This week, we have done 5-6 applications, we have had maybe 5-10 enquiries from potential new and existing customers, we have issues with a solicitor and an estate agent who clearly has nothing to do and calls twice a day.

Those 5-10 enquiries can result in 30+ phone calls being made (in total, not each) to different lenders and account managers to run something quirky by them.

Also, you have to do around 35 hours CPD each year (you can not just do it all in a week at the end of the year, it needs to be spread out), you would need to find time to do that.

If you have an administrator tidying up for you, it can make a difference but as you would be learning the job, any research you do is going to take longer than it would an experienced broker. We get someone who has been discharged from bankruptcy for 3 years and there are maybe 3-4 high street lenders we would call in the first instance. As a new broker you would be searching for those lenders. No 2 cases are the same and they are never like the examples in the book.

I am not trying to make this job sound like brain surgery, but you have to be able to dedicate a lot of time to it in the first few months as there is a lot at stake if you make a error - people losing their future homes, losing money (which if it is your mistake, you would have to foot the bill for), you do need to hit the ground running.