bye 100% plus!

HelpWhereIcan

In Jan & Feb this year I have written 35% more cases than Jan & Feb 2007, 64% more than Jan & Feb 2006, 109% more than I did in Jan & Feb 2005.

Most of that will be down to natural, organic growth of a new business through things like renewals and referrals; but I have also had a couple of enquiries from people this week who have openly admitted that they would not have looked to use a broker before and are concerned about getting it right and getting all and any help they can to make sure they do.

I do still have my own concerns about the market and the future of the small broker, but have to say that if I look at the figures I am doing rather than posts in these (and other) forums I am not all doom and gloom.

It does tickle me to see a bit of the hand wringing that is going on in the industry from some people who seem to be allowing every bit of bad news to take their focus off doing their job.

For example, an IFA I spoke to who was shocked and very concerned that Scarborough had pulled out of Sub Prime. I then asked him if he had used them a lot.

"Never" was his reply, "I don't do a lot of sub prime. I'm mainly into straight forward remortgage business for my clients."

Turned out they were all prime clients and he very rarely did anything above 80% loan to value.

Now if he's not someone who has no need to worry about some of the lender casualties I do not know who is.

Things will get tighter. We will have to get used to telling more clients that they should go away and save, repay their CCJs etc but that does not mean that mortgage business will die.

There are plently of things that may kill off small brokers (the RDR for one) but a broker with a diverse client base that they service does not need to fear the credit crunch.

Conrad

My definition of quiet means banking about £10,000 per month and remember I do not do life cover and even if I did I would not count it in my bankings.

I know a broker who is jam packed with cases but he does'nt net all that much profit (about £50,000 pa). I would term that quiet. The amount of work being done is not the measure, it's the banked net profit that counts.

HelpWhereIcan

Conrad wrote: »

My definition of quiet means banking about £10,000 per month and remember I do not do life cover and even if I did I would not count it in my bankings.

I know a broker who is jam packed with cases but he does'nt net all that much profit (about £50,000 pa). I would term that quiet. The amount of work being done is not the measure, it's the banked net profit that counts.

:rolleyes: OK then, just to clarify. The value of commissions etc banked has also increased by a similar amount. My average case size tends to be fairly stable.

Having said that, I do not need to enter an online phissing contest about my business with anyone.

Chris Ollenshaw at Black & White would have proudly told me how much his firm was banking in fees every month - did not stop them going under though. A bit too reliant on the sub prime market with no way of changing direction when that market was lost.

http://db.riskwaters.com/public/showPage.html?page=703789

The point I was making is that the fact that lenders have disappeared is really only affecting those whose business model was not diverse enough to cover the full spectrum of mortgages.

No one will do more work for less (or the same money). I have not based my business on sub prime and have a diverse enough client base to not have to worry about a couple of lenders going under.