Advice Needed For New Adviser

HelpWhereIcan

If being in management/admin means that you have not sold mortgages and/or held competent adviser status (CAS) in the last 12 months you may have a struggle getting a reasonable network to allow you to become the principal of a firm.

I am with Sesame and have my gripes but would not change.

As far as freedom goes I suppose you would have the most control over your diary as a self employed adviser, but do not make the mistake that some do and think that equates to less work.

There will be firms around that would be willing to take on a trainee (if you have not got CAS) but check out whatever split they offer and what you get for it.

Where in Lincolnshire are you? PM me and I may be able to suggest a suitable firm offering self employed contracts

AndyBlack_2

Hi, if any mortgage brokers / advisors from this site require leads for very little cost, feel free to pm me. I will explain then.

Thanks

Andy

TwelfthMan

I'd have to say find something else for a year and come back when the market picks up.

I started WoM self employed at the end of March. Haven't done a single mortgage in 8 weeks (thanks to dual pricing lenders) and have relied on income from life cover/ASU etc - risky because if these cancel then the clawbacks will finish me off.

I'm giving it another 2 weeks. I went from being the leading performer in the region for mortgage and protection sales while tied to a lender, to someone who cant sleep properly at night for worry of how long the money will last. Had a preliminary chat with the recruitment guy who found me my current self employed role and said to him I might be in contact again shortly and to alert me of any employed roles - I need a guaranteed income.

Hopefully the firm I've joined will invest in me and help me through these tough times - after all they paid a £3k fee to the recruitment agency to get me on board.

Tiddler_2

Hi smortgageboard,

Like some of the other advisers have said, you need to give this some serious thought, whilst in theory mortgage holders need advisers more than ever, the ability to place the mortgage is getting more difficult.

I have been self-employed for about 18 months, used virtually all of my savings waiting to get my first payments through and probably earned around £20k LESS than I did the previous year in an employed basis.

The company I work "for" have a largish client bank and a few lead providers but with the dual pricing you are given the quandry of do I see what I can get away with and not tell them what is actually the best deal they can get or do I tell them the best deal and earn nothing.

If you are working self-employed for a company they will generally want you to provide your own clients or will take around 50 - 60% of the income from cases - after all they have to pay for the PII, offices, FSA fees, network fees etc.

In the past I always had the principle of not charging fees, but you are giving professional advice - face to face often out of hours, and following everything through - then you are worthy of that fee. My previous (daytime tv advertising) employer used to charge up to 3% averaging out around £2k per case and customers never battered an eyelid. I charge £199 on most cases, payable on completion - a figure you can save most people and easily justifiable in my opinion.

With regard to obtaining business I would try and get as diverse a market as possible - Estate Agents are having it very tough at the minute, as are New Build companies, and exiting customers from 2 or so years ago with high LTVs are tough to place aswell (where you can earn money!) We have never purchased leads, and I've heard mixed reports on this side of things, with an average conversion rate of 1 in 3 or 4.

Good luck whatever you choose to do.

homer_j_3

I believe that tiddler hits a good point. Diversification - you are doing a lot of protection , why not look at other services that you can offer.

Lead companies, I know you have become familiar with and you know my thoughts on them. At best of times, your sign up ratio would be good at 30% but with market being as it is, I would say you are lucky to hit 10%

Hope things pick up for you and sorry about the other night MSN has been playing up!!

Conrad

TwelfthMan wrote: »

I'm giving it another 2 weeks. I went from being the leading performer in the region for mortgage and protection sales while tied to a lender, to someone who cant sleep properly at night for worry of how long the money will last.

I feel for you Man, I too suffer with some insomnia, but at least I have the benefit of a large existing client bank as I started my business 10 years ago. In a good year I can net a 6 figure profit, but much of this is from fee charging which for me has always been the preferred business model, but you tend to attract the most difficult cases. I do not do insurance or anything else which I think gives me more time to spend with lender reps, and I make a point of ensuring I know every lender inside out, even the small Building Societies. Reps are amazed I write everything down they tell me in a huge file which has hundreds of headings to cover every factor (for example "lenders that allow a repossession reversal" or "lenders for agency staff" or "agricultural restrictions". This really does help and saves so much time when you get new enquiries.

I think youre right about advising people thinking of going self employed to reconsider next year.
I think there will be much money to be made during the upturn when as a result of the current contraction there will less advisers around.

I personally advise people to do everything themselves. I'm not into networks, lead companies nor outfits that offer you some kind of company shell but take you on a self employed basis.

I'm looking for someone to run a lettings business from my premises in South Herts / London border on a self employed basis.