What does your role entail and how long have you been doing it?
As a mortgage and protection adviser, my role entails giving financial advice to a variety of buyers and sellers of property; from first-time buyers at the start of the process to someone moving to a second or third home. I also financially qualify all offers put forward on properties within our branch as a duty of care to our vendors, to make sure transactions are at the highest quality they can be.
I graduated from the Just Mortgages academy in February last year and took on my first case in April. With the way of the market in recent months, it’s felt like I’ve seen the activity of four years in one.
What attracted you to working in the mortgage/property/finance sector?
I have always been interested in the property sector from a young age as my father is a property developer. Before joining the academy and Just Mortgages, I worked in property management and then moved into the financial side of the business as I felt it provided greater opportunities.
What were you doing in the five years before starting here?
Before moving into financial services, I worked for Haart in property management for almost three years. Prior to that, I was a personal trainer.
What personal talent/skill is most valuable in doing your job?
A personable approach. I feel I have a great way of making people feel calm and supported which helps within my role to build rapport with my clients.
What personal talent/skill would you most like to improve on?
I would like to improve my resilience, but I feel this will come over time within my role.
How has the pandemic changed the way you approach your job?
The pandemic has taught me that anything can change at any given time, so I always prepare myself for the worst case scenario and make sure to remain positive.
What is the most interesting/memorable property deal/case you’ve been involved in?
In January, I had two cases that were memorable for the wrong reasons as they were so close to falling through. One was a complex leasehold property where the deal was two days away from collapsing with a difficult management company and no opportunity for extension. The second was a solar panel issue on a property where the lender was impossible to contact and the solicitor provided conflicting information.
In both cases, I just had to grab the bull by the horns to make sure the deal got over the line, whether it’s pushing a solicitor or management company to progress, or overcoming poor lender communication by just uploading the necessary information myself.
Being an adviser is not always just about giving advice, it sometimes has to be a hands on role to support customers in getting deals over the line. They say 75 per cent of your pipeline will go through, but for me, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be 100 per cent. While some particular circumstances may be out of our control, we have a duty to do everything we can.
Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
Having seen a lot in the last year, five years seems so far away. However, my main goal is to become self-employed. This might take a little bit longer than five years to build up the required client back book, especially as more clients move from two to five-year fixes for greater stability.
If present-day you could go in time back and tell yourself something five years ago, what would it be?
That I’m more capable than I probably thought I was at the time. Five years ago, I was a personal trainer which helped me develop my personality and those transferrable skills such as communication, building relationships and managing multiple clients. Looking back now, I was capable of so much more, I just didn’t have the insight or platform to see how my skills could be better used.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve tackled so far in your career?
The downtimes are the worst, especially after the mini Budget where much of the market was paralysed by uncertainty. The career of a mortgage adviser is certainly a rollercoaster, and you have to be thick skinned to deal with the bad months. You also must understand it’s not you – while products, rates or even the market may not be there at times, your skills still are. You are still capable.
The end of last year, I’d see others in my academy cohort lack the necessary resilience and leave. For me, my aim was to look past the challenges and see the bigger picture – I took on this role to start my career. This industry and job certainly isn’t vanilla and there’s always plenty to learn, especially in the scenario we find ourselves in now. It’s a case of sink or swim where you either go above and beyond or fall by the wayside.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
I would have to say a crystal ball or the ability to see into the future. After all, most customers think those in financial services have this anyway. It would be really useful and definitely help me to do more business.
And finally, what’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?
It’s hard to think of the strangest question I’ve been asked. My rule with customers is there’s no strange or silly question, they can ask whatever they like. The role of a broker or adviser is to support customers through this massive life moment, especially those that are doing it all for the first time. I want to provide a safe space for clients and be there to help however I can. If I can’t answer, I’ll make sure I do the research and find out for them.
