Know Your BDM: Jim Nash, Tuscan Capital

What locations and how many advisers and broker firms do you cover in your role?

Good question. It’s hard to say exactly how many advisers in total as I deal with a number of networks who are adding new advisers to their membership on a daily basis. I currently have 60 broker firms that I deal with directly, so I would guess a few hundred advisers.

How do you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers?

Keeping my brokers fully up-to-date with our present criteria is crucial. If you don’t you are going to miss a trick and lose out on a deal to a competitor. There is nothing worse than a broker telling you two months down the line, “Oh, I didn’t know you did that”.

It is important to keep in contact by phone or regular visits, although not so regular so that you are a nuisance. Keeping the company name at the forefront of broker’s minds keeps the enquiries coming. The odd beer helps as well.

What personal talent/skill is most valuable in doing your job?

The ability to listen and understand any given scenario is the most valuable skill, closely followed by telling a good ‘bad dad’ joke.

What personal talent/skill would you most like to improve on?

My IT skillset is a given area for improvement, although I have managed to get by with a pen and paper for many years. That said, with some help from my younger colleagues, I am learning, albeit slowly.

What’s the best bit of career-related advice you’ve ever been given?

“Stop having aspirations of becoming a chippy as it is blooming cold outside in the winter. Join the bank where it is always nice and warm.”

What is the most interesting/memorable property deal you’ve been involved in?

The most satisfying deal involved the purchase from a brewery of a 130-property portfolio. There was a strict completion time limit of 28 days, so it involved a Herculean effort by the team of surveyors, solicitors and of course, our underwriting team to get the deal across the line in under 21 days.

If you were head of the FCA for the day, what would you change about regulation in the mortgage industry?

I would reduce the form filling and tick box compliance requirements and make sure my one day in charge was payday.

What was your motivation for choosing business development as a career?

I didn’t actually choose the career; I fell into it. When I left the bank, I joined a brokerage and enjoyed the interaction with others, but it was office based and I wanted something different. I spoke to my CEO who agreed that getting out on the road could be more productive; I have never looked back.

If you could do any other job in the property sector, what would it be and why?

If at the age of 18 I had a crystal ball and was able to look into the future, I would have liked to have become an architect or carpenter. Some of the concepts that I see produced are stunning and it would have been great to be behind one of them. That said, while I was always good at drawing, I am not sure that by itself it would have qualified me.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?

To be able to know what someone is thinking, would be a great power but I don’t think I would really want to know.

To be able to fly is a superpower I would love to possess and ideally to be able to fly better then Icarus managed.

And finally, what’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

Will you be home before 10pm on a Friday?