Page 30 - Smart Money

Chapter 1

‘Bank Manager’ mentality, where you go into the bank and be nice to
them and they give you a loan – there is a lot more involved than there
used to be.

Bad advice can also come from other professionals associated with the
industry. For example, real estate agents who take a cut from someone by
giving biased advice or recommendations. We are not real estate agents
so will never give you our ‘opinion’ about the value of a property. We
do come across this from time to time. Occasionally, the media can be
misleading or misinterpreted, because written text can be interpreted in
different ways. The person giving the advice could be biased towards a
particular bank, or someone who is paying to get their advertisement or
name in the media.
Choosing the right people to work with is important. You don’t want to
go to just one bank, because they only have one product suite to offer.
Similarly, if you go to a broker that only represents themselves, they
don’t have a group of brokers or a panel of lenders that they can work
your personal scenario with.

Key Point
If you look at our model, we’ve got 15 brokers working together, so there
are more scenarios we can all learn from. You should consider going to a
broker who has been around for a while, or has someone who is a good
mentor working with them. This way you can be assured you will get
the best deal, tailored to suit your current and future situation.

A lot of brokers are paid commission by the lender once your application
is approved and settled, so some brokers might push you towards a
lender that pays them higher commission (more money). A really bad
broker is someone who gives incorrect information and doesn’t keep you
informed about what is going on with your home loan application. This
is probably the biggest issue between clients and brokers – some brokers
don’t communicate about what is actually going on. The broker is using