Jeremy Fisher of 1st Street Home Loans in Rose Bay, NSW, has been a perennial pick for the MPA Top 100. This year, Fisher managed to snare the number six position, as well as seeing 1st Street rank number eight in MPA's Top 10 Independent Brokerages.
Q: What qualities make for a successful mortgage broker?
A: For a mortgage broker to be successful they should be very organised, committed to doing the best for clients in terms of service and products, have good knowledge of the available products and market developments, and be a very effective communicator.
Q: What, if anything, have you done differently this year?
A: The main development this year was to take on a financial planner who can service clients under the 1st Street umbrella. We also now offer commercial and business lending in-house as we were fortunate to have an ex-Westpac business banker join our business.
Q: What are the main challenges you’ve faced over the past year?
A: We have been developing a new website and enhancing our social media presence. Both of these tasks have been challenging as they require the knowledge of experts in those areas and also extra time needs to be allocated to working with those experts to develop an effective and consistent approach.
Q: What do you expect from the market in the year ahead?
A: We expect the property market to grow and feel that interest rates will remain stable which will further assist this growth.
Q: What do you believe is the biggest issue facing the industry, and how are you responding?
A: Many brokers are still focusing solely on home loans when clients should be able to receive a full and complete service. Insurance is one aspect of financial planning which clients should be made aware of when taking out a home loan and many clients in the marketplace are being exposed to unnecessary and avoidable risk.