Meet Belinda

An Aussie Mortgage Broker for over ten years and now a Franchisee at Aussie Prospect and West Lakes in Adelaide, Belinda loves the challenge, the variety, and most of all the chance to help people. Here’s her typical day helping customers at Aussie.

Ready for the day ahead

As a working mother of two, Belinda’s day starts with getting the kids ready before heading to the office around nine to tackle the first of many emails that she will follow up on throughout the day.

“Often, it’s a simple case of letting someone know they’ve been heard”, says Belinda, “then they can just get on with their day.”

Every day starts with a full inbox. Among today’s emails are some pay slips from Jane, a customer who’s just finished the probation period of a new job, and is ready to go to the application stage on a home loan. Belinda replies to confirm the receipt and let her know she’ll be in touch when she’s ready for the next step.

Meeting customers and meeting expectations

Next Belinda is finishing up a file for Bill, who wants to draw down on his existing loan to finance construction on land he and his wife bought recently. Now that he’s sent through all the necessary information, Belinda can hand the file to her assistant to proceed with the application administration.

Next up is a meeting with Kerry, who’s been a customer of Belinda’s for many years. Kerry wants to chat about a two-year goal for her and her partner Brad. They both recently changed to better-paying jobs and want to refinance. They also want to discuss how a baby might fit into the picture.

Belinda advises Kerry that they will need to wait until they can show their bonus payments as regular income. And while they may not be ready just yet, Belinda helps them lay down a plan to work towards refinancing in the future. Meanwhile, she’ll put in a pricing request with their current lender to see if she can negotiate a better rate on their existing loan.

“I love helping people”, says Belinda, “and I love people feeling like they’ve left an appointment with me and I’ve answered all their questions”.

Different journeys for every customer

Belinda takes a call from Frank, a new customer who recently accompanied her to a property investment seminar. He’s not ready to progress yet but wanted to give her a little more detail about where’s he’s at, and Belinda is happy to discuss.

After a quick late lunch, Belinda meets with Tony and Jill who’ve dropped into the office. Belinda helped them refinance about a year ago, and they’ve come back in to discuss a plan for buying an investment property.

Having worked hard to stabilise their finances in recent years, they are excited at the prospect of taking this next step. While they could technically make it work now, after chatting with Belinda, they decide to save a little longer so they could comfortably afford to service the loans on both homes.

“They really appreciated the time I spent explaining everything in detail even though they’re not quite ready to proceed”, says Belinda. In fact, they were thrilled enough to post feedback about Belinda saying: “her knowledge and guiding advice is greatly appreciated.”

Work doesn’t stop at the office

Belinda’s last meeting of the day is at the home of Anita and Mark who recently moved back to Adelaide and are looking to buy a home at auction in the next couple of weeks. After chatting about their needs, Belinda‘s next step will be to track down the most competitive deal and secure a pre-approval in time for the auction.

Then it’s home to spend time with the kids before checking in to respond to the last few emails for the day. “Working late most nights during the week lets me do ad hoc things with the kids with no impact to my customers”, says Belinda.

While there’s no doubt flexibility is part of the appeal, for Belinda and all the other Aussie brokers answering emails after the kids have gone to bed, they do it because they love helping people.

“This is what I love to do”, says Belinda, “It’s my passion.” Her satisfied customers would tend to agree.

Whether it’s just a chat about making your finances work better for you in the future, or you’re ready to take your first step or the next step, it’s never too early to talk to an Aussie broker, like Belinda. Call in for a chat with your local Aussie broker today; it could be the best conversation you have all week.

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