A week in the life of a Mortgage Broker including football!

By Steven Ling, of Barrett Batchelor Mortgage Services LLP

It’s been a very hectic life for me so far this year. Having moved to Barrett Batchelor Mortgage Services LLP at the start of the year. The slight changes in working practices they employ that differ from my previous company, all had to be taken on board while at the same time I had to continue to produce business. In addition to this, what’s very important to me is that I maintain a good work life/homelife balance. I'm very fortunate that my work permits me to do this.

Having previously owned a business in Dersingham, I think it’s fair to say I know many local people. In addition to this, I am involved at Dersingham Football Club where I run one of the youth teams. The football Club is an important part of the local community for so many people.

My week starts on a Sunday, when my two footballing boys, Oscar and Aaron, are accompanied to the football ground by the wife and myself.

Once at the ground, it’s making sure that everything is ready for kick off with all the youngsters knowing what’s expected of them today.

I then met up with my work colleague James Batchelor, for a photo shoot. James has very kindly sponsored a new kit for the team. I must say the lads all love the kit and they look really good in it. So thanks to James from Barrett Batchelor Mortgage Services LLP for his generosity.

After a successful day (the Lads won 19-0), it’s then clearing things away, and having a chat with some other parents, many of whom are also clients of mine. It’s a great time for networking and indeed even today I had someone make an enquiry, although this time I'll pass it on to James as it’s an Equity Release Enquiry.

Off home, and it’s the usual routine of tea, homework, and us all preparing for the week ahead.

Monday, and it’s up and about by 6.00 o'clock. I take one of my boys to School, and then proceed to the office on the Tuesday Market Place. I usually arrive at 9.10, which may sound a bit late to some, but as my day can very often end at 9.00 pm (or even later), this works well for me. James is an early riser and is very often in the office by 8.00 o'clock.

The first job of any day is to check the post, emails and voice mails. The contents of these very often dictate the course the day will take, working around appointments that are already booked.

Checking on case progression is a daily job, but is made much simpler these days due to the back office systems the Company has in place. I must say that this is a massive bonus to me as the less time I take in having to progress cases, the more time I have for generating new business.

My first appointment of the day arrives at 11.30. This is a first appointment for this young couple, who are first time buyers and were introduced to me by a local estate agent. A lovely young couple who had actually already done some homework on house buying and mortgages (which is not always the case), and I had pleasure in confirming that they qualified for the amount they required to borrow. An hour later, they left my office, pleased to have a decision in principle in their hands.

I left the office at about 2.30. I was picking up Oscar from School today, after which I was visiting an existing client in their home in Hunstanton at 5.00 o'clock. Coming to the end of their fixed rate, it was a simple product switch to another fixed rate mortgage.

I was home by 7.00 pm, after which I made two phone calls. Both were expecting my calls, one being a general enquiry, which I was easily able to help them with. The other was far more complicated, so it was agreed that the people would visit me at the office next week when they would have all the documentation required that would enable me to advise them appropriately.

Tuesday, it’s up at 6.00 o’clock again to make sure my eldest son Aaron is ready for the bus to High School. I'm working mainly from home today, so after the kids have been fed and watered and taken to school, its head down in my office for a couple of hours. I've got a mid-day appointment in Snettisham where I will be completing mortgage application forms with my clients. This will be the third time we have met, and the case has been going on for a while now due to issues further down the house chain. Everything now being resolved, you could see the relief in the clients face once we had completed the forms and applied the last signature. They felt that things were finally starting to move forward now. Buying and selling houses can be a very stressful time, but I'm genuinely delighted when I can help and assist people during these times.

Back home, it’s a case of responding to enquiries and speaking to people who I had already spoken to but for various reasons, had not been able to proceed earlier. This generated two more appointments for next week, and another agreement to speak in two weeks time when the prospective clients would have a clearer idea what their plans are.

Tuesday is football training night. We start at 5.30 and usually finish by 7.30, so there's still time for a bit of homework for the boys before supper and bed. I make one more pre- arranged telephone call. This was for a remortgage for clients I had already seen, and who had wanted to have one last discussion before making a decision. They informed me they wanted to proceed, but for a slightly different amount than previously quoted. Everything agreed, I informed them that I would submit all relevant forms tomorrow when I planned to be in the office.

Wednesday I was due to be in the office all day. I had three appointments, nicely spread throughout the day. I had seen all of these clients previously and each one was just to go through all the paperwork before submitting to the Lenders. The day ended up as a really good one with three very nice cases all packaged and submitted. It’s nice when they all come together but these three cases had been going on for the past month or so, and there had been a lot of work to bring them all together before being able to submit the cases.

In between these cases, I had a call from Nigel Barrett. Nigel and James formed the Company 18 years ago. Nigel is now past state retirement age and although he is still actively involved in running the business, he describes his role as "back office" these days as he is no longer in a client facing position. This call came about as a result of Nigel auditing some already submitted cases, or "file checking" as we call it. Nigel wanted to confirm one particular point on a case. This was more to do with the terminology that I had used rather than the advice, so after discussing the case, more appropriate wording was agreed upon and all parties were happy.

Home at 5.30 today. Nothing major other than a couple of quick phone calls to speak to people who were not available during the day.

Thursday comes and I know that this is going to be a busy one. I have one appointment to complete paperwork for prior to it being submitted. Another one involved me seeing a couple in their early 40's that are now moving home.

I leave the office just after 3.30 today, as it’s another night’s training this time for the under 9's. I had also arranged to meet an existing client at the training ground for a quick discussion, as he wanted to move home and wanted some advice on home moving, buying and selling before committing himself. I always like to assist people on this, as it nearly always results in business when they decide to proceed and put their homes on the market.

Back home at about 7.30. No phone calls to make tonight, which is unusual. No major concern as it’s been a long day.

Friday, and I'm seeing a client at 9.00 o’clock this morning. I usually like to deal with overnight emails, voicemail and posts before I go into appointments, but this was the only time this client could make, and his needs come first. This Gentleman, having separated from his wife, had sold his home and was now buying by himself. He had agreed a purchase about 4 weeks ago and had submitted a mortgage application via another Broker. He thought he was getting the run around as he could not see any signs of his case progressing and his phone calls and messages were going unanswered. This situation does arise from time to time. I make sure that I am in possession of the full facts before I do anything on cases such as these, just to make sure that the Gentleman in front of me and not conveniently forgotten certain facts, which could be the real reason behind the delay in this case. Having looked at everything and doing a "soft" credit search with the clients agreement, I really couldn't see why this Gentleman was having problems, and it did appear to be down to others failings.

I informed the Gentleman what I could do for him, but also suggested that he gives the other Broker one more chance to sort matters out. If he didn't then I would be only too pleased to act on his behalf. Time will tell, probably next week, which way this one will go.

As I knew that I would be having a very busy weekend, I had purposely kept my diary empty for Friday afternoon, but this soon changed when I had a call from a client that currently has a mortgage being processed via us. He had received some paperwork form his Solicitor and he "didn't know where to start" with it, and could I help him? As he lives in Norh Wootton I said I would pop in on my way home, as going through it would only takes about 10 minutes if you know what you are doing. Having seen such paperwork on numerous occasions previously, it’s an easy fix.

Mid-afternoon, and I was home to take charge of the Children. With Sports mad Kids, this again involved football.

The busy weekend I mentioned previously involved a Charity Ball on Saturday. The Ball is in aid of Breast Cancer Awareness and my wife Claire, along with a few others (Breast of Friends), is involved with the organisation and running of the Ball. Claire herself suffered from Cancer a few years ago and I'm so proud of the way she handled and beat this awful disease, and how she has thrown herself into the fundraising. When suffering from Cancer, it’s obviously never going to be an easy time but Claire showed remarkable courage and fortitude during this time, as well as keeping a degree of normality for our three Children. She really did amaze me and as I have said previously, made me so proud of her.

Saturday comes and we are off to Norwich with my youngest son Oscar. His U9's team are playing their first game although unfortunately he cannot play through injury. It's a rush back home after the game, as we are at the Ball on Saturday evening. The event is being held at Briarfields Hotel in Titchwell. This is always a really good event and a great Venue. I know lots of people at the event and it’s nice to meet up with friends and clients.

James is there with his Wife Mel, who kindling sponsored some elements of the event through her business, Brittons Estate Agents.

It’s great to meet up with people such as these and although it would be a lie if I was to say the subject of business wasn't mentioned, we were all well behaved and didn't dwell on that subject too long.

The event was nothing short of fantastic and all the organisers deserve a big round of applause and congratulations in this achievement.

So, my week is complete. It starts again tomorrow with the oldest playing football with is teams first game of the season at home, so I'll be helping set the pitch up and make sure all the players are ready to play.

This week has been a good one. I'm pleased with the amount of business submitted, how existing cases are progressing, and the amount of new prospects I have spoken to.

I really enjoy this job. Although it usually means long and sometimes unsociable hours, it gives me the flexibility to keep my work/homelife balance exactly the way that suits my family and me. A very pleasant, forward looking environment to work in, meeting new people, forging new relationships and maintain existing friendships, and where hard work brings the rewards.

Not many jobs tick all the boxes like this one.