Colin O'Loughlin (Arch Brokerage) Confessions of a Recruiter #74

Ever wonder how to withstand the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship while aiming for the white picket fence dream? Feel the pulse of the property market and unravel the financial strategies that could propel your business and home ownership goals. Brisbane's best broker, Colin O'Loughlin of Arch Brokerage, joins us in a vibrant discussion that cuts through the fog of housing market myths and offers a firsthand look at the transitions recruiters and agency owners face as they leap into business ownership and property investment.

Navigating the choppy waters of starting a business and buying a home is no small feat. In this episode, I bare my own trials and triumphs of entrepreneurship, reflecting on the precarity and prosperity of such bold ventures. With Colin's insights, we explore how bank policies have become more accommodating to the self-employed, potentially opening doors for many to step onto the property ladder sooner. From my pre-pandemic leap into business to the nuanced understanding of mortgage borrowing, this conversation is dense with expert advice for recruiters wrestling with the property market's complexities.

But it's not all about the initial plunge; sustaining and nurturing your acquisitions is key. We dissect the pivotal role mortgage brokers play in smoothing out the home-buying process—debunking myths and shining light on the power of savvy financial planning and credit application strategies. Whether you're a recruiter banking on commission income or a first-time homebuyer looking to decode the cryptic language of lenders, this episode packs a trove of relatable experiences and invaluable nuggets of wisdom. Join us as we tackle the art of aligning your financial portrait with the ever-evolving landscape of real estate and finance.

· Our Website is: xrecruiter.io

Transcript

Declan: 0:00

Welcome back to Confessions of a Recruiter with Blake and Declan. We are on a global mission to build the world's largest community of recruiters so we can all connect and succeed together.

Blake: 0:13

That's right. If you want to check out more of Confessions of a Recruiter, jump on to Confessionstv. Subscribe to our Bi-Weekly newsletter Access Merch Now. We hope you enjoy this episode.

Declan: 0:34

Welcome back to another Confessions episode. This one's special because we've got a new segment we've launched and it's called Bring an Expert in. Our first expert is Colin O'Lachlan he was here before, but Colin O'Lachlan from Arch Brokerage. Now, mate, you are Brisbane's best broker, voted by the Curio Mail, and everyone wants to buy a house, everyone's planning to buy a house. It's the number one goal of all Australians. We talk to them all the time. So, mate, we wanted you to come on. Bust a myth, break it down. Tell us what it's all about. So, mate, thanks for coming on the show.

Colin: 1:05

Mate, absolute pleasure. I've been waiting for this invitation for quite some time, so, mate, happy to be here.

Declan: 1:11

You're breaking the mold, mate. So this is the first time we have a non-recruiter on the podcast, so don't let anyone down, mate.

Blake: 1:19

Yeah, you know, in recruitment especially you know our audience there are either senior recruiters or agency owners, so they're in this kind of transition period of I'm about to start a business, can I get a loan, can I buy a house. They usually have some money in the bank and there's a lot of like tricky situations to navigate that probably you can give a little bit of advice on. Yeah, so I guess, firstly, though, let's just walk through your background where you work, the business you started and what you've been up to.

Colin: 1:48

Yeah, so I got into finance was 2008. So fresh out of school. There's actually a bit of a funny story behind this. But my brother-in-law at the time called me. I was working at my parents' paint shop, so I came out of school. I actually wanted to do not much and my folks were like, mate, you need to come and work. So I went and work for them when I first fresh came out and brother-in-law called and he said mate, I've got an interview for you at Bank West in the city. Tell a position and I'm gone. All right, I don't really know what this is about, but I'll go and give it a crack.

Colin: 2:23

I rocked up to the interview it was a Monday morning and made a bomb. It was I do. I went so terrible you could imagine this probably my first real interview out of school and just went terrible. I walked away. I'm like I'm no shot. I'm no shot at getting this job. Anyway, they called me the next day like, mate, you got it and I'm going. Oh shit, maybe I went a little bit better than I thought. Anyway, they want to be to start on the Friday and I didn't want to start on the Friday because I was like, oh, I want to go and get on the. I want to go and get on the piece earlier. I had to. I had to travel into the city to go and work. Now had to start work on the Friday, um, first day. Showed up all good, played footy on the Sunday and actually broke my nose Playing footy, so I missed work on the Monday. Rolled in on the Tuesday and black eyes they're just going fuck. What's this guy doing Like thinking?

Colin: 3:13

I've been in a brawl on the weekend Tried to explain. I was playing footy. Anyway, long story, but in the end I found out. The reason that I got the job was they just hired two tellers that had just gone through the full six weeks worth of training. Came to the end of the six weeks and one of them quit, so they needed someone desperately, and that's how I ended up getting in position and end up getting into finance.

Blake: 3:35

So well, that's. That's an inspiring story.

Colin: 3:40

So anyway, like, keep working hard and you never know what will happen.

Colin: 3:45

Um. So, look, I started out there at Bank West. I was there for a good three or four years, actually rose up the ranks quite quickly, ended up in an assistant manager's job and I was only 22 at the time earning really good money, and ended up chucking it in in the end because I was like I just want to go out and party. I was like just really young to be in that environment and be in that role Um work my way through. I actually went back and worked for my parents for I think it was about 12 months and then I was like actually it was going to be a PT. I was a bit all over the shop but, um, in the end I ended up finding my way back to finance Um. I worked at BOQ for a couple of years and then I really probably found my groove properly, um, whenever I went to Westpac. So I was there for about four or five years, um, and that's when I really honed in on on doing a lot of lending and I was really found a passion for it. I liked talking to people. I liked the challenge of you know, not everybody's the same. Everyone comes from a different background. Some people have a bit of savings. Some people need more help, but it's like that guiding process of being able to help people on the journey of buying a property or saving the money. So I was, I was, I did um home lending there for quite some time. Then I moved into a BDM role where I was actually working with brokers. So brokers would call me workshop deals. I'd be liaising directly with credit around like, okay, how can we make this work? So I really got a taste of, I guess, three different businesses and how they are run in different ways, and then really getting a really good overview of actually the whole home loan process from start to finish, in terms of, like, lodging an application, how credit will assess it, and I think that those things have, um, they've gone a long way in allowing me to become the broker that I am. And in terms of looking at deals, looking at different clients, self-employed, payg, different types of incomes, I think all that's just gone a long way with making it an easier transition to become a broker.

Colin: 5:46

So essentially, I was dealing with all these brokers and I was like some of the questions that would come through to me. I'm like how I don't understand, how they don't know some of this stuff. So for me it was kind of like just the sliding doors of. I wasn't super passionate about. I feel like we were getting all these results, but they were delivering the news back to the client. So, like a lot of the times you were dealing with shitfights it'd be like, oh, finance is due on this one. So you know, I'd be running around going hey, you know, talking to different departments, hey, we need to pick this deal up, we need to do this, and that was just constantly ongoing. So I just I miss the customer facing stuff. I missed just talking to people.

Colin: 6:30

I wasn't so driven by like finding out about, you know, someone's business and how it necessarily operates at that point in time. So the next progression to that was like, well, why don't I go and become a mortgage broker? And the more I looked into it, the more I was like, oh, you know what I can. I reckon I can probably do this. So I was really fortunate whenever I first came out of the bank because going into that role, it's commission based, so you're relying upon solely and wholly the business that you're bringing in and that's your bottom line, and that actually drove me. I did love that part of it.

Colin: 7:06

But I just wasn't at that stage in my life where I was like ready to go balls to the wall Fuck, let's do this. So I was really lucky. Someone actually offered me a job while from one of the brokers that I was looking after, and it gave me sort of like a crash course on what to do but kind of also what not to do. The original idea was like, coming to the business you know you can, you can buy your way in, you can be a part of this, and the longer that I was kind of there not to shit on anyone, but the longer I was kind of there I was like you know what I can. I can probably do this myself and create something for myself and I can grow this organically rather than having to necessarily go into debt to go on or save up and try and buy into this business.

Declan: 7:51

Mate great topic to talk about. This is not every recruiter gets put in the same predicament. Honestly, this same conversation is exactly the crossroads that many recruiters find themselves in. And what, what? What evidence did you stack and say, hey mate, I got. I'm going to have to be better off putting tickets on myself instead of buying other people's problems.

Colin: 8:11

Well, you're backing yourself. You've got yourself in a position like I mean, let's say, let's say you're recruiting, right, you're already in a position where you're recruiting people like you, you're building up a client base, like people are dealing with people. You're not. People aren't necessarily driven by. Oh well, I'm dealing with ANA recruitment or whatever. It might be. Sorry if there is an ANA recruitment out there.

Colin: 8:34

Yeah, what about Pond? But you know what I mean. So it's just like if you've got yourself in a position where let's say you're billing or, or, or however it works right you're billing X amount of dollars per month, let's just say you can't go and slap your name on that brand and put your your face to it, because that's going to really be the driver around how you're bringing your business. So for me it was just a matter of like I'm, I'm just going to back myself here and and, luckily enough, um see, my wife was just like I feel like I'm the risk taker in the relationship and she's very much a little bit more tentative, but for her, I think she could just see the passion that I was. Just like I can, I can fucking do this. Um, I'm going to give it a go. And she was just like oh right, well, go on then off you go.

Blake: 9:23

It's nice having your partner back you when you want to take risks. Um, a lot of the times when we speak to recruiters and they're like in that same spot where they're like I think I can do this, but their partner's like, oh, I don't know, you've got a good thing going on why do you want to wreck it?

Blake: 9:37

And they're like really trying to rain your back in a little bit. So it's good to see that you've kind of come out the other end of that and she was supportive and obviously look where you are now. Um, one thing that I I find um coming up a lot with with recruiters is there are PAYG, so they're an employee, you know. Usually they're earning pretty good money. They've got a little bit of savings in the bank, and the crossroads that they're at is do I buy a house first and then start a business, or do I start a business and then wait and we'll wreck my chances on buying a house?

Blake: 10:10

What I like about your background is, over and above, just a random financier that hasn't started their own business before, so can't really speak to that as much, Whereas you've been in the position where you've started your own business as well and you've probably gone through this a little bit, I'm assuming. So what, what's kind of like your take on someone who's sitting there going all right, do I start a business? Do I buy a house? What do I do first?

Colin: 10:35

It's a good question, mate. I think the different like, if I look at it, from a business owner being in that position now think about yes, it's going to take time, right? So the good thing about banks these days is the policies have drastically changed. Whenever it comes to self-employed borrowers, I think back in the day it was like you've got to be there two years. We need you know, we need all the returns, we need everything done.

Colin: 11:05

I think there's definitely a changing of guard that's happened especially within the bank's policies, particularly in the last two years, because now it's more driven. You know there's in the past. It's kind of like well, let's look at wages, let's look at the profit from within the company, which is like a really standardized approach. You know we want to take an average of the two years. If you've earned too much in the most recent year, then you know we might take a percentage of the previous year. These days it's kind of like well, hey, if you're paying yourself a wage for the last six months and we can see that and we can evidence it through a pay slip, we can evidence through an accountants letter. Sometimes that can just be utilized on its own rather than having to delve too far into the company. So the timeframe constraints have changed by a lot in the last few years because you know if you're talking about in real terms.

Colin: 11:59

If someone was doing, you know, billing a shit loan, that first six months and they wanted to go and buy a property, yeah, they might need a little bit more of a deposit, but it's like that's a real thing, that's something that you're able to do. It's not kind of like, oh shit, I've got to wait two years to go and buy that property. So I guess that's one part of it. The other part is what about the time that you're then going to spend remaining PYG and the opportunities that you potentially lost? And that's my business owners had on. Because if I would have started, I'll tell you one thing so whenever I started the business, I started in October of 2019. It hits Ah, what was it? Feb, march 2020. So if I waited six months, firstly I would have been going fuck, I'm not doing this. Covid's hit and at that point in time I was ship myself a little bit, going, fuck, I don't know what's going to happen. The world's shutting down.

Colin: 12:54

The one thing that we did focus on, whatever it happened, we didn't have a large client base because obviously we'd only been running the business for about six months. But we said, fuck, let's just go and help people, let's see, let's what, what are people going to need during this period? And it's not and it's not driven by money, although you know the. The background to that is, obviously, if you're going out and showing people that you, that you want to help, that hopefully that there's a flow and effective like oh fuck, these guys actually give a shit. Yup, For us it was kind of like well, you know what?

Colin: 13:24

What are the banks offering for people? If, if this really goes belly up and the and you know people are losing jobs and all that sort of stuff and I know there was a few pilots in particular that we helped out and it was like, well, what's the framework around? Like you know, freezing repayments. So that was one of the big things that came out the banks go, you know what? We're going to let you freeze repayments for six months or 12 months while you get your shit together. Yes, there's going to be interest capitalized, but there's not going to be this stigma of like you're not paying your loan, we need to repossess the property or anything like that.

Colin: 13:54

So if I look at that, if I waited six months or whatever it might have been timeframe, I might have been like, oh fuck, I'm not going to do this. And then all of a sudden I've stayed in a row for another six months. Oh, I'm just going to try and climb the ladder a little bit further. I might buy into this business. So I think the biggest thing is like just act with conviction, like if you're going to do something, just jump in it. What's the worst thing that's going to happen? For me it would have been like, whenever I look at my own personal situation, I could have just went and got a job back in the bank.

Blake: 14:27

So what you're saying is, let's say, you had 50 grand saved up and you're like I'm either which I didn't, which I didn't at that point, yeah.

Blake: 14:33

That's how you had 50 grand saved up and you're thinking do I buy a house first you know the Australian dream, which you know is a whole, not a rabbit hole that I'm open to going into, but probably not for now or should I start my business? You can. Ultimately, you could probably have both in a shorter period of time If you go. I'm going to start my business build really well. Within six months I can then buy that house that I wanted to anyway, rather than waiting that like two years to buy that house that it used to be. Is that what I'm picking up to add to that?

Declan: 15:08

Could you actually buy a better house in that six months? Well, because you could unlock more earnings.

Colin: 15:14

That's, that's the question that's. That's the real question, right? That that I think we're talking about here is like the thing is if you go and buy that house when you're PAYG so you're earning wage what's the likelihood, with that overhead hanging over you, that you're going to take the jump and start a business?

Blake: 15:33

Unlikely.

Colin: 15:33

You know what I mean. Like put my bro cat on, fuck and buy the house. But no, seriously, when you think about it, what's, what's going to be the difference in you starting your business, your own business, something that's yours, and you're earning potential in comparison to buy in a house. Yeah, okay, maybe you like let's look at COVID. Right, if you didn't buy, sort of, at the start of that, obviously we've seen house prices increase dramatically. But for me, what if I didn't do that? What if? What if I didn't go and start my business? I'd probably be, you know, maybe back at the bank or maybe I'm still working for somebody else giving them a large slice of the cut of what I'm doing. But what we've been able to do in a you know, four year period, four and a half year period, is, all of a sudden, sim is within the business. But we're growing our family. We've got number three on the way in Whoa. Congrats, maheep.

Blake: 16:30

Six weeks Wow Two and six weeks Two and six weeks.

Colin: 16:33

So we're going to have our third kid, but once again I mean your dad. Like you are a broker mate.

Declan: 16:38

You should get your done. So I mean we probably don't want to go the rabbit hole of like.

Colin: 16:41

You know the cost of kids and all that sort of stuff. But I think what I've been well, what we have been able to create creating that, you know, four and a bit years is it's like financial freedom in owning a business, also the flexibilities of being able to parent. You know, I think that's the beauty of owning your own business is sometimes it's like you can go on. Maybe you can take an hour out of the middle of your day, you can make that hour or a couple of hours up at you know nine o'clock at night or whatever it might be. So I think if you, if honestly, if you're thinking about starting your own business, just fucking do it, jump in, try to give it your best shot. Have you sorry for cutting you off? Have you ever met?

Blake: 17:27

you do a lot of finance for employees and business owners, right, and you have an intimate understanding of their financial position. Obviously, we won't talk about anyone's financial position, but like what's the biggest difference that you see between someone's finance and your business and someone's finances being an employee? Is it like a stark, wild difference? Well, it is.

Colin: 17:51

It's like I think you can really tell like a lot of like a lot of our high net clients are all self-employed. To be brutally honest, I mean, like that's that's once again, that's not a knock on being. You know PAYG there's like we've got a lot of high income earners in that space still, but I think you know, I think that's a big difference. I think in owning a business, I think it just opens up so many more avenues. The earning capacity is, you know I don't know the statistics behind it, but you are driving every dollar that goes into your pocket. Whenever you're working for someone, then you're driving money into their pocket.

Colin: 18:36

Yes, I know that there's bonus commissions that you can earn from that, but you know it's, I think it's and being, whenever you own a business I think you guys can probably attest to this as well it's like you just become a different beast whenever it's yours, like you're just so much more driven in. You know creating something, whether it's you know making money, or whether it's you know creating a brand for yourself, whether it's the people that you want to help. I think it's just like it's just something different inside you that comes out whenever you, whenever you start your own business.

Blake: 19:09

More fulfilling, I find, like you could literally be doing. It's almost like perspective. You could be doing the same tasks and duties but for yourself, and be so much more fulfilled doing it than just sticking in your lane and you know, going yeah, and going between the lines you know.

Blake: 19:28

And that's what I find a lot of recruiters that I talk to. They go oh look, you know, it's just I'm on the hamster wheel. You know I'm just rocking up, I'm doing the job and I'm going home. What's the difference if I was doing it for myself? So you'd be doing the same thing, but you'd be like so much more appreciative and you'd have more gratitude to your clients that want to work with you because you're like, fuck, you really want to work with me. This is my client now, this is my relationship, and your relationships become so much more deeper. You connect with your clients more. I don't know if you, if you were at Westpac, you'd be coming on a podcast talking about talking about breaking, but it's very B run in the Westpac.

Blake: 20:09

Yeah, but so so your mindset kind of opens up, I find, and becomes more fulfilling when, when you know your name's on the door, so to speak. So yeah, so that's, that's really interesting.

Colin: 20:19

What is it? Let me put this to you sort of budding. Let me put this to you when you started your own business, did you notice that people that maybe you didn't know were following you or talking to you or whatever it might be like, whether that be friends or family all of a sudden engage in any services that you were doing when it became yours?

Blake: 20:39

Yeah.

Colin: 20:40

That was the biggest thing that I found whenever I I was always pretty active on socials hey, I'm you know, I'm a home loan manager for Westpac or BOQ or whatever it might have been at the time and not get much traction there. As soon as I put my name on the door Connor Lachlan, arch Brokerage, my business all of a sudden friends, family, I'm going. Where the fuck have all you guys come from? Like it's crazy the amount of people that are then invested in like hey, this is yours, you know what. I do want to come and support you and you know, some of that's changed with, like, working for a singular company and get oh, you got, we've got to go with Westpac. That's all of a sudden, we got access to 60 different lenders. But I think there's still a matter of like, there's an element of trust, of like I want to follow you on this journey.

Declan: 21:29

Yeah, Young Australians in business. They get raised up big time. And what are some other myths that people don't know? Because, mate, like me and Blake, we obviously both customers of yours. We bought houses from you and it was a consistent process for both of us, super proactive, just how we think we work with our clients. So we're really receptive to it, and a lot of the information we get is the standard cookie cutter before you know. Getting to the point, like I know, we spoke five years ago and I pretty much got laughed out the door at Westpac because I didn't have enough money to buy a house.

Blake: 22:01

That wasn't me doing the laughing.

Declan: 22:03

That was the bank, but maybe seven years ago actually not five and then to come full circle and you know we still got it done is, I think, really special and I appreciate that. But what are some things that people don't know? Like we were just chatting earlier and you're like mate, we actually get paid the same from all banks and get access to 60 banks, because companies and candidates come to a recruiter so they can get access to essentially what should be the best companies available to them or the best options that's going to suit them, not just like one, you know, just shaft them off. So there's a lot of similarities between recruiters brokers.

Declan: 22:40

I think the simplicity of starting a business is we find our own clients and candidates, you find your own clients and you've got the banks. So that's like a really low entry level business, which is why it seems a lot easier for us as well, which is a fortunate thing for us. But, as a broker, what are some things that we don't know that you know that people should know when buying a house, thinking about you know, in the profile of a recruiter they're high commission people, low basis. Sometimes they think you know what's in it for them. Am I only getting sent to CBA because Cole's getting the best deal, like, can you sort of bust some myths on that, or can I fire some questions off and you can be like all right Quick fire.

Declan: 23:21

Well.

Colin: 23:21

I guess one thing is like a big myth within this industry is they think that it costs to go and see a mortgage broker. That shit's free.

Declan: 23:31

So it's like a candidate is free to use a recruiter as a home buyer potential home buyer it's free to use a broker to buy a house.

Colin: 23:37

Absolutely so. The way that it works is we have, we've got a main agreement holder, which is loan market. In my instance, they like the licensee, they hold the credit license they have. They're the conduit kind of between the bank, the bank pay them and then they pay us. So we get paid like on a monthly basis and it's usually in a rease. So we get paid from the previous month the month after. But we get an upfront and we get a trial commission and, like you said, all banks pay virtually the same and we've got access to all these different lenders.

Colin: 24:12

us it doesn't matter who you go to. We want to put you in the best situation possible. So you know, we're going to do the research, we're going to try and find you the best rate. We're going to make sure that it's going to, you know, suit what you want to do now and into the future. It's not kind of like and don't get me wrong, I'm sure there's some, I'm sure there are some shitty brokers out there that just go fuck, this is going to be easy. So I'm just going to go and pop them over there. But for us it's kind of like let's find you the best situation possible. We're usually going to give you a multitude of options. It's really up to you Like we can recommend someone, but it's up to you who we go with at the end of the day. So you know there's the free side of it, which is always a question. So we get paid a commission by the bank. There's nothing weird or untoward going on with the interest rates. If anything, we're able to get you better interest rates that you can go and get into the market.

Colin: 25:05

But the big thing I say to people all the time is like why waste your time going and trying to find the best deal when you can just engage a mortgage broker to do all the heavy lifting for you? Like, saves you. Like let's say we've got a self employed client and they bank with oh, I don't know if I'm going to give any names yet, but let's say they bank with like a local country bank or something like that. Right, they might go in there and go hey, cool, I want to get a loan for million bucks. Here's my financial, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the bank goes oh, no, we can't do that. What are they going to do? You're going to go to the next bank, go, hand everything in again, go oh, can you guys do this? Oh, no, so on and so on and so on.

Colin: 25:48

So one of the good things I think personally about being a good broker is knowing the bank's policies inside and out. Obviously, the face-to-face stuff and all that stuff is great and obviously you want to be personable and people like you, but you've got to know the hard facts as well. Whenever you get people's documents or you know situations, a lot of the times now I'll speak to someone. I'll get enough intel over the phone and I'll pretty much know hey, that's probably where we're going to send the deal A because I kind of have the rates. I'm always looking at the interest rates to know top of mind, well, who's going to give them the best deal.

Colin: 26:23

And then the other part of it is just the policy inside in my brain to go well, all right, these guys do commission really well. These guys are really good with self-employed. These guys are really good with casual. These guys are really good with short-term self-employed. So it's like what I really love is the easiest way to explain my time in working with the banks leading up to being the broker is like that was my apprenticeship, that was me learning that shit. There are all these different policies, banks do things different ways, and then when you become a mortgage broker, it becomes even more exemplified of like oh shit, there is just like so much different stuff going on from a policy point of view that really you're almost in a position that you could nearly help everyone, which is crazy.

Blake: 27:10

What I find really interesting is when you say different policies. This might seem really vague to people. And to kind of be really specific, and I'll use my own example here, I've got a property up on the sunny coast and I own it like 50-50 with my parents. And I'm trying to get a loan for a property down here in South Brisbane and I'm like, yeah, I own this property 50-50. I want the best rate possible. The best rate might have been I don't know, it's called 5% with this one bank and I'm thinking we're gonna go there.

Blake: 27:44

However, that bank they will only consider they consider 100% of the debt that I'm 50% owner of. And you're like, oh, we can't send you there, mate, because they have to consider the full debt, not half the debt, even though you're 50-50. So that banks out and I'm sitting here thinking, holy shit, okay, so is that every bank? And you're like, no, no, we can actually send it to this bank because they will actually see it. For, oh, if you're a 50-50 owner, we'll take 50% of the equity that you own and apply it to your application. So little things like that, that, depending on each person's individual circumstances whether they're a PAYG with a rental property one bank might go we don't consider rental properties because you haven't had it this amount of time and we don't classify I don't know deductions as part of your application, and then this bank might go yeah, we're fine to consider that, and so these types of policy know-hows are actually super valuable. That, as a normal consumer, you would have absolutely no idea.

Blake: 28:42

And when I was applying for ANZ because that's who I bank with it becomes like this big issue that if I didn't have a broker walking me through these banks throughout because of these reasons, I'd just be sitting there frustrated as as to why I'm getting knocked back and I'd have no clarity. So I think that's a really interesting thing around the policy side of things knowing each different bank around, which is your strength. What about storytelling? Is storytelling now? A lot of people think it's just numbers on a page and you're good to go as a broker though pull me up here if I'm wrong but you need to be a fucking good storyteller, is that right? Yeah, well-. Why does storytelling impact your application? For the people that don't know how your application gets approved?

Colin: 29:28

We gotta remember, at the end of the day this goes under someone's desk that's assessed fucking 10 different files that day, or it goes through a credit manager that's just simply looking at the numbers. Like, as part of a good submission to sending an application to a bank, you wanna make sure you've got some really detailed notes and understanding of, like what's this client looking to do, or like what are the mitigating factors. So that's something that I picked up at Westpac, obviously dealing really closely with credit. It's like we'll find for ways. There's always gray areas in policy, by the way. So it's like it's not always black and white.

Colin: 30:05

Sometimes it's like, well, you know what if we did this, or you know to your situation, maybe it's like, well, wait a minute, we can see that the 50-50 ownership that you know, blake's not having to actually forego that full repayment of that loan. So it's just kind of like putting things together so that whenever it gets in front of that credit manager or that assessor, that they fully understand the client's position and what's happening with the deal, but also comes back from workshopping with the lenders that you're talking to as well. So for us me personally I'll never just go oh fuck, we'll just put it up and see what happens. You know what I mean. It's always a matter of like if there's anything that's gray, it's kind of like, well, hey, this is the situation that I've got. You know, how do you want us to present this? I've got this, this, this.

Colin: 30:58

So it's just kind of like breaking down the actual deal, having that conversation and always like just kind of getting that reaffirmance of like yeah, like we'll do that, and obviously there's some more straightforward ones, that it's just like they just go straight through. Obviously, you put the application in, you know you're gonna get approved, but if there's any gray area, it's kind of like well, let's have a discussion with the bank, let's put everyone at ease. So like we're not yes, we're not wasting our time, but fuck, we don't want to be wasting your time either at the end of the day. So that's the big thing.

Blake: 31:26

I'm just connecting these dots to recruitment. So this is really interesting. So this is no different to a recruiter getting a candidate and going screening this candidate, finding out everything about their position, and then going I'm gonna submit them to this company and I'm gonna present them in this light, Cause I know when the hiring manager has 10 fucking resumes coming across their desk and they just no, no, no, and then they have this like this story and this like outlook and this perspective on this applicant and you're like, oh okay, yeah, this, this makes sense, let's get them in for an interview. No different for a broker.

Blake: 32:01

When they're creating a story around, this is like where they've been in the past, this is where I had at the moment, this is where they're going in the future, and then all of a sudden you get this deal over the line. So it's really important to actually partner up with a good broker, like it is with a good recruiter. Because if you're partnering up with a shit broker, a shit recruiter, like no matter how good you are, you could just be flicked across and cross their fingers and you get knocked back. And if you were just with a better broker or a better recruiter, you'd actually get your foot in the door and get a better rate, get a better deal or get the deal over the line in general.

Colin: 32:32

I've seen instances where you could have a deal going to the same bank because we've seen this before where clients gone oh fuck, try to get this through, no good. All of a sudden we've submitted it actually back to that. That's the best option for them, had a chat to that bank, gone back through that lender and we've actually got it approved and it's all just come down to just the knowledge of knowing what's actually going on with the client, like it's just. It's actually mind blowing the differences it can make by finding a good broker or a good recruiter Story.

Declan: 33:06

talent, that's all I mean. That's why it's on you.

Colin: 33:09

I'll tell you something right? So whenever we first started the business, I remember it. So it was just me Simi was actually still working at Westpac at the time or BT Financial and the Financial Planning Group. So whenever I first started it, it was just me. I did the bloody end-to-end process. It was out of control, like whenever you think about it now and I mean-.

Declan: 33:29

What's the end-to-end process? What does?

Colin: 33:30

that mean Well, it means like everything. So like I'm, getting-, not a straw. I'm getting the documents from the client, I'm doing the meeting, I'm doing the submission, I'm doing all the compliance paperwork, I'm doing the you know bloody reconciliation through zero. I'm doing fucking everything donning a business. Shout out X recruiters. Ah Shout out X recruiters. No, but I'm serious.

Blake: 33:51

We'll flick you that 50 afterwards mate 20, 25.

Declan: 33:54

X broker.

Blake: 33:55

Okay. So if there are any recruiters out there that are interested to find out what it's like to have a VA, support them in their role whether that be to bill more, reduce tasks that they don't enjoy doing or be a more effective recruiter in their niche then we definitely recommend reaching out to the outsourced people or top, reach out to them, inquire on how they can implement a VA in your agency and to support you. And if you mention X recruiter or Confessions of a recruiter, they will give you a 13% discount off your bill per month on this VA. That will allow you to scale your business, scale your desk and to bill more and make more money. So go, reach out to the outsourced people, say Confessions sent you, get your discount and see what is possible.

Colin: 34:44

I went through that and it's just there's just so much going on that it's kind of like fuck, it's like we weren't spending enough time. What I realized over time was like fuck, let's really focus on getting everything from the client, because in those early days it was kind of like I'm just running, I'm running as fast as I can. Oh yeah, give me some pay slips. Oh yeah, what's your living expenses? Roughly, it's kind of like just working on the fly, trying to get work done. Yeah, okay, yeah, we can do that.

Colin: 35:15

Whereas what I sort of learned over time was we came up with a bit more of a process around like hey, this is how we're going to do business.

Colin: 35:22

Guys, I need you to fill in this form to start out and I want to get all these loan documents. And what then happened? There was A. We started to value our own time a little bit more, but we also value valuing our client's time more, because it's kind of like we'll give us everything and that I can give you real time information that actually works for you. So it's kind of like I know exactly where we're going, I know exactly what you can do, where we're probably first started out whenever I was just running around crazy at the business and I'm like yeah, your borrowing capacity is about, you know, $600,000, $700,000, which you know wouldn't have been too far off. But then I might have got some documents back in my mind and be like oh, okay, it's just come down a little bit, let's go and lodge that pre-approval. So, whereas now it's like really process driven, so that we can provide the accurate information and give clients real answers.

Declan: 36:15

And what about this one, mate? Like when we were going through the process, what we could have got approved for was mind boggling. Why is that a thing?

Blake: 36:27

In terms of Like when you go on a mortgage calculator and you put in your income.

Declan: 36:31

No, even when you speak to college like hey, mate, we can get you this. And you're like, what the fuck? I couldn't even imagine ever borrowing that much money. So like, why does that happen, mate? Because personally you're like I can't afford that. But how come the bank can be like hey, technically, you can afford it.

Blake: 36:45

They can load you up with that.

Declan: 36:46

If you don't essentially go anywhere and you don't need any food and you don't do this, this and this, yeah, of course you can afford it, but like, why is that a thing?

Colin: 36:54

Well, just, I think probably what we saw, probably particularly around when you two bought, I think what we saw is that was like a really common feedback. So rates were low. Yeah, that's the biggest thing. Rates were low, the buffers kind of weren't as harsh as what they are now. So it was kind of like that was the normal feedback we got.

Colin: 37:13

Hey, you can borrow this much like, oh shit, like you know what I mean. But at the end of the day it's like for you guys it comes down to earning capability. So if you're like keeping money in the business, reinvesting, then obviously you look at it and you're like, okay, I'm only paying myself this amount of money. Fuck, I can borrow that, but you know that repayment sounds huge when you actually think about from a business owner's aspect.

Colin: 37:39

The bank is looking from, like, talking about general terms. The bank is looking at everything. Hey, what's your net profit? Do you have depreciation in the business? Is there interest outgoings? What wage are you paying yourself? So all these things start to add up. And so the bank's actually taking into consideration well, what's that all look like? Not just hey, I'm paying myself 120. Exactly, I'm not. I'm paying myself 120 grand a year. The bank's not just looking at that, and once again I'm talking, talking more general terms here but it's kind of like shit. The net profits to undergrand. I've retained that in the business. I've got 120 grand salary here. I've got 80 grand worth depreciation from a car that I've written off, that I've paid for and I've written off last year. Bank ads are all that up and go well, wait a minute, we've got. I don't know what that fucking is.

Blake: 38:25

Half a million bucks. You know exactly right.

Colin: 38:27

All of a sudden you can. You want to service on half a meal?

Blake: 38:30

Well, fuck, we're going to give you two million bucks. You know what I mean. All of a sudden you got to make it 120 grand a year Technically. You're looking at it going fuck, I'm only making 120.

Colin: 38:38

Well, you're not. You're not only making 120, but you're looking at that going, I'm only paying 120. So it comes down to but I always say to people the bank can say, and it happens in reverse ways, some people go, fuck, I'd love to be able to borrow more. And some people might be this is actually. This is the thing the bank does, a kind of like a blanket rule whenever it comes to expenses. So you know, and and and no two people are going to have the same expenditure. You could be on, you could be, you know, earn 120 grand a year, you and somebody else, but your expenses you might be like, oh fuck, I'm blowing five grand a month, whatever it might be right on groceries bills, this, that and the other. The other person might be like, oh fucking, I'm living at home or they don't go to a fancy gym, that's total they go to Tenerife athletic go enjoy themselves.

Colin: 39:35

But you know what I mean. Like everyone's going to have different things that they want in their life or they're spending in their life. So this person might only be spending a thousand bucks a month and mate, fuck, I see it all the time. But the bank might be sitting there going well, we have a baseline, which is what they call him household expenditure measure, that they allocate to whether you're single to facto, you're owning X amount of dollars a year. So they will have a baseline of like, well, it's three grand. We're going to say that the that your expenses should be three grand a month.

Colin: 40:07

So this person that's only spending a thousand is actually being penalized because they're like well, fuck, I'm not spending three grand a month, but the bank wants to use that as a baseline, as a safety net, right? So this person might be sitting there going shit, I want to be able to borrow more money because my expenses are so low, whereas the other person over here I mean in saying that if they're spending five grand a month, then the bank actually takes the higher of those amounts, but they might be sitting there going I might say, oh, you can borrow this, and they might be going oh, fuck, I don't want to borrow that amount of money. You know what I mean. So it's different situations for different people, but it comes back to budget. I always speak to people like, just make sure you can afford the thing.

Declan: 40:47

So him is the one, him, him, him.

Blake: 40:51

So three grand a month, no, matter what you're, no, no, no, it's different. It's different for if you're like once again.

Colin: 40:57

So if you're a business owner and you're paying yourself $120,000 a month, but you've got this net profit, you've got pre-preciation, 20 grand a month.

Declan: 41:03

Fuck, you, wouldn't need a broker.

Colin: 41:06

Maybe not. Why'd you come to me then? But you know, let's say sorry, 120 grand a year. You've got all this other stuff. All of a sudden the bank's assessing you, going well, fuck, we're saying that you're earning 500 grand a year, right. All of a sudden they're not your own year's 120,000 and your expenses are, they're not working it off.

Colin: 41:27

On three grand a month they might be going well, fuck, 500 grand, that's actually like six grand a month. So it's a sliding scale. All banks have different and I mean this comes in a borrowing capacity as well. So all banks usually have a different hem expense depending on the applicant. So once again, talking about that sort of thing, it's like well, they might say Westback might say 120 grand a year, three grand a month. Cba might say 120 grand a year. Well, we only think it's two grand a month. So everyone has a different sliding scale on this, which then feeds into well, that bank's hem is a little bit lower.

Colin: 42:02

Therefore you can actually borrow more money with them, which comes back to fuck you crazy not to have a chat to a broker, because once again, a bank might say yes, but you might only be able to borrow 500 grand with them.

Colin: 42:15

And maybe that's like, maybe that's your deal and you're like that's plenty, but maybe you go to another bank and they go, oh shit, you can actually borrow 600, 700. The other thing is, on top of the hem is there's also a buffer that banks will add on top of your loan, right? Which is the whole idea of that, which is a great initiative, is it's kind of like well, rates continue to increase, which obviously we've seen over the last couple of years. We wanna make sure that you've got the affordability, if those rates increase by 3%, that at that stress level you're still able to make your repayments based on your situation. But there are lenders out there that might only go. Well, we're only gonna add a 1% buffer on top of that or sometimes in no case and no percent buffer on top of that. So the monthly repayment and the affordability once again increases.

Declan: 43:05

Policy. Hey, how are we ever meant to find this shit out? You literally can't, unless you talk to not even brokers, mate, they just need to talk to you.

Blake: 43:13

But what was the award that you won? Again, mate, world's Best Broker, brisbane.

Colin: 43:21

Best mortgage broker in Brisbane? Yeah.

Blake: 43:24

What's that based on? Is that based on, like customer service stuff, like that looking after people?

Colin: 43:30

You know what the beauty of this is? There's I think I've spoken to you about this before Decker's butt the beauty of this award and why I actually am like this is it's a pretty cool award to win is the fact that it's actually not numbers driven. It's not like how many settlements have you done how much? Because, like some of the brokers on that list Big dogs, big dogs, man, big dog operators, and you know, we slowly sort of find out where I climbed out the chain, which is awesome, but it solely was based on feedback, that or people voting that we're happy with the services that we were provided, nice.

Colin: 44:08

So like we don't have the biggest social media At Arch Brokerage, we don't have the biggest like social media in the world. We don't have a heap of followers. But one thing I will say is like they just come out and droves. Whenever that came out, it was just like well, they must have right. And I just look at that. We've only been around for four years, but we must be doing something right and it's the experience that we've provided to our client Cause all that other shit. It's like how many dollars you've written all that sort of stuff? Obviously that goes in the back pocket. But like, fuck, why do I really do this? To be honest, I'm just so long for the journey Like I fucking love telling people hey, shit, guess what? Your loan just got approved. Hey, guess what, the house is yours, congratulations. Yeah, the bank owns, it's got the mortgage on and all that sort of stuff. But being able to come along for that, for that journey, is fucking so special every time and sit in there in that gray jumping.

Colin: 45:03

you just fold it, put it in the.

Declan: 45:05

Thing chuck it in the post, mate, you know what my parents cause.

Blake: 45:08

you sort of my parents out as well. Yeah, I came over for like a dinner and I think dad was talking about you, I don't know at one point, and then all of a sudden, an arch brokerage Woody came to the door and dad's like mate, were you fucking talking to Colin about me? I'm like what? No, he's like I just got a fucking hoodie. I was like, oh, that's awesome. He goes. This fucking feels pretty good too.

Colin: 45:33

So actually you know where I get them from the print bar.

Declan: 45:36

Yeah, normally it's over here.

Blake: 45:37

Yeah yeah, yeah.

Colin: 45:38

So and funnily enough, sim knows the owner. She used to do CrossFit with him out at Mitchie Jared, andrew, his brother, yeah, yeah, nice. So, mate, but that's, everyone says the same thing. Did I tell you about them?

Declan: 45:52

You did, oh nice. Cause I said you had the blended.

Colin: 45:56

Yeah, and I was like fuck, that looks sick, I need to get some, I need to get some of the power. And one thing that we just got onto was hoodies and I was like it's just something different. Like I remember, when I was with the other brokerage, it was kind of like oh, should we send out, you know, a?

Colin: 46:10

bottle of wine or a pen, and I was just like you know, it's kind of cool. It's got our branding on it, it's subtle, but it's not fucking like in your face. It's kind of like yeah, it's subtle on the jump bar, something that like people don't really give a shit what's on them, especially when you're cold or like it's a nice winters evening, you can just chuck the arch hoodie on, yeah, and mate the amount of people that send me, send me photos in them, first and foremost, but like what tends to happen I don't know if it's the same with recruiting, but like you start to like get in these groups of people that hang out together.

Declan: 46:47

So, whether it's like, well, mate, look at the trickle on effect from us. I've just found out about Blake's parents, Tina and Ed Jess, yeah, yeah, yeah, Mate. Yeah. Who else is there? Tina's dad.

Colin: 46:57

Yeah, I think you two are actually fucking our one of our top referrers, to be honest.

Blake: 47:01

Really.

Colin: 47:02

With like clients that come back through, which maybe just comes back from being a business owner. Word of mouth you obviously like spreadin' the word, Mate.

Declan: 47:10

if we put our name to something people know, it's fucking legit.

Colin: 47:13

Well.

Blake: 47:13

Respect to calling it arc brochery.

Colin: 47:17

Ha, ha, ha, ha ha ha, but so that was something that we just started doing and so, anyway, sorry, I've got one of my, one of the first clients we brought on. It's like they're all engineers and they catch up for this. They do like a family. I mean, some of them are family, but some of them are friends and the other I might've been. 12 months ago they sent me a fucking photo. They were all in their art hoodies having dinner. No shit, there was like 15 of them there and I'm just going fuck, how good's this?

Declan: 47:49

Yeah bro, that is awesome. That's what it's about.

Colin: 47:51

Yeah, 100%, because, like you create it community in a sense. There it's just like oh fuck, oh, haven't you got a hoodie yet? It's you know what I mean Like. So it's, mate, we love doing it and it's a small cost. It's the bloody say thank you for coming on the journey with us, you know.

Declan: 48:06

And if you want to work out like a few other things like what really tarnishes your application Cause I know the myths come around like A is it what, not A pay that we have to pay, everyone slanders out and says, fuck, if you got after pay you'll never get a loan. Tax, tax, what are like some shit that really sets you back, that you want to be weary of and go make sure I'm not in that position. If you love a bit of Ecom and you know that big like Friday, those Amazon subscriptions, those Amazon subscriptions.

Declan: 48:34

You're losing track of your receipts. You're buying that much stuff, yeah, what do you do in those? So what are some pitfalls to avoid?

Colin: 48:40

Well, one thing I will say not the bloody, bloody B2 sales, see, but like have a chat, Go on have a chat to a bro. Or go on, maybe not to a bank, Go on, have a chat to a broker. Like have a look at that, I mean.

Declan: 48:53

Can you give us any layman terms right now?

Colin: 48:55

Well, okay, so spending right, Spending spending was a big thing back like two years ago. Actually right around COVID it was like, oh fuck, how much he's spending on Uber Eats.

Blake: 49:05

The bank was gone.

Colin: 49:07

What's this, what's that? That's like eased off a fair bit. It does have to do with clients declared expenses. These days Now we've got an obligation to go through those to make sure that they're not taking the piss. You know what I mean. Like oh yeah, I'm only spending a thousand bucks a month. Then all of a sudden we go through the bank statements and like fuck, you're spending five grand a month on this, that or the other. But there's room to move there. It's kind of like the bank kind of accepts that you know, maybe Christmas had just rolled around and you'd spent more than you usually would. But so budget budget's a big thing. Like get a handle on what you actually spend. I mean that will come down to saving as well.

Declan: 49:49

So not any like apps or any tricks that they can use to rein their budget in and track it A lot of the banks have it these days. Yeah, like automatic on your app Like Westpac on a.

Colin: 50:00

Westpac have it, cba, have it. I think I think a lot of the banks have now some form of way of looking at. One thing that we do for our clients is, whenever we obtain the bank statements, we have a system that runs through and gives us the last six months worth of expenses for all fields, so like groceries, entertainment, dining out, health, all that stuff. So we've got a full breakdown. So like one thing I will say is, if you want to have a look at it, reach out or go and have a chat deal broken, because I mean it costs us two parts of bugger all and we don't charge anything onto the client for it Comes down to like that research phase. But I guess that can kind of ascertain what that's going to look like. You can create a spreadsheet to start to have a look at, like okay, where's my outgoings going?

Blake: 50:46

I always thought and I don't know if I made this up, but I always thought that if you could prove financially that you're putting away whatever the monthly or weekly payment amount is of the loan that you're going for, that that should be enough credibility to an application to say that you can afford and buy the property. So, for example, if I was putting away a thousand bucks a week, or the mortgage I wanted to get was a million bucks and I don't know, let's call it a thousand bucks a week, and I was renting for $5.50 a week and then I was saving $4.50 a week and I just say $4.50 a week for six months, kept paying my rent, and then I could go with the application and go I'm already spending, saving the $1,000 a week for that mortgage. So this is like my proof that I should be able to afford that million dollar loan. Is that? Have I just made that up?

Colin: 51:39

or is that all right? It goes a long way.

Colin: 51:40

The one thing I will say is, obviously, the less savings you have, I guess, the more reliance. Maybe you've got to get on a guarantor or you're using one of these schemes that are available right now that the government are providing for first home buyers, the like. Let's say you've had 25 grand sitting in a bank account and the bank's not seeing that move much and you're borrowing your absolute max and maybe you're living expenses you're spending a little bit more than maybe you should. That's when questions are going to arise, right, but if you're in a position where, like you just said, you're renting, you're putting away money, there's going to be less of an onus from like credit looking at it, going oh fuck, you're spending way too much money. Or you know there's just going to be less question marks on your application. So the more that you can get in the rhythm of putting away enough money, that would be like a mortgage.

Colin: 52:44

You're payment, you're showing one of the there's. You know there's a few C's that go into actually putting a credit application together, but one of them is character, and so you're showing good character by, like, all right these guys are. You know, maybe it's paying off your credit card in full every month, maybe it's you're paying rent on time all the time, maybe it's you're putting away $1,000 a week, or a fortnight or a month. All this stuff comes into building what is a credit application, which is ultimately going to be the difference between you getting approved or not. So, like, once again, if, if you've got an application, that may be sitting on the fence or whatever it might be, all these mitigating factors of, like you know, look at the character of these guys saving really well, renting as well as saving like, all that stuff is just going to build your profile whenever it comes to applying for an application with the bank.

Declan: 53:37

And what are the three C's people need to be working on? What are the three C's? What are the three C's?

Colin: 53:42

There's like five.

Declan: 53:44

What are the five C's? Can't think of all them off the top of my head mate Character is the main one that.

Colin: 53:49

I always look at.

Blake: 53:50

The big, c's the character.

Colin: 53:52

It is, mate, it is. But I think it's just like that just goes into the submission whenever we're putting it to the, we're putting it to the bank. But the big thing is like getting a handle on your budget. Credit reports, I think, are really like a really good one Once again. We can order those for our clients for every application we do. You'd be surprised how many people forget about a bloody GE or a latitude car that they had for buying a couch or a freaking you know a TV or whatever. It might be interest free. So it's getting a handle on what's actually happening there. Maybe someone's forgot to pay a power bill All of a sudden. It's freaking, there's a default there that hasn't been paid. So it's like I guess it's getting you like credit prepared for when the time comes.

Colin: 54:38

So the one thing I do say is like there's no bad time to go and talk to a broker. Fuck off, we sat down, or was that seven years ago, whatever it was, and it's like okay, we mapped it out a little bit and then we stayed in touch. We remapped out like it gives you the great thing about going and seeing one fucking weather, like whether it's right at the start, gives you something tangible to work towards, like if you don't know, if you're just like oh right, I'm going to put away 500 bucks a week, I'm going to save 20 grand. And then you go and have a chat to a broker or you you know, then you look at I want to buy something for 500. I fucking need more money.

Colin: 55:13

Like you, kind of just working towards nothingness, whereas if you got something tangible, it's like all right, I know roughly what area I want to buy in. I want to be in Tenerife or I want to be in Kedrin or whatever it might be right. What's that roughly going to cost me? Okay, well, how much do I need to save? And that's the stuff that we can go through. Cost you nothing. And then I get to jump on the journey with you. I get to, you know, we sit down and then six months time it's like we really look at it oh fuck, guess what You're ready to buy, which is the best feeling in the world.

Colin: 55:44

The amount of people that I've went and spoke to and then 12 months time or two years time, we go and fucking buy the property. It's like there's heaps. There's so many people that we help in that situation and, honestly, fuck, they're the best ones. It's like you've actually helped them. From what I got, there's plenty of people that are like, hey, shit, I've saved the money, which I'm also super proud of. I'm like great work for getting in that position. But man, just jump on the journey sooner rather than later and actually start to find a tangible goal to work towards.

Declan: 56:14

And what if you are a recruiter? I think that's really special and that just proves you know you're doing things right. Obviously, to have that compounded effect, what about if you're a recruiter? Say you're bill in 7800K, you earn in 250, 300k, but your base is considerably less. It makes up for less, way less than a third of your income. Is it the same as a business owner? You just got to find the preferred bank that likes high commission people. And what are the general rule of thumbs? Say the banks that do consider that. What are the general rule of thumb? Do they have to take part of the commission? Or how does that part work, Because that's also another huge concern? Or being a contractor versus being an employee?

Colin: 56:56

So it's with earning like high commission, lower base salary. Yeah, you've got to find the right bank, because all of them operate a little bit differently, but there's a good sum of them that will take on your current year's earnings. So let's say, like last year you had a. Maybe you didn't have such a good year, maybe you made 50 grand base and maybe you made 50 grand commission, right. This year you got 50 grand base, but all of a sudden you got 200 grand commission. You're fucking knocking it out of the park, right? Or that's what you're on track to make.

Colin: 57:31

Different banks will assess that differently, so some banks will go well, you know what we're going to annualize your current year to date. So they'll look at well, what have you earned this financial year? Now, generally speaking, the minimum period is three months. Some of them are six months. Some of them will then go well, hey, let's see what you've earned this year. Oh, fuck, yeah, you're on track to make 300. Oh, you only made 100 last year. Well, we actually want to take the lower of the two. So therefore, you know, if you walk into the wrong bank, all of a sudden you're hand-breaking what you're able to potentially borrow, because there's other lenders out there that are going to you know. Look at the commission income completely different.

Declan: 58:09

So you're telling us you have a massive coordinate and could literally change your life?

Colin: 58:13

Yes, I add recruiter actually I won't name any names, actually referral from you. I had a recruiter that came and seen me and when we did the initial figures I was like, yeah, okay, this is roughly what you can borrow. Well, this is what you can borrow. By the time he was ready to go, he'd had a couple of big months of commissions and it changed the borrowing capacity by 200,000 bucks.

Declan: 58:38

Wow, that is truly life-changing.

Colin: 58:42

Well, we were talking about buying something for 500, and now we're talking about buying something for 700, and originally we're sitting. I don't know we were sitting there going what am I going? To be able to buy for 500? How far out am I going to have to go first home? Good savings, by the way, all that sort of stuff. But he was just like, oh fuck, I just don't know if I'm going to be able to get what I can get. And it's just funny how dramatically it changed.

Declan: 59:05

Oh, I know who you're talking about.

Colin: 59:07

When the time come. Yeah, so you know that. Just goes to show Fuck.

Declan: 59:12

I was there. He told me.

Colin: 59:14

He talked to another bank. He talked to another bank and that bank viewed it completely differently, so he would have been far worse off going through that.

Declan: 59:22

I was there on the other side. He's like, bro, I fucking can't do anything. And then I was like catch up with him every couple of months. He's like, yeah, bro, Cole did this. And I'm like, yeah, mate, he's the best. And he's like, yeah, mate, I can't believe it, Because it's opened him up. He was looking at like fucking whoop, whoop, whoop, or just canceled the idea.

Colin: 59:36

Yeah, correct, and that thing we were talking about before. But, like some people will walk away deterred from that, you know, going I can't do it now, or I'll park it for 12 months, or I've got to save more or whatever it might be, even if you've got a second opinion. People's actually I don't get people's loyalty to a bank. You know. The real common one is oh, I had a dollar mitre camp with CBA. I've been with them forever. But that loyalty actually ends up costing you. If you've maybe I mean we see people that I also have already gotten pre-approval then they come and reach out to us and it dramatically changes what they're able to do. So it's kind of like if absolute worst case costs you nothing to go and get a second opinion.

Blake: 1:00:21

Yep love that. That's been awesome. Thanks for coming on and sharing your wisdom and some insights. If there's recruiters listening to this and they want to get their finances in order they want to get a mortgage, they want to get a car loan or they just want to see what their capacity to borrow is how do they reach out to you?

Colin: 1:00:37

If you have socials or email or phone, you'll find all that information online. But it's colon at archbrokeridgecomau and honestly I'd like.

Blake: 1:00:50

What's your number?

Colin: 1:00:51

Oh, four, double nine, 303-472. That number again is but honestly, I love, I love, just I love. Chatting about this is going to sound boring as fuck. I just love chatting about home lines. I'm talking to people about where they've come from. What are they looking to do? What do they want to buy? Just feel free to reach out. I'm just happy to just talk some shop, if you want to talk shop and mate, you've got a team.

Declan: 1:01:18

What's the structure or what's the delivery team look like now? Because, mate, there's a few more blue shirts popping up every week.

Colin: 1:01:25

Well, it's crazy, isn't it? I think about that journey like it was. So it started out as me. See me was still working in the bank, then she came out and was doing sort of that back end stuff. Then we had Jude sister joined the team and then in the last 12 months we've added three people, so yeah, seven of us now in total three brokers, four support staff, nice and mate. It's been the best thing ever, like growing the team, getting the foundations behind you to actually, you know, make sure that you're looking after your clients as best you possibly can, and serviceability is really good.

Declan: 1:02:07

Serviceability is really good at the moment and, mate, you can deal with anyone in Australia. Hey, absolutely, so anyone can reach out to you. You've got plenty of capacity, you're ready to go and fucking. I'm excited, mate, because I know what it's like. Mate, it's a special feeling being able to hear that on the phone. So, mate, if you are a recruiter looking for this, and I'm invested.

Colin: 1:02:24

I'll tell you right now the guys in my team probably hate me for this, but I think a formal approval or I get confirmation settlement goes through.

Declan: 1:02:33

I'm fucking going, I'm up and about jumping up and down.

Colin: 1:02:36

Yeah, nice.

Declan: 1:02:37

Let's go Love it. Recruiters want to reach out. Thanks, brother, appreciate you coming on.

Colin: 1:02:40

Mate. Thank you guys so much. I'm proud of both of you, so thanks for having me.

Blake: 1:02:45

Thanks, dude. Awesome Thanks for tuning in to another Confessions of a Recruiters podcast with Blake and Declan. We hope you enjoyed and got a lot of value and insights out of this episode. If you have any questions or you would like to recommend someone to come on the Confessions podcast, we would love any introductions and remember the rule of the podcast, like share and recommend it to a friend. Thanks for watching.