Outsourced Mortgage Broker Support
Cut Low Pay-Off Activities: Focus On Business Growth
From data-entry and property valuations to document collection and lender follow-ups, some mortgage broker tasks take you away from what you do best – speaking to new customers and providing home loan solutions.
Outsourced mortgage broker support can help you get the best of both worlds – keeping your pipeline moving and avoiding significant upfront and ongoing investment.
The Difference Between Outsourcing And Offshoring
There is a common misconception that offshoring and outsourcing are the same. They’re not.
Offshoring
Offshoring is where you set up a business offshore.
This is typically done to reduce company tax, but what’s often overlooked is the huge setup costs and time involved.
It requires ongoing investment in setting up systems and training before you can even cultivate the right talent to eventually appoint an offshore manager.
Alternatively, you’ll have to spend time and money to hire a general manager that understands the worker’s rights in both countries or spend time in each country to help set up systems and training.
Offshoring is rarely worth doing unless you have over 20 staff in place to operate productively and to account for natural attrition.
Even then, around half of offshoring and outsourcing projects fail or fail to meet expectations.
Outsourcing
This is where your business enters into a contract with another company that provides you with staff to handle your admin, back-office and other processing needs.
The main benefit is that it’s much cheaper than offshoring this part of your mortgage broking business.
You’ll also be provided with ready-trained staff rather than having to be involved in recruitment.
Onshoring Versus Offshore Administration Support
On paper, offshoring administrative functions overseas is much cheaper than hiring staff in Australia.
Operating in countries like Nepal, the Philippines, Vietnam, and China will allow you to run your business at a fraction of the cost but the devil is in the detail.
Again, it’ll require a commitment to training and setting high standards.
Costs can quickly blow out to the point that you may have been better off spending more to hire Australian staff.
We’ve already set up systems, so you don’t have to!
Call us at 1300 889 743, ask for our outsourcing BDM and discover if you’re the right fit for back-office support.
Why Do I Need Outsourcing?
It goes without saying that paperwork is not a dollar-productive activity.
Neither is waiting on hold with a bank or sorting out an issue with the lender, the vendor, the real estate agent, or the conveyancer leading up to settlement.
With outsourced mortgage broker support, you can:
- Increase sales: By spending less time on administration and data entry, you can spend more time speaking to clients and making deals.
- Grow your capabilities: Take advantage of the training, mentoring, and coaching systems already in place to train the new staff as per the mortgage industry’s specific requirements, so you can continue to grow your loan book.
- Low risk: Business process outsourcing (BPO) staff are dedicated to developing systems and training programs, and they’re focused on hiring the right candidates for the job.
What Are The Benefits?
- Cost effective: Lower your set-up, operational, infrastructure, and technology costs.
- Short-term project flexibility: Outsourced staff can provide extra support for a short-term project, whether it’s for 3 to 6 months or 6 months to 1 year.
- Increased efficiency: Offshore staff are trained to specialise in specific parts of the life of the loan. Having different specialists will create synergy within your team, make you more productive and efficient, and deliver the highest-quality experience to your clients.
- Skilled expertise: Outsourcing companies are often managed by people specialising in their respective industries. By associating with the right company, you get access to the processes and expertise of such companies, which will help you improve your process and develop your staff to handle responsibilities that will add tremendous value to your business.
Our sister company Alaya (formally called HLE Nepal) is Nepal’s largest BPO company, and we have over 5 years of outsourcing experience.
Call us on 1300 889 743 and ask for our outsourcing BDM so we can discuss your needs as a mortgage broker.
How Does Mortgage Outsourcing Work?
To be clear, outsourced mortgage broker support doesn’t change the home loan approval process (as inefficient as it can be at times).
You’ll still complete your upfront assessment and collect documents to verify assets, liabilities and overall eligibility for a home loan.
You’ll then make a recommendation that best suits your client’s needs and goals.
Sound familiar?
Where outsourced mortgage broker support really shines is after this assessment process:
- A support team member will go about collecting missing client documents, organise an upfront property valuation and prepare the mortgage application for submission.
- You come back into the process only to check the application for submission.
- After submission, outsourcing takes care of all customer communication going forward.
How much time would this save you in getting deals approved and sourcing new clients?
What Tasks Can Outsourced Broker Support Complete For You?
Home loan application processing:
- Collect documents for application lodgement
- Order upfront property valuations
- Help clients to complete First Home Owner Grant (FHOG) applications
- Order pricing with the bank
- Lender follow-ups
- Borrower follow-ups
- Process applications in ApplyOnline with supporting documents uploaded into the system
- Provide phone support after Australian Eastern Standard (AES) hours
Post-settlement services:
- Loan book management and home loan auditing (customer care)
- Lead generation
- Managing construction loans
- Increases and variations such as loan top-ups and equity releases
- Problem-solving that doesn’t require broker involvement
- Email blasts
How Much Does It Cost?
It really depends on which country you’re outsourcing to and what skills you require.
For example, let’s say it costs you around AUD $74,800 per annum to have a support team member in Australia.
This will cost you around $34,800 in Nepal because of the strength of the Australian dollar compared with the Nepalese Rupee (NPR).
Who is Alaya?
Our outsourcing business Alaya(formally called HLE Nepal) has been providing BPO services to the Australian mortgage industry for over 10 years.
During that time, we’ve developed industry-leading systems and training to provide senior support and management teams that are ready to help you grow and develop your mortgage brokerage.
We have grown our outsourcing team to 300+ staff and have been providing support to 40+ mortgage broking companies in Australia. Some of our lending brokerages are:
- Abacus Home Loans
- Property Planning Australia
- Activ8Finance
- Foster Finance
- Bluebird Finance
We’re more than just data entry clerks. We’re loan processing experts.
What sets Alaya apart from other outsourcing or offshoring companies:
- We’re clever: We’re a young and diversified professional team who are mostly MBA/BBA graduates.
- Experience with borrower types: Our team is adept at handling more than just standard home loan and investment loan applications. We also service borrowers who are self-employed, building a home (construction loans), buying commercial real estate or buying a property for a self-managed superannuation fund (SMSF) or trust.
- Pricing based on business needs: We have a solution for everything; whether you need a full-time staff or you need to have support on standby to work on your files as and when needed.
- End-to-end services: Alaya provides both basic support services and customer after-care once their home loan is settled.
- Low costs: There are no training fees, and we can hire more staff at no extra charge.
So Do I Have To Provide Any Training?
Apart from your own orientation and probation process, we provide all training to support staff through a dedicated in-house trainer.
Our training team has 10+ years of experience in training offshore staff in the mortgage broking industry
This is supported by an industry-leading learning management system(LMS) that we’re continually updating.
This keeps our support team up-to-date on changing lending policies, compliance and regulations and the most efficient loan processing methods.
What that means is that you and your clients are provided with a seamless mortgage application and settlement experience.
How much do you charge?
It varies depending on your needs but one of the biggest innovations with our BPO services is that you’ll be provided with full-time support staff who can handle a number of tasks.
That means you won’t be charged per deal like some other outsourcing models.
As you continue to grow, a cost per deal model becomes exceedingly expensive.
How Do We Protect Your Data?
We have achieved ISO 27001 certification, an internationally recognized standard for information security management systems. This certification demonstrates our dedication to protecting your data and ensuring the highest level of security practices throughout our organisation
We use the Chinese Wall Security Policy model (CWSP model) or Brewer and Nash Model techniques to make sure that we restrict the flow of information between your clients and offshore staff.
The security is supported by a confidentiality agreement and protection of intellectual property rights.
Is Outsourcing Right For You?
Outsourcing is a great step forward if you’ve built a successful mortgage brokerage and want to spend more time working on the business, not in it.
You’ll be provided with highly trained staff who are ready to dive straight in. But first, in order to get the most out of outsourcing, you and the staff need to be able to trust one another.
Outsourcing is not a good fit for mortgage brokers who are afraid of delegation or change. It’s also not a good fit for brokers who are unwilling to overcome cultural and language barriers.
While outsourced staff are well-trained, both you and the staff members need to make an effort to overcome language and cultural barriers.
Luckily, at Alaya our staff speak fluent English and have undertaken training to better understand Australian work culture.
Will I Meet My Compliance Requirements?
Neither the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) nor the National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (NCCP Act) specifically prohibit offshoring.
Mortgage brokers can even operate offshore as long as they are operating with or under an Australian Credit Licence (ACL) and they’ve completed a Certificate IV Finance and Mortgage Broking [FNS40815].
Similarly, Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) approval isn’t required for outsourcing, but it is required for setting up an offshore company.
This can add another layer of complexity, time and cost that you need to factor in when comparing offshoring and outsourcing.
Fees can be upwards of $25,000 or more, depending on the property you’re looking to acquire as your office.
Where housekeeping is required for both offshoring and outsourcing:
- As per the Privacy Act 1988, you’ll need to amend your disclosure documents and privacy declaration to include that you are sending customers’ personal information offshore.
- Specific professional indemnity (PI) insurance is required to cover your offshore team.
The Pareto Principle
The reality of what you actually achieve on a day-to-day basis may surprise you, but economists have known a simple truth for years.
The Pareto principle or ’80/20 rule’ proposes that 80% of your accomplishments come from 20% of your efforts.
For mortgage brokers, the 20% of your work that brings the highest payoff includes speaking with leads, assessing their situation, providing them with a home loan solution and turning them into a customer.
By outsourcing, you can prioritise your workload and delegate or outsource the work that is less dollar productive and have it completed at a fraction of the cost of Australian staff.
Are you ready to take the next leap within your mortgage broking business?
Call 1300 889 743 and ask for our outsourcing BDM to discuss your needs.