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Sharon Mawby, Head of Sales and Marketing:

“Wow. What a few days we had! Our MI Live roadshows in Wakefield, Watford and Bristol were some of the best ones yet. Again they were packed with insightful guest speaker presentations and round table discussions. But it’s you lot, members of our Network and Club, that make these events so worthwhile, so on behalf of Mortgage Intelligence I’d like to say a huge thank you to those who attended and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Hopefully we’ll see you at Conference!”

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Britain has seen a large increase in the number of self-employed workers in recent years but there is a belief from some that the mortgage system is biased against them. Our product Development Manager, Nathan Reilly, takes a look at whether the mortgage market is making the most out of Britain’s own bosses.

Demand for specialist residential mortgages is being driven by a diverse set of customer needs, particularly from the self-employed. According to Paragon’s Q4 2017 Financial Adviser Confidence Tracking (FACT) Index report, based on interviews with 198 mortgage intermediaries, 21% of specialist lending is for the self-employed.

But amongst Britain’s own bosses there is a common belief that because they’re self-employed they will struggle to get a mortgage. A staggering 30% of self-employed homeowners believe the mortgage process is biased against them, according to research by Aldermore. It only takes a quick google search to see the number of articles, blogs and questions from the self-employed asking if they can get a mortgage!

So, is the mortgage market making the most of Britain’s own bosses?

The size of the self-employed work force alone suggests there is huge potential in the market. They now account for a substantial 15% of British workers having risen from 3.3 million in 2001 to 4.8 million in 2017, according to the Office for National Statistics.

For intermediaries this presents a huge opportunity. It’s important to ask yourself whether you are keeping in touch with these potential customers and regularly reviewing how lenders are adapting their criteria and products to meet their needs. For instance, do you know which lenders take one year’s accounts? How different lenders treat different types of income? Which lenders are best for sole traders, contractors and partner or company directors?

To fully tap into the self-employed market, we need to get the self-employed talking about mortgages and start debunking the myth that they’re unable to get them. Why not make use of the promotional materials available on Broker Zone? Simply log in and order your self-employed posters, flyers and digital images to help you make the most of Britain’s own bosses.

Here at MI we aim to provide the highest level of service for our members which is why our Broker Support Team are also always on hand to take your call and help place your cases. Put them to the test and let them help with your tricky self-employed clients!

To become a member of our award-winning network or club contact us today on 0345 130 7446.

2018 was a big year for the industry and it brought with it many complicated changes and advancements that heightened the value of intermediaries. Our Products Development Manager, Nathan Reilly, takes a look at the main changes from over the past 12 months.

Retirement Interest Only

In March Retirement Interest Only mortgages were reclassified. Having previously been classed as a form of equity release, advisers once needed the appropriate qualification to advise on the product. They have since been redefined by the FCA and RIO mortgages, in their simplest form, are retirement interest only mortgages that don’t have a fixed repayment date.

Members of our Network and Club received a dedicated later life lending edition of our Insight magazine in September to keep them up to speed with the changes and we also hosted specialist RIO webinars and covered the changes in more detail at our MI Live roadshows. Moving into next year we’re looking to host a dedicated later life lending workshop too!

EPC

The start of April saw changes to the private rental sector. Rental properties, since the change, must have a minimum Energy Performance Certificate rating of an E. The change applies to new lets and renewals meaning existing tenancies have until April 1^st 2020.

This meant that landlords could no longer rent out properties with a rating of F or G and if required energy improvements should be carried out. These improvements range from simple things like swapping light bulbs for energy efficient ones to potentially more complex and costly issues like insulating wall cavities or roofing and updating a boiler system.

GDPR

A big change, that still remains relevant today, are the changes that were enforced as part of the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The changes overhauled how businesses process and handle data and GDPR became the new framework for data protection laws.

The mortgage industry has felt the full impact of GDPR too, from lenders to brokers, everyone has been affected. GDPR is here to stay so it is important you continue to think about the data you hold, the way it is stored and what you may need to change within your business.

Technology

Like almost every other industry, the mortgage industry has seen changes in technology over the past 12 months.

From APIs seamlessly connecting the intermediary and lender – saving time by removing the rekeying of information, to chat bots supporting customers through the mortgage application process, there have been a whole host of advancements in 2018. We covered many of the changes for you in the October edition of Insight Magazine, we gave you an overview of some of the technology out there and talked about how it’ll impact you.

We believe that technology has an important part of play in the future of the mortgage industry and we are continuously looking at how tech can improve the services we offer and how it can benefit our brokers.

HMOs

One of the largest changes we saw towards the end of the year was the changes to Houses of Multiple Occupation regulations. The main changes meant that houses with five or more people from two or more households must now be licensed as an HMO, properties with any number of storeys can now be an HMO, houses now have a minimum room size for bedrooms and they must have an appropriate place to store rubbish.

To become a member of our award-winning network or club contact us today on 0345 130 7446.

2019 – the start of a new year, new plans and a new strategy! There are plenty of opportunities that lie ahead this year and Sally Laker, Managing Director at Mortgage Intelligence, highlights the importance of having a strategy.

Having a clear ambitious but also achievable strategy is essential for every successful business. So here are some top tips to help you make the best out of the year ahead.

Road Map

A strategy is a plan to enable you to get to where you want to be in a specific time scale. Think of it as a road map to get you from A to B, it stops you getting lost and it keeps you on the right track to ensure you reach your destination. 

Decide on your goal

Firstly, decide your destination or goal for the business, what do you want to achieve this year, what are your business priorities, growth plans and areas you want to explore?

Identify potential opportunities and threats

Understand your business, identify the strengths and weaknesses that could hold you back. What are the potential threats and opportunities (SWOT) and have you taken outside factors into account in this changing world? A SWOT analysis is a simple but effective way of jotting down all possibilities that might thwart or supercharge the plan.

Involve key people

It is so important to involve the key people within your business to make sure you have the right information and insight to build your strategy and agree the goal that you want to achieve.

Develop objectives

Once you have agreed on your goal you need to develop some key objectives that should summarise the priorities that will deliver that goal.  They need to address KPIs, resource, and budget requirements.

Once you have agreed the key objectives you will be able to put the meat on the bones, by translating those objectives into action plans for the people in the business that can deliver them. These could also apply to suppliers and third parties. Once these are agreed and geared to deliver the key objectives, you stand a really good chance of delivering your goal.

Create a strategy document

Finally, the most important part, formally create a strategy document, clearly defining the goal or vision for the business, with key objectives needed to achieve that goal, and the action plans underpinning the key objectives. Make sure you clearly define who is responsible for delivering them and within agreed timescales. Share the document with everyone in the business, and review it every month, make it a live document, so that you are not only checking if you are on track, but sharing good news with everyone in the business. Also tweak the plan if you need to, change frequently happens in this industry and you need to be able to accommodate unexpected curve balls! Keeping a close check on progress and pushing forward each month is the key to success.

Whatever your strategy looks like, we’re here to help! We have a wide range of services available for you on Broker Zone, from marketing materials to compliance support exclusive products. Make sure you’re making the most of what we have to offer! Visit brokerzone.experiencemi.co.uk

To become a member of our award-winning network or club contact us today on 0345 130 7446.

This year sees the return of our MI Workshops and last month we hosted our first event of 2019 – our Buy-to-Let workshop in Gatwick. Here, Head of Sales and Marketing, Sharon Mawby, gives us a run down of how it went and shares a few pictures from the day.

I was very much looking forward to the return of our workshop events. They give our brokers a detailed look at more specific topics as opposed to the mortgage and protection industry as a whole. We had a great day at Gatwick and our advisers engaged in some valuable discussions with the lenders who attended.

We had some of the UK’s biggest Buy-to-Let lenders with us. Kent Reliance, Vida Homeloans, Together, Pepper Money, and Fleet Mortgages.

I’m so pleased to say that the workshop received great feedback – 95.5% of our broker’s who attended the event were either satisfied or very satisfied with all of the masterclasses from the lenders as well as the event management.

Our team worked hard to make this as enjoyable as possible so I’m glad to see our advisers found it beneficial! Next up we have our flagship event, our Annual Conference in Twickenham Stadium, which by the way is shaping up to the biggest and best yet!

Anyway, here’s some pictures from the Buy-to-Let workshop… Enjoy!

To become a member of our award-winning network or club contact us today on 0345 130 7446.

Our Annual Conference is just around the corner. Twickenham Stadium is set to host our biggest and best Conference yet on March 28^th. Senior Marketing Executive, Nick Terry, gives us a sneak peek behind the scenes of our flagship event!

Having been with Mortgage Intelligence for just over 8 months this is the first Annual Conference I’ve been able to plan – and I’m incredibly excited to see it all come together! I’ve looked at last year’s Conference at Ascot, which looked incredible! But I’m hoping to be able to put my own stamp on Twickenham Stadium! 

We’ve been planning for this for some time now, we started in summer 2018 and we’re just putting the final details in place! Those advisers who’ve registered to attend will have received confirmation of their 1-2-1 meetings and masterclass streams. It’s exciting times!

Recently we announced Martin Bayfield as our key note speaker and I can not wait to hear what he has to say. I also can’t wait for the buffet on the day… just look at it!

We’ve been on a number of site visits and I’m so happy that we’ve chosen Twickenham Stadium – it boasts such history and is a perfect venue for our biggest event of the year. Hopefully we’ll be able to put on a better show than the England rugby team did in the Six Nations!!

You’ll also get the chance to meet plenty of Mortgage Intelligence staff at this year’s Annual Conference too, from Compliance to the Broker Support Desk they’ll all be there making sure you get the most out of the day.

I’m really looking forward to March 28^th and hope to see many of you there. See you at Twickenham!

For all the latest information follow us on Twitter and connect with us on LinkedIn.

To become a member of our award-winning network or club contact us today on 0345 130 7446.

We spoke to Commissions Supervisor Louise Clarke about how the team have improved the payments process over the last year, as well as her favourite TV show and dream holiday!

After previously working as a Beauty Therapist and at JP Morgan, Louise joined the company back in 2010. Soon after joining the Commissions Team, Louise became a Senior Administrator, before taking over the supervision of the team.

How has the Commissions Team managed to improve their efficiency by so much in the last year?

“Everyone on the commissions team has pulled together to share ideas on how we can make the whole process better. We wanted to make the whole team and its processes more effective in terms of speed, whilst maintaining the very high level of accuracy we are so proud of.

“We have worked with IT on improving the systems in 2017, which has both streamlined the commissions process and made it easier for us to spot any issues that may crop up on statements. All this has enabled us to consistently hit our service standards for express payments within the deadlines.”

How has the automation of so much commissions processing actually improved the service quality?

“We have worked with lenders and providers to ensure as many statements as possible can be processed through our automated payments system. This means that we have now been able to put even more focus on the validation of statements and the analysis of the payments themselves.

“All this ensures that although we now process at least double the amount of commissions from the year before, we can now also ensure that even more controls and checks are put in place so that the payments made to advisers are what they should be getting.”

What’s one of your favourite things about being Commissions Supervisor?

“I am constantly looking for ways to improve the team even further, so I ensure I am still fully involved in the daily duties. This means I am able to understand exactly where we could still do better in terms of systems, processes and customer service.”

Even though you were lucky enough to recently have gone on honeymoon to Venice, do you still have a dream holiday destination?

“If we can ever find the time to fit it in, my husband and I would love to go to Thailand and destination hop around South East Asia!”

I can’t help but overhear how much you keep on track of your TV shows! What’s your current favourite?

“Until the next series of Game of Thrones starts I will have to say The Walking Dead or I’m a Celebrity (Toff was a worthy winner by the way!). I am also loving Peaky Blinders at the moment, but any boxset is good for a binge watch for me!

What’s your favourite place to eat in Bournemouth?

“It would have to be Funky Griller for decent food, atmosphere and value for money. Everyone loves a good steak!”

Join our award-winning Mortgage Network as an appointed representative, or become a member of our Mortgage Club, to start benefiting from our fantastic range of comprehensive services and support. Call the Broker Support Team on 0845 130 7446 (opt 1) to find out more.