The thoroughness of a brokers "fact find" document will also give you an idea of how much detail they will use in product selection/strategy formulation.
xcept for mine obviously which has caused a few people to become a clam.
ta
rolf
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The thoroughness of a brokers "fact find" document will also give you an idea of how much detail they will use in product selection/strategy formulation.
Hi all
I feel compelled to write this post because last week I had a significant number of people chatting to me after getting horrendous advice from their brokers - advice that could cost them quite literally over a hundred thousand dollars over the life of their loan/s.
If you've found yourself here on the SS forums, you know you have access to AMAZING brokers who know about structure, tax, investment and more. By asking and learning here, you yourself have the opportunity to learn more than many brokers will know about loan structure, tax effects, and the best way to squeeze as much from your properties as possible.
Please do not assume that your local broker will know this stuff - they probably won't. It's not taught in broker school and it's not default broker knowledge.
Please don't assume your broker has the knowledge required to set you up properly simply because he or she is a broker!!
You need to protect yourself, and you need to ask questions so you can be sure they understand investment lending and can relate to what you're doing and what you're hoping to achieve.
Some good questions to ask/conversations to have are -
- Do you invest in property? If so, how many do you have? What kind of investor are you?
- Talk to me about the tax implications of the loans we'll be using. ( Hint - "there aren't any" is the wrong answer)
- Is there any particular structure you'd recommend for my loans? Are you a cross-collateralisation fan-boy?
If you get faced with a blank stare at any point of this conversation, you can be pretty certain they aren't the broker for you and it might be best to keep looking.
Any other key questions/convo points you like/recommend?
1. Do you send your clients anything for christmas...eg a non working scratchy
The most important question;
"How many quality hours have you logged on Somersoft honing your trade"
The most important question;
"How many quality hours have you logged on Somersoft looking for chips people throw"
This post is timely for me personally ...
Then I found SS and thought I would align myself with someone here ... no names mentioned but needless to say he wasn't interested in my business or returning emails/phone calls ...
Have now tried someone else here but sometimes I feel I am small fish for this person. I've had the discussion on what I hope to achieve but there is no "plan" in place for me and am in two minds whether to swap again.
SWS
DON'T just rely on the brokers recommending each other, happens a lot on this forum. A lot of back patting and hand balls to each other. I would suggest speaking to other forum members who are not brokers ask them for recommendations, most would of had had dealing with the brokers and are able to give feed back.
I would suggest speaking to other forum members .
DON'T just rely on the brokers recommending each other, happens a lot on this forum. A lot of back patting and hand balls to each other. I would suggest speaking to other forum members who are not brokers ask them for recommendations, most would of had had dealing with the brokers and are able to give feed back.
This is so true for me as well. I've been through a couple of highly recommended brokers on these forums (of which one of them has posted in this thread on how to select a good broker) and almost exactly the same scenario. First one was unresponsive and I was clearly very low on the priority list for the second one. Extremely annoying for simple transactions which I had to push and push to get done.
I have to agree, how people can give recommendations on services that they have never used does not make sense.
Many of the brokers on the forums weren't always brokers. I've had several of my properties financed through brokers prior to becoming one myself and several of my clients have become brokers. Also not all lenders allow us to write our own loans, so if I need a loan from one of these lenders I also have to get someone else to do it (needless to say I'll make it as simple as possible for them).
Like many people on the forums, the brokers here do talk to each other quite a bit behind the scenes, probably more than most people realise. On one level we are in competition, but we also collaborate and help each other out. One of the hardest things in small business is being isolated. Sometimes talking over a challenging problem with someone else can help you see the answer right in front of you.
I'm fairly certain I know more about some of my colleagues than most of their own clients.
Like everyone else, if you're after a referral, I'll refer you to someone I know and trust. If you're not going to use my services, I'd rather you work with someone I know is up to the task.
I'm definitely not going to recommend someone who I think would do a bad job. That makes me look bad by association. Fixing another brokers mistakes also tends to cost the second broker more than it earns.
Um thanks.
See the last line of my last post
No words needed.
Yeh I saw that, does that cover financial loss in the case of someone you recommend screwing up? You'll wear the cost?
If you bring someone into your inner circle then you are responsible for the outcome, period.
Nope. Do you do everything people tell you too blindly?