We need new blood, say brokers

“He now lives, talks, eats, breathes mortgage broking. He’s a real success story and he’s given me an enormous amount of satisfaction and I haven’t earned a cracker out of it,” Mr Hale told The Adviser.

“We as mortgage brokers have a responsibility to keep our industry ticking over and growing by injecting new talent into it and it’s up to us to identify the new talent.”

Mr Hale, who has estimated annual loan volumes of $65 million, said he was in the process of setting up another mentoring relationship with the former owner of a cafe he visits.

He said such relationships could not function properly if they were based on money.

“I feel very strongly about it. I think then it becomes a job rather than something you want to do,” Mr Hale said.

Another Loan Market broker from Brisbane, Cara Quinn, said she had relied on help from several of her franchise colleagues to establish herself in the industry.

Ms Quinn, 30, entered the Loan Market Academy in October 2012 and is set to graduate next month.

The former legal secretary said new talent needed to be encouraged and nurtured.

“It’s pretty evident there is going to be a big exit from the industry in the next 10-plus years. With young blood, it means you’ve got new ideas, there’s more technology being embraced and more efficient ways of doing things,” she told The Adviser.

“I think it’s really hard for people to come into the industry. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a lot of hard work and you’ve got to be prepared to really slug it out to make it.”

Ms Quinn said she was passionate about mortgage broking and would consider mentoring others once she established herself in the industry.