Daniel Gold of Long Property speaks to The Adviser about how he’s been building his business, the secrets to his success and the challenges he’s faced along the way.
After discovering that he may have bitten off more than he could chew in his pizza-making business, Long Property’s Daniel Gold, returned to the finance industry as a mortgage broker, and hasn’t looked back since.
We catch up with the Victoria-based broker to find out the lessons he’s learned on running a business, why he’s been launching his own book and podcasts, and his top tips for new brokers.
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How long have you been a broker and when did you become a broker?
I’ve been in the industry for seven years, but I started in corporate finance a little bit before then. I’ve technically been in the finance industry for 11 or 12 years, but I’ve been in the industry for seven and I’ve been broking for five of those years.
What made you take the leap into broking?
It was quite accidental, actually. In between corporate finance and mortgage broking, my wife and I had a little pizza business, which unfortunately didn’t work out. We ended up coming back to what we knew, which was always finance.
I felt that mortgage broking would be interesting as it’s a little more personal as opposed to the corporate stuff, which I never felt the same connection with.
It ended up working out brilliantly, and I’ve fallen in love with the industry. It’s been very rewarding.
Was there anything you learned from your past experiences that helped you set up in the broking industry?
After our pizza business didn’t work out, my wife and I spent some time documenting exactly what we’d learned and what we could do differently if we ever got the opportunity to run our own business again.
One of the key things we learned was that I don’t think you have to be that innovative. I don’t think you have to completely create something that no one has ever seen before to be successful.
With our pizza concept, we really tried to change the industry and turn it on its head, and we probably bit off a bit more than we could chew. It was unnecessary, in hindsight.
When I look at my business now, I can see we’ve just done things slightly differently, compared to the broader industry, and that’s worked for us.
Why did you decide to go down the independent route?
I’d had about three years working at a very successful brokerage business before starting Long Property, which is my own boutique firm in Toorak. Those three years were terrific when it came to learning the ropes.
By the time I started Long Property, I had a bit of momentum behind me and therefore I felt reasonably confident that I could set up my own firm without needing as much help as others might when totally starting from scratch. It worked out well in hindsight.
You’ve written a finance book, The Long Property Book, and launched a finance podcast (the Long Property Show Podcast). Why did you decide to do that?
It was part of a strategy to get our name out there and become known as a thought leader and an expert in the field.
I've always written a monthly article on things relevant to property and finance, which I found extremely helpful. We tested our own little podcast and it’s still ongoing and wrote the book as well.
In the early days, we were trying to get our name out there, and, ultimately, we had clients, friends, and referral partners come to recognise us as being someone that they could turn to for help.
Nowadays, given that our business is more established, it’s really just about remaining front of mind to our clients and them realising that we’re still here to help them for their future requirements.
What sort of loans are you writing at the moment?
We’re quite narrow. It’s about 80 per cent residential finance and 20 per cent commercial finance.
We do try and specialise in more complex, larger niche loans. A lot of complex self-employed transactions are something I think we do really well. Naturally, that’s enabled us to develop a terrific client base of executives, professionals, doctors, lawyers and a lot of successful business owners as well.
We love dealing with those clients, and it’s such a humbling opportunity to be exposed to clients at that level and being [able] to help them is extremely rewarding.
Do you have any top tips for other brokers?
One thing I learned just from my own journey, which was very helpful was the ability to learn via a large number of new scenarios. I think the best way to learn in this business is the more scenarios that you observe, the quicker you can learn.
I was with a very high-performing brokerage and saw so many scenarios and I learned a lot quicker [that] way. I’m very appreciative of that experience.
With that being said, I don’t think there are any ways around it. If you start up a mortgage broking business, you’re going to have lower volumes and higher overheads, especially in the early days, and that just creates a lot of cash flow pressures and strain.
It’s all worth it if you enjoy the work, if you can hang in there and get your name out there, the business absolutely starts to flow, and eventually, you’ll have yourself a profitable business. Get through the pain of the early days and just don’t stop.
You can find out more about Daniel Gold and Long Property in The Adviser’s Elite Broker Podcast.
Tune in to the episode, How Long Property helps clients for the long haul, below:
