New Broker: Katherine Looke

Q. What made you pursue broking as a career?

I liked the corporate world, but I thought I would try to pivot and try something new. I started studying to become a patient transport officer, then work my way up to become a paramedic.

Life threw me a curveball, and I was in a car accident. I found myself in a position where I couldn’t work full-time hours or as a patient transport officer. Within a very small time frame, I could no longer do what I was planning to do, which I’d spent six months trying to do.

I had to really sit down and think, “Well, what can I do that provides flexibility for me to do what I love, but to go to medical appointments and still work as hard as what I want to work at and achieve a monetary value of what I want to achieve?”

And I came across broking. I did my certificate while I was on Transport Accident Commission (TAC) payments because I couldn’t work at that time. It was a now-or-never kind of thing.

Q. What types of loans are you specialising in?

On the residential side of things, I specialise in emergency and essential service workers.

Pretty much 80 per cent of the residential loans that I write are for police officers.

And that can range from first home buyers to refinancing. I have a couple of clients at the moment who have sold their houses to upsize as well. It’s a mixture of everything.

Q. What was the first loan you settled?

It was a police officer who was a first home buyer. We started talking in October 2024. I had only gotten accredited in September 2024 and then started setting up, being a new broker, and getting pre-approval – but their loan didn’t settle until June last year.

So, it was really interesting spending so many months talking to one client to then get to settlement and then to still wait to get paid. It was a really good learning opportunity.

They were a lovely couple for my first introduction into broking!

Q. You recently diversified into commercial finance. Why?

My parents are business owners, and I have a small business on the side for my homewares. Also going through COVID-19 was so disheartening for me – walking down to my local strip of shops, and so many of them having to close up shop because they couldn’t stay open.

Even to this day, there are heaps of retailers that have had to go out of business. I just want to support them.

Q. What advice would you give to someone starting out?

If you become a broker, you’ve got to have the financial support to get you through the first two years.

A lot of people think that the money is just going to start rolling in, and the referrals are going to be every week.

There are always periods of when you’re talking to the clients and then you’re doing pre-approvals and then you have to wait for settlement and then you have to wait until you get paid by the aggregator.

So, you have to have your finances there to support you.