FS360 Podcast - Episode 57: Home Loan Reviews

A summary of the podcast is included below:

Since October 2020, Alisha Steven and her COSIMFREE loans review team at Mulcahy & Co Geelong have saved clients $2 million in interest savings.

Chatting with Gavin Nash and Director of Lending Warren Freeman on the FS360 Podcast, Steven discussed the role she and her team play in ensuring clients are consistently given the best interest rate for the duration of their home loans.

“We have a team of three of us and after settlement we touch base with our clients just to check in … check their rates (and) ensure they’re on the lowest interest rates possible,” Steven said.

“Then we just continue to keep an eye on our clients and their loans, we review their loans annually. We like to have that communication with our clients that’s ongoing for the life of their loan.

“We’ve been reviewing clients’ home loans for many years to make sure everyone has a sharp rate and it’s only been approximately two years ago that we started adding up the savings … we’ve actually hit $2 million in interest savings for our clients.”

Freeman and his team of brokers play an important role in securing the best rate for their clients’ home loans at settlement, a service that he said nearly 70% of Australians use now, compared to 5% 25 years ago.

The ongoing review of each clients’ home loan is then handed over to Steven and her team.

“Our first review actually begins nine months after settlement and then one year and nine months, two years and nine months,” Freeman said.

“The reason we want to do that is if you’ve got a fixed rate, you don’t want us to call you on the anniversary of your loan and say ‘your fixed rate ended today, what are we going to do now?’

“We’re always 12 weeks ahead of the anniversary, that gives us time to plan with the customer and strategize what to do next.”

This communication could then expand into other aspects of clients’ financial portfolios, which other departments under the Mulcahy & Co banner could assist with.

“Those conversations can lead into ‘my son’s about to turn 18, do you guys do car loans?’ and then we help with the car finance,” Freeman said.

“It’s very personalised … when Alisha rings a client for their review, there’s notes on last year’s review, so it’s not just a start from scratch.

“Somebody might say ‘I’d really like to get an investment property in the next couple of years’, so notes are taken and that becomes the script for the following reviews. Have you got the equity? Have you got the income? … Is it time to make an appointment with the broker to discuss that need?”

While this is a practice that could be done yourself in conversations with your bank, it’s Steven and Freeman’s teams that have the experience and expertise to secure the best rate for their clients, as the latter did for a client recently.

“I’d helped him get his first home loan … and he then made an appointment to talk about his first investment property,” Freeman said.

“He said ‘I knew I was coming in tonight but the other day I was in the (bank) branch … and they offered to do a health check on my loan and they dropped my interest rate for me’.

“They took about a quarter of a percent off his rate. Whilst he and I had our appointment … my staff went to work and got his rate dropped a further 0.2% at that same bank.

“Yes, you can do it yourself, you probably just can’t do it as well as we can.”