KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's top mortgage broker is not a shy woman - at age 33, Suzie Oliver is in the final stages of moving out of the office at her home and into new business premises.
But unlike other brokers, who like to let people know exactly how successful
they are, Suzie won't say how much business she wrote last year.
Surely dropping a multi-million-dollar number would be the best way to add to the kudos of being named the country's best mortgage broker.
Well, not in Suzie's case. She won't say how much business she wrote in 2007 as that would give too much away about her personal finances.
One of the reasons Suzie won the top broker of the year was the way she goes about disclosing to her clients exactly how she is paid.
It's one of the first things she does, laying out the way fees and commissions are paid to her by the lenders who ultimately provide the mortgage money her clients are looking for.
And because she tells everyone how she's paid, by saying how much business she wrote last year, she might as well open up and display her private bank statements.
"All our clients get to see exactly what we get paid from the different lenders," she says. "That's one of the first documents we go through with the clients when we go and see them. People are impressed by it.
"We started doing this about two years ago and it was surprising the comments we got about [it]."
Suzie began in the banking and finance industry more than 12 years ago, after starting as a personal banker with the banking co-operative PSIS, then at finance company Marac.
From there she had a stint at BankDirect before deciding to head out on her own account as a mortgage broker in late 2002.
And being named Mortgage Broker of the Year, awarded by the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association, isn't just a mutual back-slapping exercise, because the nominees are not drawn from the industry but from the banks and financial institutions that lend the money.
While, on the face of it, you might not care too much about how well your broker gets on with the banks, it's the quality of that relationship that might help you get the best deal.
"Basically it comes down to professionalism and the quality of business you put through to the lenders," says Suzie, of Whangaparaoa.
"So a lot of it's to do with how you present a deal. It doesn't come down to just filling out a form and sending it off to the lender. It's about the story you put behind it."
And the banks care, she says, with applications going through more scrutiny than just being fed into a number-crunching computer.
"The way that I look at it is that if it was my money I was lending out, I would certainly want to have some of the details behind the client's situation. It's no different as far as the banks are concerned."
Suzie steps in and gives the background to the lenders, explaining and clarifying parts of the background, or application, that have the potential to cause problems.
It's here she has to be careful of conflicting objectives - she must present the best case for her clients, but anything misleading and the lenders whose money is being handed over won't want to keep dealing with her.
"I'm certainly not telling any fibs, but every application I present, I will present in a good light.
"That's not only for the client but also for the bank. We need to take into consideration that although we are working for the client, our relationship is with the lenders.
"This is exactly why you can't be telling fibs - it's important they get a true picture of the application. It's not about signing up the most business - it's about the quality of business.
"We've put a lot of time and resources into our back office systems.
"We spent eight or nine months changing all of our systems and putting in place systems and processes that would help out existing clients, and to speed up the process of what we do - to give us more time to be out on the road and writing deals."
As banks and lenders try to put the big squeeze on broker commission payments, systems such as this could be the difference between business success and failure.
"There's certainly been a fair amount of change, particularly over the past six months.
"There has been a 30 per cent decrease in commissions, with all the major lenders cutting them. On top of that the property market has cooled.
"So I certainly wouldn't want to be in the position of going out mortgage broking on my own in this market - it would be very difficult in this type of market."
Suzie is convinced that these tough conditions mean there'll be a fall in the number of brokers operating in the New Zealand market.
When times are tough, the kind of work a broker needs to do for a client often becomes more difficult.
"When the market tightens up, the sort of applications and clients you are seeing are generally a little bit tougher, they don't quite fit the normal lending scenarios. There's a lot of people just sitting tight and not wanting to do too much at the moment.
"We are at the point where the market is just staring to turn and people are getting cautious."
Geoff Bawden, chairman of the Mortgage Brokers Association, says the Mortgage Broker of the Year award is pretty tough, with only the true all-rounders making it to the top.
"Suzie stood out in just about all facets and it's quite interesting that that occurred," he says. "It shows that it wasn't just one part of her activities that she did well.
"With some people it's easy to do some parts of the job well and be mediocre at others, but she had all those aspects."
With the market slowing and the lenders tightening the screws on brokers, those with good business practices and efficient systems will be the ones who do best, says Bawden.
"Brokers who have got good systems and processes in place, particularly good customer relationship management programmes, are the ones who will find it easier than others."
