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Challenges new mortgage brokers face when entering the industry

Man pressing head against wall

Being a mortgage broker is an exciting and rewarding career.

Entering the world of mortgage banking can be a convoluted and unnecessarily difficult journey if you don’t choose the right aggregator. This is even more true if you’re stepping into the industry for the first time. Launching your mortgage banking career can be a life-changing experience — for better or worse.

It’s not as simple as just making a logo, choosing an aggregator, and signing a few papers. Your mortgage banking career will be full of unexpected twists and turns from the beginning, and you’ll need to adapt to an ever-evolving industry. The good news is: help is at hand.

But before we delve into what it takes to have a long and prosperous mortgage banking career or business, let’s wind back to the very start. Many keen, intelligent men and women who step into the world of mortgage banking quickly step out of it. The challenges you’ll face as you enter the industry can’t be underestimated. 

Typical barriers. 

Usually, barriers to entry into the mortgage broking industry are very high. There are a range of challenges you’ll come up against, but here are three we commonly see. 

1. High mentoring costs (and sometimes, the mentoring isn’t that good…). 

Once you’ve completed your Cert IV or Diploma, high mentoring costs and a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching, means budding mortgage brokers are left fending for themselves from day one. In other words, when you can afford a mentor, you might discover that their advice doesn’t work for you. Or more likely, their teaching methods don’t align with how you learn best.  

2. Difficulty establishing a client base. 

It’s very difficult to establish a client base — even experienced brokers have challenges growing theirs. When you have limited experience, and don’t have a proven track record you can show to new enquiries, establishing your expertise and building trust is a tough slog. You’ll have to work hard and smarter than your competitors — working out how to do that is another challenge in itself… 

3. Inefficient business practices. 

To make matters more interesting, you’re likely to be finding your feet and probably haven’t made your workflows and admin processes efficient yet. This means everything generally takes longer, and you may miss out on opportunities because of poor business practices. This is something that will naturally improve over time as you become familiar with the industry, but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating in the short term! 

Purple Circle program for new mortgage banking brokers. 

At Purple Circle Financial Services, we made it our mission to ensure the journey for new mortgage banking brokers is a positive one. As experienced brokers ourselves, we noticed that many new brokers were handed a “throw them in the deep end and see if they float” pathway to the industry (and they weren’t floating). We looked at that and said, “we can do better.” 

We created Purple Pathway Academy — an initiative of Purple Circle — specifically to support new mortgage banking brokers. Purple Pathway Academy is a comprehensive training and guidance program that not only provides the necessary industry knowledge but also offers business advice, practical support, tools, teaching, software, resources, and mentoring along the way. It’s the best way to get a head start in your new mortgage banking career.

Scholarship entry. 

If you’re awarded a scholarship, your Academy experience is on the house — pay $0 per month until completion. No cost for CRM software and compliance for the first 12 months (standard fees apply thereafter). 

Standard entry. 

As a low-barrier Academy, we keep costs as low as possible. Standard entry is only $100 + GST per month until completion, as well as standard fees for CRM software and compliance apply.  

Ready to kick-start your career? 

With so many challenges ahead of you, it’s important to choose the right partner to guide and support you on the broker journey — from the beginning. Read up on the full Purple Pathway Academy experience, or get in touch now to talk about enrolment and scholarship opportunities. We’d love to welcome you to our network and provide you with the best possible start to your career.  

Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Guarantee Scheme


The Scheme will enhance lenders’ willingness and ability to provide credit and will be available for new loans made by participating lenders until 30 September 2020.

The Government will provide eligible lenders with a guarantee of 50% per cent of new loans. Some generic terms are:

  • Businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million.

  • Maximum total size of loans of $250,000 per borrower.

  • Loans will be up to three years, with an initial six month repayment holiday.

  • Unsecured finance, meaning that borrowers will not have to provide an asset as security for the loan.

Reduced Interest Rates


Consider your current banking arrangements. The Reserve Bank has recently reduce the cash rate and lenders have passed this on to various loans they have.

Instant Asset Write Off


An increase in the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 30 June 2020.

Deferment of Loan Repayments for up to 6 Months


The banks are developing their own approach as to how to deal with requests from their clients for repayment holidays. Some are automatically granting the request, others are assessing the requests individually.