In Your Best Interests: How To Get The Most Out Of Your Loan

As the Director and CEO of Brokerage & Co, Sergio Stefano oversees one of the fastest growing brokerages in Australia. But he admits that he had a rather unusual apprenticeship before entering the world of finance. “After leaving school, I worked as a bouncer on Hindley Street before working as a maximum security correction officer in Port Augusta and then moving into negotiations at the prison.”

Looking back, he can see how those roles taught him to talk to people from every walk of life and approach them with empathy. And though his career path has changed dramatically, he still brings those skills to work every day. Sergio describes the pivot to brokering loans as “an absolute trial by fire”, but he rapidly learned about the business and began developing a network of clients. “I think I only helped 10 people in the first year,” he says, but that grew to 40 in his second year and 160 in his third. This year, he’s on track to broker 800 loans.

Those exponential increases are largely off the back of referrals, with 70% of his business coming from friends and family of existing clients. Sergio puts that incredible referral rate down to a focus on helping clients achieve their long-term goals and regularly checking in with them once the loan has been brokered (he even has a team member whose job is to reprice each loan every three months to make sure they’re in line with the market rate).

That, and “I don’t speak like a banker. Whether they're earning $10,000 a year or a million dollars, people appreciate being spoken to quite frankly, and they like to understand exactly what's happening… Looking back over my career, I’ve always technically been in customer service in one way or another – all I’m doing now is setting clients up for success so they can build the life they want.”

Sergio Stefano’s Top Tips For Getting The Most Out Of Your Loan

1. Ask For A Discharge Form

“If someone is refinancing, unless there are some structural changes in their mortgage, the first thing they should do is call their bank and ask for a discharge form. That kicks in the bank's retention team, which may offer a lower interest rate. Then you know what you’re worth to them and you can speak to a broker.”

2. Get An Offset account

“Interest is calculated daily, but charged monthly. So every dollar you can keep in an offset account is working for you. If you can get your salary credited to that offset account, it’s reducing the interest you pay every day until you spend it, which is better than leaving it in a savings account.”

3. Reprice Your Property

“Even if you’ve bought in the last two years, rising house prices mean you probably have equity in your property. Loan to Value Ratio (LTR) determines your interest rates, and the difference between the 80% and 90% ratio can be 0.5% or 0.6%, which can mean huge savings. But you can get your broker to revalue the property and send through a pricing request without refinancing your loan, which can significantly lower your interest rate.”

Find out more: Brokerage and Co