Local mortgage broker goes tech savvy

Local mortgage broker Liz Wilson of Wilson Financial is changing the way her clients interact with her business. Her latest innovation, and iPhone and Android app called the “Wilson Financial Pocket Wizard” will calculate stamp duty, borrowing capacity, even a home loan health check at the push of a button. If you want to know the RBA cash rate release the minute it happens, a push notification will be sent to your phone, it doesn’t get much better then that. With nearly 100 downloads since it’s release last month her clients are snapping up this new product and you can too, it’s all free. Wilson is known as a tech leader in her industry, with a one thousand strong twitter following, regular blogs, LinkedIn, and both personal and business facebook pages, she’s everywhere.

“We’re now using VoiP phones, and cloud backup, we print wirelessly and we synchronize contacts with all of our devices. We’re at a point in the business’s growth where using any form of technology to give us an edge is important. All staff use two screens to speed up our process’s, for instance, I’ll have three soon.” Says Wilson.

The man behind the iphone app business is innovator Adam King, the director of Mi Biz Apps who built the Pocket Wizard for Liz. He builds custom-branded apps that assist users throughout the entire process of obtaining a home loan; filled with handy calculators, a multitude of features and most importantly Wilson Financial contact information and unique business branding.

Adam will soon be able to offer solutions to other industries such as Real Estate and Accountants, and Liz urges others to jump on board with his services. “they blew me away with their service”, says Liz, ‘turnaround times from Adam and his team were astonishing. Any concept I threw at them, they had it ready in days. They were extremely accommodating and patient, as I can be a real perfectionist. I was able to talk to Adam throughout the process which was really fantastic. I feel he is revolutionizing our industry.’

Liz has personally enjoyed sharing her new app with clients, her staff, and business associates, including referrers and other mortgage brokers. She says, ‘the feedback has been tremendous and the app is already creating a buzz! I feel technologically validated and completely thrilled to have this handy little tool, not just at my disposal, but everyone else’s.’

Technology is changing how we communicate and do business, and apps provide an exciting introduction tool between business people. ‘A quick flick of the text and I can send the link to someone’s phone,’ says Liz, ‘it’s the new business card’.

And then you might not be so concerned!
....... Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe began shortly after it's civil war and confiscation of private farms.  During the heights of inflation from 2008 to 2009 - measuring Zimbabwe's hyperinflation became increasingly difficult as their government stopped filing official inflation statistics (according to Wikipedia. ) 
Zimbabwe's peak month of inflation is estimated at 6.5 sextillion percent in mid-November 2008....  One wonders what it could possibly be now?

 

Broker News (brokernews.com.au) advise that a cruise company in Scotland recently took out a $1.5m policy on its boats to protect them in the event of an attack by the Loch Ness Monster. 

The policy was really a bit of publicity for the company's 80th anniversary of Nessie's first alleged sighting.  But the cruise liner's company took a "better safe than sorry" approach and was quoted as saying "how silly would we look if it did (attack) and we weren't covered for it?

mmmmmm.......  Have you done your SWOT analysis recently?  It might be worth checking this out!

It's finally arrived - Budget night!  The waiting media pack have dusted off their abacus' and have sharpened their pencils...  Tune in at 7:30pm to get the low down straight from the Treasurer The Hon Wayne Swan - as he prepares to deliver the budget.
Past Prime Minister John Howard has given the thumbs up to the economy according to todays Sydney Morning Herald (14/5/2013) ...
 ....As the federal Treasurer Wayne Swan prepares to deliver his sixth budget, the
  economy has had a big tick from former prime minister John Howard.
 Mr Howard told a mortgage and finance industry convention on Friday in Sydney  that the economy was resilient despite the belief that it was ''running on  empty''. 
Read more at this site AND be sure to let us know your comments too!

Spewing Cash.....  In these tight economic times, just about everyone is looking for new revenue streams.  Well, next time you visit the beach make sure to keep your eyes peeled for a potential goldmine:  whale vomit!  A British man has been offered 50,000 British pounds for a weird-smelling rock his dog found on the beach.  It turns out the rock is covered in extremely rare whale vomit.  The ambergris, which is sometimes spewed up by the hapless mammals, is a key ingredient in expensive perfumes.  Forget taking metal detectors to the beach.  Just give the rocks a good sniff!
Mmmm....  I'm off to check out the ingredients in my latest purchase of French Perfume!

BIG FOUR HAVE MORE ROOM TO MOVE - (Australian Broker Issue 10.07)
The big four have more room to move on home loan rates than their non-major rivals, according to the RBA.
Benn Robertson and Anthony Rush of the RBA's domestic markets department, said a tougher funding environment exists for non-major banks compared with the big four, despite the fact overall funding costs have dropped across the sector along with falling interest rates.
"For the regional banks, the evidence suggests that the overall increase in funding costs since the onset of the GFC has been larger than the increase in funding costs experienced by the major banks
""A large portion of this increase has been driven by the substantial shift in the composition of regional banks 'funding liabilities away from securitisation and towards relatively more expensive deposit funding, as well as an increase in the cost of their deposits and wholesale debt funding" they said.

Liz's opinion - "Major banks have been more consistent on their package discounts and unadvertised pricing concessions than non-majors.  We take this into account as a loan term is 25-30 years, so we don't just opt for the 'flavour of the month' lender. 

Check this out......  Are you in the world's happiest city? 

Out of the top 10 happiest cities in the world - Sydney rates the second highest!  An urban paradise pasted yellow with sunshine, surf and fine dining.  You got it!  .......It's where everybody would like to go," says Anholt.  Everybody thinks they know Australia because they've seen Crocodile Dundee.  There's this image of this nation of people who basically sit around having barbecues." Perception!  NOT the reality.......

Source Australian Broker Issue 10.07

The Big four have the edge on the Non-major lenders!

Sourced from The Australian Broker Issue 10.07

Close encounters of the Economic Kind....
The World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, recently released a report on global economic risks for 2013.  Among the humdrum list of perennial potential downsides was a rather interesting one: first contact with aliens.  Evidently, the WEF doesn't think global leaders - or global economies - are adequately prepared for the possibility of extraterrestrial contact.  The WEF team urged "the global elite to prepare themselves and their nations for such a discovery.  The scientists suggest that new funding and new brain power will be needed to overcome the challenges that humanity will face as a result of its encounter with an extraterrestial civilisation."
Source - Australian Broker issue 10.03
Will we be prepared???