What is a Mortgage Advisor and Why Should I Use One?

Welcome to the inaugural episode of the Advanced Mortgage Solutions Podcast with your host Joel Sadler and special guest Scott Miller, the owner and founder of Advanced Mortgage Solutions. 

In this episode, Scott shares his journey from logistics management and finance to becoming one of the top mortgage brokers in New Zealand. 

He explains the critical role of mortgage brokers, debunks common myths about fees, and offers valuable advice for new home buyers in the current market. 

Joel and Scott also discuss the importance of financial education and the impact of rate cuts on the housing market. 

Join us as we delve into practical tips and insights for making informed property decisions.

For assistance with a new or existing home loan, reach out to Advanced Mortgage Solutions today. www.advancedmortgagesolutions.co.nz 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Okay, hi everyone. Welcome to the Advanced Mortgage Solutions Podcast. Here with your host, Joel Sadler, and our special guest today is Scott Miller, the owner and founder of Advanced Mortgage Solutions. So Scott, um yeah, thanks for joining us. This podcast is a um a new labor of love uh that Scott's decided to put together and just just share and give back to the community and really um help educate the community in the property space um as he's you know confided with me um prior to this recording. There's you know a lot of interesting decisions that people are making, um getting themselves into a bit of grief costing them thousands of dollars. So um, you know, have having education and understanding what you're doing is really important. Um so I'd like to introduce Scott. Obviously, you've got his name there, but I've known Scott for about 15 years or so, and um always found him to be accommodating, um, really uh straight to the point, which is great, which you really need in this space and really down to earth. You know, there's so much smoke and mirrors in in most industries, in many industries, and Scott's definitely not one of those. You're gonna get really good sound advice from him. Uh his background is in logistics, management, and finance, so he's got great real life, real world experience. Um, and then he came back to New Zealand and passed his um mortgage uh broker exams. The best in the country. So you can't get any better than that. I'm gonna make you blush now, Scott. So you're in good hands today, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

It's a while ago, Joel, but here we are. We're still here 20 years later. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, well, well done on that. I mean, I can imagine it's not not necessarily easy to pass. Um, yeah, so Scott, look, I think this is obviously episode one. Um, we've talked about the need. Uh at the moment, the market seems to be really focused on new buyers, people looking to come into homes. Prices have dropped back. We're in mid- you know, middle of August 2025, prices have dropped back a bit. New home buyers are hoping to get into the market and on the ladder. Um, do you want to give us a little bit about yourself and then um we'll move into talking about those sort of new home home um buyers area?

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Look, um my first love uh wasn't finance. I sort of fell into that when I came back from the UK, like you said. I'd used the uh time in the UK to save a bit of money and had some uh favourable exchange rates and bought a few rentals while I was overseas and those sorts of things. Always had a bit of a knack with mathematics and those sorts of things, even younger days, going through school. And um it was a it was my mortgage broker at the time sort of turned round to me and said, Hey, you know, have you ever thought about becoming a broker? And really the best is history. 20 years later, I'm still doing it and loving it. And and I suppose going back to how you opened it, part of the reason for today's talk, at least, is to say that there's just so many avenues of let's just call it um advice available out there. And a lot of it's not from a trusted source, you know. So we're getting a lot of people, including my clients, sometimes going out and making decisions without really uh getting the message from the from someone that's actually at the coal face. And it is ending up costing them some money because the decision and the outcome of what they believed was the right thing to do turned out not quite to be the right thing to do, given where we are in the rate curve and the property cycle and all those sorts of things that really you really get a finer trending and understanding of as you're in it day in, day out, like uh we are here doing the mortgage side of things.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah, brilliant, yeah, it makes sense. I've heard a few horror stories as well. So that that nicely leads into the next question, Scott. You know, um, what do you actually do as a mortgage broker slash mortgage advisor now? You know, what do you do? Um and why would someone need one? Yeah, sure. I mean we've spoken about that, but tell us a little bit about the detail around what you do, you know?

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, look, it's a really good question. And I don't think it's been advertised out there into the masses to the level that it should be. Um we're now um financial advisors. So although we hold a mortgage broker's hat, and that's what the public generally call us, um, we're fully ticketed financial advisors. Um so we've had to sit all the appropriate exams and specialist subjects and all those sorts of things to give that kind of advice. Um and then from the using the years of experience and using the advice, we're we're there to give the client the best possible outcome for what they're looking to do. Because of the cost of ongoing compliance and all those sorts of things, largely some of the bigger institutions out there, the banks and the like, had sort of pulled back from the advisor space a little because they've got hundreds of staff and they, you know, it would just become unaffordable and quite impractical to go and put them all of their staff through the tickets that I had to hold and get and and keep.

SPEAKER_00 4:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Um, so you're finding that some of the frontline staff, at least at banks, aren't allowed to give advice because they simply haven't got the tickets that us uh mortgage brokers have. So the biggest difference, I suppose, um, over the old days is really that we're giving advice that is up to date, it's qualified, and we have to go through ongoing uh educational support and training every year um to ensure that we're keeping up to date and up to specs and everything that we do to hold that license. So you're really getting from the horse's mouth the actual information and advice that you require back with you know being in the business for 20 years.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I think I also recently um re-fixed um mortgage a couple of mortgages that I've got, and um the key thing that I noticed was about you know the value I got out of the mortgage advisor was um the the the experience of dealing with hundreds of people. Like, you know, you've said to me you work over a year you work with a lot of people, right? So you're getting a really good um viewpoint on the market and the issues and the rates and everything that's at play at any given time, right? You know, where I would have no idea because I'm not in that space.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

And you're not only looking at the rate curve and this in the property cycle where you are at that time, listening to the chief economists and what they have to say, or the Reserve Bank on their, you know, sort of nods and fades on what they're looking to do with OGR announcements and cuts, which of course one comes tomorrow, which will be interesting. Um it's also what's happening in that person's life. You know, are they starting a new family? Uh that's a completely different discussion than someone sort of wants to be as aggressive as they possibly can against their mortgage to pay it down very quickly. And typically when you start in a young family, um you're down to one wage for a while. So it's a completely different conversation on how to set that mortgage up to see you through those periods where their income might be a little bit tight. And again, that plays nicely into what RAIDs are doing at the time that we're having that discussion as well. So, yeah, a pretty broad discussions had at the time of even what you would consider quite a simple process, which is to roll your loan over. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Interesting. Yeah, great. Um, and then you know, the other question that um we see a lot of is, you know, how much does a mortgage broker cost? And there's quite a bit online, you know, of this mortgage broker, you know, this person tried to charge me fees, should they be charging me fees? So can you clear up that that's not myth, but the uncertainty around, you know, how your industry works and and and charges or doesn't charge, you know?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

Yeah, I mean, traditionally we're paid by the banks. Um, that doesn't stop a mortgage broker independently mandating a fee for their services, but that mandate has to come up front. Um, the client has to be aware of it. Um, more than likely, if the broker was at any standings, they'd have that signed. Um so there was no disagreement after the fact. Um personally, uh, we've looked into that model and decided not to go down that track. So we have no fee, um, regardless of whether you go all the way through the process and eventually settle on a house. Um or uh, you know, the timing just wasn't right, and uh for whatever reason the pre-approval came to its end and naturally dissolved into nothing. Um and we go and meet those clients at another time when they feel the timing is right. So there there is no wrong and right, but you know, you would you'd certainly be um one of the questions if you're meeting up with a mortgage advisor is to ask, you know, is there any fees from you personally for the service that you provide? Right. And that way, there's no surprises later on.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

That's sound advice. Yeah, definitely. Um Okay, so we're in the middle of August. You just mentioned that there may or may not be a rate cut uh tomorrow, so we won't get into predictions. Yeah. But obviously, in that sort of um context, you know, of rate cuts and I suppose some of the other bigger global things at play, um, and any other uh you know that you have, what would be two critical or one to two critical you know piece of it pieces of advice you would um give to a new home buyer at the moment in the current market?

SPEAKER_01 9:06

Yeah, look, with the OCR announcement tomorrow, I I think it's pretty likely that we're gonna get a reduction. I I I think some of the pundits out there are really hoping for a half a percent reduction, and I think it's more likely that we'll get a quarter of a percent reduction. Uh, and some of that I believe is already priced in. We've had some movements from the banks on their interest rates late last week. Um, so that sort of indicates they are fairly confident as well that there'll be a reduction. So really you're just waiting for the uh the announcement itself from um the governor of the reserve bank to say how big that cut's gonna be, or unlikely that there's not gonna be a cut. Um with the current market, you know, this is the first full cycle I've gone through of interest rates going up and then house prices going down and then interest rates going down, so house prices start to recover again. And and this is the first time that I've really seen we've had interest rates drop for about a year now, but we're only just seeing the sort of green shoots of increased house prices coming up around now, and that's really unusual. Like normally if there's an interest rate uh cut, house prices start going up and they're almost directly connected to each other. So it's been quite unusual in this aspect. So I think right now is a great time to buy a house if you're in a position to buy a house. Interest rates are relatively low, and house prices are also relatively low. And that kind of perfect storm, in a way, isn't a usual kind of uh landscape that you would find yourself in. And so, yeah, like now's a really good time. There's some further rate reductions coming. And you mentioned the world economy, uh, you know, it's not in a particularly good place. I think you'll find the Fed and America are going to start dropping rates, um, Australia has started to drop rates. So there's a real sort of requirement for you know the world economy to sort of get back on its speed and sort of chuggling along and getting into some productivity again. And because of that, you're seeing those lower rates around the world to try and encourage that productivity. And we in New Zealand are just a little cork on the ocean of science, you know. We've got no real influence on world uh you know, interest rates, anything like that. So we'll largely follow that lead as well. So I think you'll find another one, possibly two years of low rates before we'll even see any increases in rates. So a good time. It's a good time.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Awesome. Lovely. All right, Scott, thanks for your uh words of advice today, and we'll see you on the next episode.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

Thanks, y'all.