The week that was 1st February

Morning All,

… From a typhoon -infested Derbados; it’s stair rods up here! ☹

So; in the week when Luurrvvv was hopefully in the air for lots of you on Valentine’s Day, her Majesty also hopes that Camilla will become the nation’s future Queen of Hearts with her recent announcement and staying with the dysfunctional royal family , the current Royal favourite, the Duchess of Cambridge read her Bedtime Story for the nation’s under 5’s on CBeebies. {I wonder if the Gaffer was watching; he loves Kate and reckons she’s gonna rescue the Royals from themselves !}

Then finally we had the Queen of heartbreak herself, whom the Gaffer feels totally the opposite about! ‘’Sanctimonious and full of self pity these days …’’ is how he described her this morning. I write of course of Adele who pulled it out of the bag once again, scooping multiple awards at the 2022 Brits!

< Gaffer ; ‘’yeeah ; days after leaving thousands of UK travellers flailing in Las Vegas after she aborted her overly-promoted concerts, Kerry !‘’ >

The Gaffer was far more complimentary around Week 5’s mortgage figures which saw an astonishing £40,716,535 of lending completed across 138 cases.

Top of the charts this week was Nick Harris who found himself surrounded by a bevvy of beautiful ladies (his London colleagues can fill in the commentary on that !? 😊) with a very tasty £3,091,097 of lending across 9 cases. Nick was flanked by Sarah Norman with £2,880,824 of lending across 7 cases (clearly emptying her in-tray before sailing off on a Caribbean cruise? 😊) and then Rachel Vernile came in in third place this week with £2,454,692 of lending across 2 cases, one of which wins her the “Big Time Bertha” Award for her £2,242,499 case with Santander.

Other heart-warming performances in Week 5 in terms of case value and volumes came from Michelle Barraclough, Chris Taylor, Paul Oglesby, Adriana Rocha, Zak Abdul Karim, Ron Walton, Raff Federico, Sandy Mcilvenna, Simon Holdsworth, Mike Atkinson and Spencer Havers.

On another point, it really is uplifting to see so many of those who have only been with Mortgage Force for 6 months or so making a real impact already.

Rachel Vernile is one such headliner as seen above but in recent weeks several of the 2021 debutants have been writing noteworthy case volumes which belies their recency ; these include William Townsend, Lorraine Standring, Michelle Claude, Ben Jeffries and David Scotland.

With 4 more new starters lined up before Easter (& from right across the regions) it's this kind of geographic diversity which lenders like to see and which secures us greater traction with them. {see below re Procuration fee and Service Level discussions}

Talking of which, on the lender side you completed the greatest number of cases this week with Santander totalling 21 for £8,936,461 of lending.

Protection – Week 5

The ladies are really tearing it up at the moment out there , but let’s hear it for the boys this week, as out of the 24 deals completed on the protection side of the business in Week 5, Nick Price secured 6 of these and Pete Chappell, 4.

Nick also completed the highest policy amount this week for £400,000 with LV and on the provider side, you also completed the greatest number of deals overall with LV totalling 10.

Management Notices

MANAGEMENT NOTICES;

1. A huge Thank You to all who have signalled support for the upcoming LiveMore / RIO pilot.

We are almost there now with the terms / loan sizes / revenues etc & there will be a fulsome note from Kevin on this by Friday with some briefer notes on it today and tomorrow.

(The total refi loan book / new purchase opps here could exceed £200m. Ave loan sizes are circa £150k but broker fees will be chargeable . Many refi 's will be to support a sibling 's FTB app which you will also secure 👍). If you

do receive a lead today or tomorrow then do please ensure that you contact asap as we are being forensically measured on the outcomes etc

SCOTLAND

2. In that context , thanks to the Scots who signed up to the pilot last week . Pictured above are this motley crew minus the two new starters we are also signing up in Jockestan .

(Both pictures are worthy of Caption contests and the Rhys & Chloe one certainly looks like a Love Island Winners piccie! 😀).

The Gaffer has a few suggested captions for the one featuring William Townsend which it’s probably best if he just sends via Whatsapp to William and the girls; William certainly looks contented! 😊

MEETING WITH LENDERS / THE CANNES CONFERENCE IN OCTOBER

3. Finally, a note re our efforts to secure more "Bang for our Buck" with lenders, prompted by the picture of Rory & Ian above at a function last week.

We continue to challenge lenders on why procuration fees haven't risen in line with all other inflationary aspects of life.

Those discussions are both tactile & febrile, and in some of these cases we are also seeking another way in which we can secure more "Love". As KD & WAA have found, you can catch just as many flies with honey as vinegar. As a firm, WBBS ironically permits us to spend more on lenders & conventions etc than our peers do, but to good effect. And we are pleased to say that we now have 6 lenders provisionally confirmed for our Cannes conference in October including Rory & Ian above, Adrian Moloney & his OSB team, The Horse & the Fleet crew, LiveMore, TML (Sara P attending 😊) & potentially reps from HTB, RBC, Shawbrook and UTB.

In this way, even if we can't secure the desired uplifts in procuration fees we can at least be positioning ourselves as the lenders' ‘’favourite broker‘’ & ergo our Service Levels & results on marginal applications can be fully optimised.

Some of you will be familiar with a property and finance event in the south of France called ‘’MIPPIN‘’. Our aim is to now position the Annual Conference along these lines such that a limited number (8 to 10 max) key lenders desperately want to come and join you every year, and in this way the relationships which you can build directly with National Account Managers etc can lead to them agreeing more cases for you . Recent results from each of MT Finance and Landbay fully validate this approach.

OK. Apols for the lengthy note this week. Have a great week all.

Kerry.