Former cop fights for the underdog

Policeman turned broker Jeff Kerwin fights for the people the banks leave behind

Former cop fights for the underdog
Jeff Kerwin of Nest Home Loans in Hamilton helps clients that don’t conform to traditional mainstream lending requirements – he helps the people that banks don’t want to.

As a former policeman, Kerwin has a lot of empathy for people that often due to circumstances beyond their control, find themselves on the wrong end of bank lending criteria.

“Clients do sometimes have adverse life affects such as a marriage separation or cancer, where they might miss paying a bill, and at the moment the banks are being very ruthless and in my opinion, not understanding that people do go through hard situations. It’s doesn’t mean they’re a bad person or that they’ll miss a payment on their mortgage. It just means that they have had problems in the past.

“These are sorts of people we help. They have been declined everywhere else and we get them approval. Why do I do it? What’s why, it’s helping the underdog,” Kerwin said.

There is nothing quite like ringing up a client and telling them they have been approved, in particular the niche we work in is quite different from 90% of brokers in the country, ours is the opposite end of the spectrum, so we are predominately non-bank brokers, he added.

“Our typical client is one that has been to all the banks and been declined and they come to us and we get them approved after having been declined everywhere else. That’s a typical kind of journey for our clients.

“They can’t get it otherwise (approval) because they don’t access these loans direct. They have to go through a broker channel to access these types of lenders,” Kerwin said.

Nest gets half of their business referred to them from other mortgage brokers who have exhausted all mainstream lending options, and can’t get approval for those clients.

“I’d say 90% of brokers only deal with banks, so when they have exhausted those avenues, and they refer them onto us.”

Kerwin said his relationship with his clients does not end once he has secured funding for them; “we help them into a home and then try to repair their credit record over the following six to 12 months, and then try and refinance them to a mainstream bank when we can see that clients fits bank criteria.”

Kerwin actively recruits former policemen into his business because he believes there are many transferrable skills such as being able to communicate with a diverse range of people, having attention to details (especially when completing paperwork), being able to meet strict deadlines and being punctual.

“It’s a big transition from the police to mortgage broking but the core competences are there,” he noted.

Kerwin came sixth in our inaugural Top Adviser Rankings that we announced last month. He said it was fantastic to be recognised, and to be recognised against brokers using predominately mainstream lenders.

1 – Read David Windler's profile
2 – Read Bruce Patten’s profile
4 – Read Nick Kotze’s profile
5 – Read Phil Caldwell’s profile
7 – Read Craig Pope’s profile
9 – Read Glen McLeod’s profile
10 – Read Trish Marsden’s profile


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