Home buyers are increasingly demanding a 'one-stop shop' offering everything from real estate services, financing and valuations through to conveyancing; and that's very close to being available.
So says Pat Allen, chairman of realtor Allens Group. His firm recently launched a mortgage broking service (MortgageWorld) covering all bank products, the first time a New Zealand realtor has offered a comprehensive broking service effectively 'in-house'. And Allen hints at more services to come, once the mortgage operation is bedded down.
Allens Group is now on track to having mortgage brokers in each of its 16 offices (which cover the North Island down to Taupo). So far 13 have been appointed as well as franchisees in Hawkes Bay and Whangarei.
Two months on from the official launch, Allen says that customer demand for the broking service has been huge. "We've reached targets that we set ourselves for the first six months in just over one month and we expect to reach our annual goals part-way during the year".
That response is hardly surprising, given his claim that the firm's move into mortgage broking was generated by customer demand.
"In the process of buying and selling homes, the customer sees the primary service provider as being the real estate agent. Other services such as valuations, insurance, financing, conveyancing and so on come afterwards," Allen says.
"In the past, realtors over New Zealand have referred people to those secondary service providers. But customers are saying that all services can be provided at one place and they don't want to be wandering around."
While that's a view from just one side of the industry, there's no doubting the growing trend to providing a range of services under one roof. A few law firms already offer conveyancing as well as real estate services, realtors have any number of different alliances with mortgage brokers and some now offer valuation services as well. While conveyancing is still limited to the legal profession, there's a change that legislation to open this up could be passed later this year.
