Helping people is a core aspiration
When she was considering her future career, it was health that caught the eye of Rebecca Ward-Thomas (pictured). Fascinated by weight loss programmes on TV, Ward-Thomas wanted to become a dietician. Little did she know that after completing her degree, she would pursue a career in financial services instead – though it was maybe not so surprising, because she enjoyed property shows like Grand Designs, too.
“I'm very health conscious, so I like to eat healthily, I like to keep fit,” Ward-Thomas told Mortgage Introducer. “I thought I wanted to help people who were overweight be healthier. I wanted to be a dietitian and so I went to university and studied health sciences, but then I got sucked into the banking world.”
Fresh out of college, Ward-Thomas took a job in banking to pay the bills, not expecting financial services to become her chosen profession. She started out in the credit card sales team at RBS , before becoming a private banking officer with the lender. “Naturally, you work your way up,” she explained. “You get used to the money, you get used to the promotions, you've got a lifestyle, and it's just very easy to stick with what you know.”
Ward-Thomas went on to undertake her CeMAP training and took up a position as a mortgage underwriter with Aldermore Bank. Eventually favouring a customer-facing role, she moved to an independent brokerage as a mortgage consultant in 2018, where she stayed for six-and-a-half years.
What does she particularly like about mortgages? “I just love hearing everybody's different stories,” Ward-Thomas said. “I thrive off hearing about people's different circumstances. I find it quite inspiring. A lot of clients that I talk to have completely different career paths. Yesterday I was speaking to a lady who, for a career, sells bull semen - apparently it's a very lucrative industry. It’s just all these weird and wonderful jobs that you hear about. There’s always a new story that comes through your door. It keeps me loving what I do.”
Every few weeks, she acknowledges, something crops up that surprises her. “I think, ‘oh wow, I didn’t expect that’,” Ward-Thomas said. “You play piggy in the middle, because one partner may have no Idea about their other half’s finances. Previously, I was dealing with a couple – and one of them had taken out a personal loan of around £25,000 with the intention of a kitchen renovation, then paid for it on finance instead and had blown the £25,000. You're in a really difficult predicament because then you've got to explain to the other why they can't get a mortgage. You have to be upfront.”
She continued: “Some clients are really savvy and they'll have the market apps on the phone, they're tracking rates, getting updates from the media and they'll know about swap rates. Then you get other clients who don't know how a mortgage works, what a fixed mortgage is, how the different products vary. They'll have had a mortgage for 10 years, but they're not across it.”
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Setting up in business
Ward-Thomas decided to set up her business, Realm Property Finance, last year. “A friend said to me a few months beforehand, ‘Why don't you set up on your own?’, and I said to him, ‘Oh, don't be silly, I couldn't do that,” she recalled. “And then the more I thought about it over the coming months, I thought, ‘hang on a minute, maybe I could.’ I think timing is key. You need to make sure that you've got a safety net financially. I probably should have set up on my own a bit sooner.
“You have to be consistent, treat every client the same, be friendly, approachable and go above and beyond for client. People buy from people. I think the biggest lesson for me was realising that you are your own IT department, your own account team, your own marketing team - you wear all of the hats.”
She added: “If you're the sort of person who enjoys networking, finding clients and you're proactive, I don't see why you wouldn't succeed.”
