When you're in "The Alice" if you do right by people, word spreads quickly.
Katrina Parrington has only been a broker since July 2009, but she's already averaging 17 deals a month. It's a phenomenal start for any broker, let alone one that has set up shop in the midst of an economic downturn.
Part of her quick success can be attributed to her passion and drive, but she's also fortunate to have a solid reputation as home loans specialist from her previous lending career at ANZ.
"I was consistently in the Top four at ANZ in home loan lending. I took to it like a duck to water. I loved working with people and getting positive outcomes for people. You walk down the street and people treat you like a rock star. They introduce you to their family and friends and say 'this is the woman that got me my house'."
While she moved from home loan lending into business banking, changed banks and even moved to Darwin, she never forgot about her love of selling loans in Alice Springs. And when she eventually moved back to the red centre and started her own brokerage it turned out the customers hadn't forget about her either.
To The Alice, Alice!
Parrington hasn't always been a local. The former Adelaide resident was visiting Alice Springs with her partner nine years ago when on the drive back she found out her employer had died.
"So I said to Jo, 'what do you want to do'? And Jo said 'let's go back and put the house on the market'."
It was a spontaneous decision, but one that reflected the instant connection Parrington felt for the community she describes as "really vibrant".
The town of 23,892 boasts a large Indigenous community and numerous American, Russian and Chinese residents who work at the space base at Pine Gap.
"So it's just a real melting pot of cultures, nationalities and it's a very friendly and giving place. If you do right by people then they'll support you," Parrington says.
It's a major tourist hub, but like Parrington a lot of people that come to visit end up staying.
Although she worked as a commercial property manager in Adelaide, when she made the transition to Alice Springs Parrington started working in insurance with Elders. Shortly after that, the opportunity to work in home loan lending with ANZ arose and Parrington switched career paths.
Despite loving her role as an ANZ home loan specialist, she took up the challenge of working as an ANZ small business manager and was soon picked up by CBA to be a relationship manager - corporate in Darwin. Parrington called Darwin "an exciting place to do business", but CBA had an issue in Alice Springs and asked her to move back.
Pressure to increase 'wallet share' and the fond memories of her time in home loan lending sparked a desire in Parrington to move from banking to broking.
"Working with corporate people, they're not as grateful or warm or as appreciative of what you do for them, but the home lending people really are. And the way the banks are driving all their employees to get share of wallet from a small client base that you're continually harassing - I just got sick of it. I just said to my partner - who was very hesitant about the whole idea - I'm going to start on my own."
Parrington faced the biggest challenge of her broking career right at the start - convincing her partner that starting her own broking business wasn't a crazy idea.
"The bank supplied me with a company car and it wasn't a bad salary and Jo was absolutely very unhappy about it at the time, but it seems to be that I've proven I was probably right."
Parrington resigned from the bank in April and negotiated to buy a mortgage franchise with Elders.
"Because I worked for Elders previously in insurance, I was familiar with the organization and it has a very strong presence in rural communities in Central Australia."
There were several other advantages to signing up with Elders. The company has a real estate office in Alice Springs, which Parrington works out of. Not only was she able to move into a building that was already branded, but the real estate side of the business provides a valuable referral source.
By July, Parrington's accreditations were in place and she was ready to hang out her shingle. Despite having the Elders advantage, she didn't sit back and wait for referrals to trickle in from the real estate side. Parrington has been actively engaging several accounting firms and conveyancing offices in town and networking outside of office hours to get her name out there.
"I still practice the same discipline I had when I was at the bank. I was always out networking, so the transition into my own business was really quite easy."
In addition to attending "a huge amount of functions" she has launched a major radio and TV advertising campaign.
Parrington has developed two of her own commercials, which are upbeat, straightforward and unique. She says she wanted to set herself apart from the tired imagery and message that is often used in finance-related advertising.
"I was nervous about my TV advertising because I didn't choose that traditional financial approach and I went with something a little bit quirky and a little bit out there and I thought, are people going to look at me and think there's no substance there because I'm not doing the 'I've been in business 30 years kind of thing'? But they've remembered it. It's quick, short and simple. And I've created a character now, a bear that's become the mascot. And he'll be in all the ads, so that people can relate to him."
The TV ads play every day of the week on Channel 7 in the morning news programs. She says the advertising is much more effective in Alice Springs because the area has limited television channels and residents tend to watch a significant amount of television.
"I always ask customers when they come in how they heard about me and I have found so far that TV has worked outstandingly well. Probably about 50% of new customers have come off the TV adverts."
Parrington backs up the TV campaign with 15 second radio adverts that air during the prime time drive time in the morning and afternoons.
She pushed the advertising campaign until Christmas 2009 and plans to do a touch-up later this year, just to keep her name out there.
Right now, Parrington dedicates about 80% of her time to residential and 20% to commercial. While she has the expertise to expand her commercial services, she can only write directly with CBA and ANZ and doesn't feel comfortable ticking and flicking deals over to other lenders. The other deterrent is that commercial deals often involve a lot of work for little reward.
"You can turn over two-three-even-four residential loans in the time it takes you to do commercial," she says.
On the residential side, 25% of her business comes from first home buyers, while the rest are mostly investors.
The issue for first home buyers in Alice Springs is affordability. Investors are very heavily involved in this market; we have very high yields returns in investment property here and a less than 1% vacancy rate. We're also land starved - I know three homes last week that were sold before they even got to the paper," she says. "I've been here 9 years and I have never really seen any dips in the real estate market in Alice Springs. "
Parrington's goal over the next year is to get a stable cash flow so she can get an administration assistant and refine her systems, weeding out what works and what doesn't.
So far she's been doing it all on her own, working six days a week, but Parrington doesn't seem bothered by a little hard work.
"As long as you're passionate about something and you really do have a drive for it I don't think there are really any challenges other than just making sure you're staying on track and doing what you need to do."