When Louise Lucas (pictured), a standout 5-Star Broker 2025, became a mortgage broker in 2007, the role looked very different from today.
“I became a mortgage broker back in 2007 when I joined a franchise group that was also involved in property investment education,” says the CEO and founder of The Property Education Company. “We used to spend hours by the fax machine sending all this paperwork into the banks, which is hilarious to think of how much we do now and how differently things work.”
In 2015 she launched her own business, which now has two brokers – “the other is my son, which has been fantastic” – and seven offshore team members. That mix of family and virtual support is no accident; it’s the backbone of the flexible model she’s built.
For Lucas, the biggest positive development in broking isn’t a product or commission change – it’s the rise of video meetings and digital signatures.
“The most positive development in broking is being able to conduct all our meetings on Zoom and send documents via DocuSign and receive them via DocuSign. That is such a blessing!” she says. “This is why this business is so perfectly well-suited around mothers and why more people should take advantage of it.”
The ability to work from home, structure appointments around family life, and avoid travel time, she believes, should be drawing far more women into the industry.
“It still amazes me more women are not involved in mortgage broking. But it's good to see that still younger people are coming in and getting involved, which is great,” Lucas says.
Lucas is equally passionate about the role of offshore staff in making her business both scalable and family-friendly.
“Another huge bonus has been contracting Filipinos to assist with processing – what a joy! We help them get better pay and the ability to work at home with their children and they help us at a much better rate than Aussie support – definitely a win/win for all,” she says.
She’s learned some hard lessons along the way. Her first virtual assistant “did not have an aptitude for loans or the attention to detail work we need to do at all,” so Lucas moved her into marketing where she became “invaluable”.
Today she has five trained loan staff offshore and a very specific recommendation for brokers thinking about virtual help.
“I would strongly advise others, if you are ready to put on a loan assistant who is virtual, put on two people, as it is easier to train two at the same time as they can support each other and then you never have to train any staff again as they train all others who come on board,” she says.
Lucas is clear that technology isn’t replacing advisers – it’s making good ones more necessary.
“Funny thing about bots and AI, just show up with even more choices for people so they need brokers even more now to understand what they need in a loan,” she says.
At the same time, she worries about new brokers entering without enough support or runway.
“Too many people join the industry without sufficient support or funds and the failure rate is huge,” Lucas says. “They really should go and earn PAYG from someone before creating a business, as it's hard doing everything when you get started and get into industry events, so you can learn from the best. I still love attending conferences primarily to hear from other brokers on their best practice.”
If there’s a single piece of advice Lucas wants to leave with aspiring brokers – especially women looking for a flexible, long-term career – it’s to lean on the generosity of the industry.
“Never be embarrassed to ask for help from another broker, even to review your thinking on a file, because this is an industry full of really generous and helpful people and no-one has ever minded when I have asked for help and so it is a thrill to be able to support others – (so they don't make the same mistakes I did!),” she says.
In Lucas’s world, the winning formula is simple: smart tech, purposefully built offshore teams, and a culture where brokers – and their families – can thrive.
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