Joey Delis knows a thing or two about reinvention. After stints in retail, car sales and banking with Westpac, he found his true calling in mortgage broking.
"I enjoyed the day-to-day of helping and working with different types of people," the Adelaide-based broker told Australian Broker.
That passion led him to RAMS Home Loans before he launched his own business under the Loan Market Group (LMG) franchise in 2019.
Today, he serves as director and finance broker at Loan Market Glenelg in the Greater Adelaide area.
For Australian Broker's latest Spotlight Series — where we shine a light on standout professionals across Australia's mortgage and finance industry — we caught up with Delis to discuss his journey into broking, the keys to his success and what others in the industry can learn from his approach.
The following interview has been edited for grammar and clarity.
JD: I have a beautiful wife named Kristina and an insanely cheeky 17-month-old boy named Austin. They are the most important part of my life. My heritage is a mix of Greek on my father's side and Italian on my mother's side, which results in a huge family with plenty of big personalities and a lot of laughs to be had. Out of school, I didn't have a clear direction of what I wanted to do. I found myself in sales and service roles as I enjoyed the day-to-day of helping and working with different types of people. My longest role, prior to mortgage broking, was with Vodafone retail, from 18 years old to my early twenties, as an assistant manager. There, I gained valuable experience in leading a team and working closely with state managers to drive results in stores. One of those state managers became a client recently, which I think highlights why relationships are so important throughout life. I also tried my hand at car sales with Toyota, then ended up working for Westpac, where I found myself as a personal banker, and then moved to a bank manager role within three months of being there.
Getting a taste for the finance industry at Westpac ultimately led me to start my path towards mortgage broking. There was no role as a home lender with Westpac at the time. So I took a position with Karen Bruce at RAMS Home Loans in 2017, who I loved working with every day. That year, 2017, was at the beginning of the Royal Commission, which was an extremely challenging time to learn and ultimately led to significant changes within RAMS. It also led to my decision to start a solo business under the Loan Market franchise. Loan Market provides fantastic support for new-to-industry brokers. I specifically want to call out support from my previous State Director Steve Pettitt and long-term brokers, including Carlo Catalano, Nick Hondrou and their whole team at Loan Market Daw Park, who took me under their wing. In addition, the efforts of Sam White through the Royal Commission gave me the best start to my career.
JD: Success looks different to me now than it did when I started. At the beginning, like many brokers, I focused on first-time homebuyers and educating them on how to get into the market. Helping them set goals, savings plans and remaining positive so that they would be able to buy their first home one day. Those early meetings didn't yield immediate results for me personally, which was difficult. But over the years, many of those clients hit their savings goals and came back to me in better positions and were able to achieve their homeownership dreams. If you put the ungratifying work in, in those early years, you can build consistency quite quickly. South Australia was still very much a word-of-mouth market back then and had a relatively low broker market share compared with what it has now. But by supporting those early clients, I was able to find more clients quickly.
My knowledge base then naturally needed to grow with my client base. First-time homebuyers became business owners and investors, and went through life events. I had to research and upskill to maintain those relationships and ensure that I was the best person to work with them through their own personal journey. Reflecting back on our business DNA, I think the success of myself, our team and the business is developing a strong loan process that leaves no stone unturned to find a solution. And then, deliver that solution to the client in easy-to-understand language and build the trust that you are the right broker for them.
JD: I have a saying in the office: 'never fly blind.' That essentially means, if you're even 1% unsure of how a lender will treat a scenario, income type or how they will view the transaction, take the time to research before submitting. Clarify the intricate details; don't just follow the minimum document checklist. Ask questions and then when you have those answers, ask more questions until there's nothing left to ask. It can be time consuming up front. But you will be in full control of the outcome and can guide your clients effectively.
