5 minute read
MY BUSINESS
A man who loves the mortgage industry
Marchy Pang rose up the ranks and bought the company owned by his mentor – and is often still at his desk, by choice, at 9pm.
BY ERIC FRYKBERG
Marchy Pang is a 38-year-old who can't get enough of the mortgage business. He loves it, finds it satisfying and wouldn't choose another job if he had his life over again.
After studying finance at university, and years selling mortgages for ASB and
ANZ, he joined Auckland firm SuperCity
Mortgage and Insurance in 2016.
He later bought the company from the owner, Joel Oliver, who was also his mentor.
He has three other people working for the company and another on the way.
How did you get into this business?
I started as a teller at the ASB in 2008. I jumped ship to ANZ as a mobile mortgage manager in 2013, and worked my way through to a senior manager role in a year.
From there, most of my team-mates joined SuperCity Mortgages, and I naturally followed suit and started my broker career there.
What is it about broking that you love?
It is definitely about helping the client. It’s not just a transaction, it’s a relationship: you walk them through the whole process to help them buy their first home.
Or sometimes they have a life-event, like a marital split, where they really need some help.
We are here to take away the stress of dealing with all the paperwork. This is the biggest thing for me: the satisfaction of holding the clients' hands and helping them through the process.
Did you have a mentor or did you teach yourself the trade?
We started in banks and had basic training in lending money.
From a business point of view, Joel Oliver has been a great mentor for me; I observed how he did things.
He has now left the industry and I took over, but I still do the same things in the same style in terms of the way we run the business.
We are carrying on the Super City culture, which is to look after our customers and create a relationship for life. That is one of our philosophies.
What is the worst thing about your business?
The worst thing is when you are not able to satisfy all the clients. They come to you with their passion to buy a house, they’ve got everything “ready”, and then they find they’re in fact not ready yet.
Sometimes giving them this news can be hard. But we work it through, with a plan to make sure that they do what they need to do to get to their goals.
That process can be very satisfactory. Much better than just to say, “No, see you later, bye”.
What is the best thing about your business?
The best thing is a lifestyle balance. We love what we do, but we still have a life.
We want to work the way that we want, rather than working for a bank, nine to five. The best thing is to have a good lifestyle yourself, so you are able to help other people.
What is the best move in business that you have made?
The best move was getting our full licence. We are a Class Two full-FAP now, so that means we are able to do a lot more things under our own control, and we can partner with people we like to engage with, for things like outsourcing.
We have more flexibility now, rather than being under an AB (authorised body).
And what is the worst business move you have made?
I have been a new business owner for only a month or two. But even as a contractor adviser or broker, I have not made any bad moves - so nothing to regret so far.
What is the biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge from a business point of view is to attract talent. There is a real shortage of advisers.
People are scared to get into the industry, but, if you want to grow the business, you want to attract talent.
Personally, the biggest challenge is working with all the compliance [required], as well as the turnaround time with banks. That’s always going to be an ongoing challenge.
What is your working day like?
I start a little bit late so I can walk my dog in the morning and do my gym session. But I would easily work till 9pm, that’s never a surprise.
What is your biggest long term business goal?
I guess the long-term goal is to really establish a sustainable business, providing advice that clients can trust.
We’ve seen a lot of start-up businesses convert into property coaching and that sort of stuff, but I think we really want to stick to our bread and butter, which at the moment is providing mortgage advice.
We probably still have to work to do in that direction. There is fine tuning, new technology, automation and all that, but in the long run we just want a smoother system, so we do what we can in a better way.
If you had your life all over again, would you do this job?
Absolutely. No regrets. ✚
