A day in the life of mortgage expert, Raj Bathia
My day starts at 5.45 am every morning. I’d love to say that’s because I’m an early starter and love waking up early… but the reality is it’s always my 2-year-old son waking me up!
The first thing I do when I get into the office is make a cup of tea and get myself set up at my desk.
I’m a mortgage expert at Habito, but the way we work is very different to a traditional brokerage. We chat to people and give advice online, which means my first job of the day is to get back to anyone who’s left me a message overnight and make sure everyone has the answer they need!
Next up, it’s online consultations, and by then I’m rocking and rolling! Using our cutting-edge technology, I recommend customers the best mortgage for them and help them understand why I’ve chosen it. When they’re ready to move ahead, I put the mortgage application together, so it’s ready to send off to the lender.
My job is all about taking responsibility. Buying a property or remortgaging can be an incredibly anxious time for people, and there are so many moving parts. I’m there to make that journey as stress-free as possible, reassuring a customer the whole way and giving them the information they need at every step.
Being a mortgage advisor is probably the most interesting and rewarding job I’ve ever had. Helping people with the biggest purchase they’ll ever make or helping them do a remortgage that cuts down the biggest bill they’ll ever have.
Mortgages have changed a lot over the last few years. Lending criteria (the rules banks use to decide who they lend money to) have evolved fast. Buy-to-let affordability assessments are almost unrecognisable from what they were three to four years ago. All of that means people need specialist advice, like the advice we give at Habito, more than ever before. The industry has also started to embrace technology at last. It’s an absolute joy that we can take someone from initial research to actually getting their mortgage, without them needing to call or trek to a face-to-face meeting… or even leave their sofa!
