A new mortgage product has been launched for estate agents that puts the control of booking a mortgage appointment in the client’s hands whilst acknowledging the lead to the agent.

Home of Mortgages has launched the Mortgage Hub, a branded web page for agents that offers both mortgage tools and a live booking function.

Michael O’Brien, managing director of Home of Mortgages, said “We started with looking at how our clients like to communicate and connect and then worked backwards.”

O’Brien’s career spans almost 20 years working in estate agency financial services.

Initially he worked with Spicerhaart, then in 2008 set up his own estate agency and lettings business, throughout always advising clients on mortgages and protection.

“The way we communicate and connect unsurprisingly evolves but this pandemic has increased the speed of change and also made us more comfortable to connect in new ways such as video calls.

“Our Mortgage Hub puts the control back in the hands of the client whilst positioning our agents as the guide, helping their clients to access the mortgage advice they need at a time suitable to them, seven days a week”

“I don’t believe in robo-advice, as clients, quite rightly have too many questions for there to be an intelligent algorithm that provides all the answers. A robo-transaction may exist, but not robo-advice and it is the advice part that gives confidence to our clients they are making the right decision.”

Ensuring advisors are knowledgeable is key to growth, according to O’Brien.

He added: “We use tech to speed up the advice process but adopt continual in house development of our advisors to ensure we add value to our introducing agents.

“Prior to this pandemic we were working with agents predominately in London and the South East but have since expanded nationally, which is another sign that it is service offering and the ability to deliver that matters rather than location when developing new business relationships.

“With the constant changing mortgage market due to furlough, IR35 and the new Mortgage Guarantee scheme being announced in the budget, we hope more agents will see the value in our proposition as consumer demand for great advice increases.”