Chapter 1: Intro & what is Middle Finance?
0:00Hi, and welcome to Broker Tools, where we unpack the tools, systems, and strategies that help brokers optimize the way they work. I'm Katie, your host,
0:077 secondsand today we are catching up with Chris and Bailey from Middle. For those of you who don't know what Middle is, it's a factf finding document collection
0:1515 secondsmanagement software made especially for the mortgage broker who wants simple, clean, clear document collection process without all the AI bells and whistles.
0:2525 secondsfor now. Um, if you have been hunting for a way to manage your document collection process, then Middle Finance might be the platform for you. Chris and
0:3535 secondsBailey, welcome to the pod. It's so great to have you guys here.
0:3838 secondsThank you so much. Thanks for having us, Katie.
0:4040 secondsYeah, thanks for your time. It's great to be here. Hopefully, uh, we can help spread the word of Middle and and make a lot of lives easier all those mortgage workers out there.
Chapter 2: The gap Middle was built to fill
0:4848 secondsYeah. And I think um that is the ultimate goal is there are multiple backfind tools out there. Um what
0:5656 secondsactually brought you on this journey like as in to develop middle in the first place?
1:011 minute, 1 secondYeah. So I mean I think the main driver was a gap in the industry. Um everything these days all tech stacks all tech
1:081 minute, 8 secondsplatforms are enhanced with AI. They're up to date with the modern ways of thinking and developing. But I think the
1:151 minute, 15 secondsbroker and the mortgage factf find for borrowers hasn't changed since the days of the manual PDF fact finds being emailed across documents being scanned
1:241 minute, 24 secondsand emailed across to brokers. So I think there really was a gap in the industry there. Um a way to make brokers lives and ultimately borrowers lives a
1:321 minute, 32 secondsbit more efficient and easier in terms of onboarding and becoming a a borrower essentially.
1:371 minute, 37 secondsOh nice. And were you a mortgage broker before you started this or No, no, I wasn't a broker myself. Um but
1:441 minute, 44 secondsour the minds behind middle have always been in this in the industry. Um so so they did know exactly what the landscape
Chapter 3: CRM integrations: Finsure, AFG, LMG
1:521 minute, 52 secondswas like. Um and I guess they slid in the right time to to bridge that gap.
1:571 minute, 57 secondsNice. And um with the bridging the gap, what was the journey like? Cuz I understand you've partnered with Finaw
2:052 minutes, 5 secondsand and in the middle of doing some other aggregator platforms as well. Uh there's obviously been iterations
2:142 minutes, 14 secondsthrough this process. How's that been for you?
2:172 minutes, 17 secondsYeah, so Mill has been a few years in the making. Um we became feature complete probably about this time last year. Uh so and we and our first
2:252 minutes, 25 secondspartnership or our integration was with Finches Infiniti. Um meaning that all Finure brokers will be able to use middle and directly integrate that
Chapter 4: Data security and SOC 2 Type II accreditation
2:332 minutes, 33 secondsstraight into their CRM. We've now also developed integrations with AFG's broker engine and um LMG's my CRM. Uh so for
2:432 minutes, 43 secondsthat for those brokers essentially they can plug in middle straight into their proprietary CRM uh cutting out the manual fact finding or the data handling
2:522 minutes, 52 secondsprocess that a factf find would normally entail.
2:542 minutes, 54 secondsNice. And with your factf find process, I mean obviously data being the main
3:013 minutes, 1 secondpart of it. How do you ensure data safety for clients throughout that process?
3:063 minutes, 6 secondsYeah, good good question. So yeah, we get that question asked almost every day I reckon especially with like new age brokers are pretty up to speed with
3:133 minutes, 13 secondssecurity and compliance. Um but here in middle we do take data security compliance and governance very very uh
3:203 minutes, 20 secondsas a high priority. Um so we are sock two type two accredited meaning we have been given those creditations by um
3:273 minutes, 27 secondsexternal auditors. We are closely monitored by the AC given we have uh open banking built into our platform. So
3:353 minutes, 35 secondssecurity is our number one priority um and all that is shared safely in servers here in Australia.
3:403 minutes, 40 secondsNice. And I know that with that whole side of data safety and keeping it secure and having all the sock twos, AI
3:493 minutes, 49 secondsis being a large part of introductions into most systems right now. Um, you have been I guess not as fast as others
Chapter 5: Middle's approach to AI — deliberate, not absent
3:583 minutes, 58 secondsin the uptake of it and I think that's a pretty smart strategic move for some people. Why have you gone down that path
4:054 minutes, 5 secondsand how do you plan to use AI in the future?
4:084 minutes, 8 secondsYeah, again good question. Um I I feel like people just sprinkle the term AI too loosely nowadays.
4:144 minutes, 14 secondsAI this AI that without actually knowing really the depths of the platform itself. So I mean as you said yourself
4:224 minutes, 22 secondswe haven't really gone down that AI rabbit hole to begin with. I think that was on purpose or definitely was on purpose um for a few reasons. namely
4:294 minutes, 29 secondsbecause we don't see AI as a tech or a platform that's going to replace brokers, but rather enhance that
4:374 minutes, 37 secondspersonal touch they have with their clients already. So with middle, I guess the plan is or the plan was um to sort
4:444 minutes, 44 secondsof scale that enhancement of tech um without replacing that personal touch, which I think is very important when you're a mortgage broker. You want to
4:534 minutes, 53 secondskeep that personal uh interaction a high priority, keeping your stickiness and keeping your clients engaged throughout,
5:015 minutes, 1 secondyou know, even before the loan process starts till way after settlement. I think that's very important for a mortgage broker. Um so with AI and and
5:085 minutes, 8 secondsmiddle, we launched it with AI behind the scenes. So we've got things like automatic TFN redactions. That's AI
5:165 minutes, 16 secondsgenerated you can say. Um we've got things like expense categorization. And so with open banking, clients can share their bank accounts by open banking and
5:255 minutes, 25 secondswe've got tech in place to categorize and assort those into different sort of categories and also giving the broker a nice little understanding of what those
5:335 minutes, 33 secondsexpenses look like over the past, you know, 3, six or 12 months. Um, similar with like our Equifax integration, we've
5:405 minutes, 40 secondsgot that overlapping with the open banking data that has a sense of AI attached to it. So it sort of overlays expenses, sorry, overlays liabilities
5:495 minutes, 49 secondswith, you know, banking information from the mortgage account for example. Okay. Nice.
5:565 minutes, 56 secondsBut I'm moving forward like we will probably head down uh with AI enhancements again, not to replace but sort of to enhance that broker's
Chapter 6: What's on the AI roadmap
6:046 minutes, 4 secondsability. Um I think one that we're talking about last week was the ID, the driver's license. So um broke or clients
6:126 minutes, 12 secondsupload driver's licenses at the moment and then they also have to enter in like the ID details and the card number the license number just to verify and do the
6:196 minutes, 19 secondsKYC component. Um with the help of AI we'd be able to sort of extract that out of the ID and run the verification in
6:266 minutes, 26 secondsthe background. So yeah definitely I mean the future of AI with middle is going to be predominantly based around easing that customer journey and alleviating those current pain points.
6:366 minutes, 36 secondsLook, another one of the major um you know pathways we are looking down is what we want to call the dynamic document collection whereby instead of
6:446 minutes, 44 secondsthe broker having to manually go through and select documents the sort the system will sort of pick up the direction that the fact line's heading and then request those documents accordingly. So
6:536 minutes, 53 secondseverything's aimed at again minimizing the input required on both ends from the broker and the client but we don't want to essentially erase that relationship.
7:007 minutesNice. And I guess this is the value of doing what we call a slow roll out in some ways because at least when you do introduce AI, you know what AI is actually doing within the process.
7:117 minutes, 11 secondsYeah, of course. And it's really important. We're handing handling data.
7:147 minutes, 14 secondsWe want to make sure that data is as accurate as possible. Um that's going to be going to lenders. So it is really important and it's you know we don't
7:217 minutes, 21 secondswant to jump the gun and implement systems whereby we're minimizing or reducing that data accuracy. Um we truly believe that that's really critical to nail from day one.
Chapter 7: Platform walkthrough: creating and sending an application
7:317 minutes, 31 secondsYeah. And I guess the value of using uh I guess the technical term is an OCR system. Um is that you can scan that
7:397 minutes, 39 secondsdocument, you can read it, it can extract the information. I mean with the tax file document at this moment in
7:467 minutes, 46 secondstime, you have the capability of also redacting the tax file number. And so by the time it comes through to wherever
7:547 minutes, 54 secondsyou need to download it, it's it's been through that filtering process helping to eliminate the copy and paste.
8:008 minutesExactly. Right. I mean that's yeah one of the one of the core components of middle is um of course managing compliance for the broker and that's one
8:078 minutes, 7 secondsof the features that we have implemented um to to achieve that. We do other you know through this talk today I'm sure we'll cover off the other aspects of
8:158 minutes, 15 secondsmiddle and how we really help brokers achieve um that maximum state of compliance.
8:198 minutes, 19 secondsPerfect. And I guess um with data do you have I mean obviously you have integrations directly with Finches
8:288 minutes, 28 secondsInfinity um and you've also integrated with uh uh broker engine and my CRM you say LMG is my CRM correct? Yeah.
8:398 minutes, 39 secondsYeah. And so can they can some of these automations whether you're in that system or out of the system be triggered
8:488 minutes, 48 secondsto automate the process where an email is sent and or information is fed back to a CRM?
8:578 minutes, 57 secondsWell, yeah, that that's sort of how the integration um is phased. So the clients will complete the application. uh once
9:049 minutes, 4 secondscompleted the broker gets an email and saying congratulations your client is you know completed and from there the broker can obviously review edit make changes and they can just push that data
9:129 minutes, 12 secondsseamlessly into their proprietary CRM that's the basics of that API of that integration that we have here nice did you guys want to do a little
9:229 minutes, 22 secondsdemo and walk us through uh middle in itself definitely would love to perfect all right so we are now looking into the
9:309 minutes, 30 secondsmiddle broker portal um effectively as a broker at all your clients were listed here below. You can go through and sort by those that are in different stages of
9:399 minutes, 39 secondsthe application. Those are still waiting to start, those that have submitted or in progress. Um, just quickly, I might come back to this a bit later, but I'll
9:469 minutes, 46 secondsfirstly show you guys how easy it is to send out an application to your client.
9:519 minutes, 51 secondsSo, first thing you want to do is hit the create button in the top right corner. Um, you want to choose what sort of loan type you're dealing with. So, Middle does do asset finance as well. We
9:599 minutes, 59 secondsdidn't talk about that much, but um, we'll just do a home application for now. property purchase and we'll keep with one applicant. For any new clients,
Chapter 8: The client journey from invite to submission
10:0710 minutes, 7 secondsyou just want to hit add client and put in your client's first name, last name, and email. Now, you can put in a mobile number if you like and they will receive
10:1410 minutes, 14 secondsan email, sorry, an SMS invite as well through that means. Now, on the next few pages, you actually have a spa a spot to
10:2210 minutes, 22 secondsprefill your client data. Now, this is great for those phone calls you might be taking or those discovery meetings you might be having with your clients prior
10:3010 minutes, 30 secondsto starting. Um, it's a great place to jot down notes. So, if I'm on the phone to you, Katie, for example, I can ask you where you looking to purchase. You have an address in mind. Um, or even
10:3910 minutes, 39 secondsjust more personal details, such as, you know, um, what you can see here, residential history. It gives the broker an idea of, you know, where to start.
10:4810 minutes, 48 secondsUm, the great thing about this is the broker doesn't have to prefill everything. They can prefill as much or as little as they like. So, put in the
10:5610 minutes, 56 secondssavings and shares and leave the rest blank. It's up to you. Um, otherwise you can leave it all blank and just start off with a fresh canvas if that's what
11:0411 minutes, 4 secondsyour client would prefer. Um, but again, the main thing here is that you are providing your client with less work to do. You're tailoring it and you're
11:1111 minutes, 11 secondspersonalizing it more to their situation. Um, so a lot of brokers do rather spend a two minutes here before picking it out.
11:1911 minutes, 19 secondsNow, before you also send it out, you can request any documents that you might want. Now, of course, you can request documents later on or at any point in time. Um, but it's also good to start
11:2711 minutes, 27 secondsout with a few if you know what you're sort of looking for. Um, so I guess ID, driver's license, passport, that's pretty standard. Uh, maybe if they're a PY client, you might want a pay slip.
11:3811 minutes, 38 secondsUh, and possibly an employment contract.
11:4111 minutes, 41 secondsThere's heaps of documents to choose from, all categorized under their different categories. Um, so lots and lots to choose from. You can also
11:4911 minutes, 49 secondscustomize each document. So click on the pencil icon. uh if you want maybe you know five most recent payips you can
11:5711 minutes, 57 secondsrequest that or you can request your own custom you know instructions al together okay you can also set up templates and settings and have these ready to go um
12:0612 minutes, 6 secondsso for example if I've got like you know self-employed client I hit that template it's going to then pre-select those self-employed documents that I've made
12:1312 minutes, 13 secondsup in settings so heaps to choose from a lot of customizations that are available as well you then click send discovery journey and that will fire off an email
12:2012 minutes, 20 secondsinvite and a text invite to your client um which looks something like this. This is the email obviously. Uh it is white labeled with the broker's branding,
12:2912 minutes, 29 secondscolors and logo and of course the broker's details are down below. Um so then the client can just click get started uh and they'll taken through to
12:3612 minutes, 36 secondsthe client journey straight away. As you can see here um they'll be asked signed in and they'll get sent a one-time password to their email. So very secure,
12:4512 minutes, 45 secondsvery easy to use. No need to create and memorize another password. So, let's come to my inbox now and I'll just get started. Now, I've already actually started this in the past just in the
12:5312 minutes, 53 secondsinterest of time, but before this first page pops up, your client will be asked to go through the privacy consent terms and conditions um where they just agree
13:0213 minutes, 2 secondswith a tick box and that covers off the uh broker's um compliance aspect in terms of privacy consent. And at the
13:0913 minutes, 9 secondssame time, uh middle actually emails out the credit guide straight to the client.
13:1413 minutes, 14 secondsSo in a separate email, the broker will or the client will receive the broker's credit card, which is fantastic. So we do cover off all the compliance stuff
13:2313 minutes, 23 secondsthat the broke would normally typically do on their own. So back to the client journey. This is the first question there, first page of the application. It
13:3213 minutes, 32 secondsasks about the property purchase. So if the client has an address in mind, they can pop it in. Otherwise, for any pre-approvals or whatnot, you can hit no, I'm still looking. If you don't have
13:4013 minutes, 40 secondsan address to put in, we'll ask a few more questions about the property. Is it existing? It's to live in um before going into personal details. So again, basic stuff here.
13:4913 minutes, 49 secondsTitle, gender, relationship, status, dependence.
13:5313 minutes, 53 secondsUm we also require 3 years of resi history, which is I think quite standard nowadays. On this page here, I've already completed it again in the
Chapter 9: Open banking: how it works and why it matters
14:0014 minutesinterest of time, but it does ask for your client's driver's license details.
14:0414 minutes, 4 secondsThis step does two things. So you'll do a KYC obviously, so your VOI component is then done. Um and also it'll generate an Equifax credit report. So, we've got
14:1214 minutes, 12 secondsbuilt-in Equifax, which is great. Um, giving you soft credit report, which is fantastic for your clients. Um, and you guys get a full consumer and commercial
14:2114 minutes, 21 secondsreport. So, CCR, you get the one score and the apply score, which is fantastic.
14:2514 minutes, 25 secondsNow, moving on to finances. Um, the first tab of finances kicks off with our open banking integration. It looks like it's timed out, but basically, your
14:3414 minutes, 34 secondsclients can go through and provide or if they want to connect, they can connect up to any of the banks that comply with open banking. Um, For those who don't
14:4214 minutes, 42 secondsknow what open banking is, it's a much more secure way to share um your bank statements rather than banksters.com or
14:4914 minutes, 49 secondswhich do require um you know screen scraping and also password sharing. Ignore this. This is a dummy account.
14:5614 minutes, 56 secondsBut basically this is our um demo platform which allows me to go through and connect just a fake account. Um but the best thing about banking is it's all
15:0515 minutes, 5 secondsdone up to 2FA. So, if I go ahead and connect my CNBA account or NAB account, it will send me like a text SMS code, which is really cool. Okay, perfect.
15:1315 minutes, 13 secondsIt's optional, by the way. The clients can skip it if they don't want to connect. Um, but it's built into middle and it's, you know, included for all the brokers out there. So, as you can see,
15:2015 minutes, 20 secondsthey can then connect and share what accounts they would like to. If someone not relevant, they can untick them. Um, and the good thing that with open banking is, I think I touched on it
15:2815 minutes, 28 secondsearlier, it sort of does help the client get through a bit quicker in terms of pre-filling parts of the application.
15:3415 minutes, 34 secondsUm, so as you can see, it's doing some calculations. Um, the wizard is wav, but you can see here it does pick up like
15:4115 minutes, 41 secondsshares, sorry, a personal savings account or checking account. Um, so it helps your client get through a bit quicker. Otherwise, the client can go ahead and self-declare any assets they
15:4915 minutes, 49 secondsmight have, um, any properties, so owner or investment, um, as well as any cars, vehicles, home contents as well in uh, for purpos um, again same with income.
16:0016 minutesSo, as you can see here, it's picked up a deposit regular PY from my bank. Um, but then ask me, okay, what what sort of income is this? I can go ahead and say,
16:0816 minutes, 8 secondsyeah, that's my PY A income. I make 10 grand per month before tax and I work at, you know, Transport New South Wales
16:1616 minutes, 16 secondsfull-time as a analyst. At the same time, I can enter in my employment history, and because I still work there, I can tick that box, and that will cover
16:2416 minutes, 24 secondsoff that aspect of my income and employment history at the same time.
16:2816 minutes, 28 secondsWhat's really cool about income is we can also obviously use picked up a residential property income that I had provided in my assets page. Um, so any
16:3616 minutes, 36 secondsrental income you can put down. Um, as well as any other income type at all. So self-employed, you've got, you know, dividend income, any government
16:4416 minutes, 44 secondsallowances, it's all available for you to choose from. Um, so really easy as well. Self-employed, it's a big one I know. Um, ABN, company, name of business, it's all catered for as well.
16:5416 minutes, 54 secondsAgain, employment history we require 3 years of and that was provided in the previous income tax liabilities. Now, as I mentioned, we have Equifax built into
17:0217 minutes, 2 secondsthe platform and that will prefill the client's liabilities directly from that Equifax credit report. Um, so this is
17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsgreat because a lot of clients don't know that they have a credit card open from 15 years ago. This will pick things up like that up. Um, it even overlays
17:1717 minutes, 17 secondswith our open banking system. So, if your client has uploaded the CBA mortgage count, for example, it'll pick up things like the balance, the limit,
17:2517 minutes, 25 secondsthe interest rate, um, and things like that, which is great. Otherwise, a client can go ahead and add any additional liabilities if they want to edit or change whatever they need to as
17:3417 minutes, 34 secondswell. The last real manual thing is for your client to predict their expenses.
17:3817 minutes, 38 secondsUm, so we categorize them and break them down to make it as simple as possible for the borrower, but essentially it's all simplified and the client can just
17:4617 minutes, 46 secondsgo through and estimate what they think they might spend on a monthly basis.
17:4917 minutes, 49 secondsNow, we do also have the banking verified expenses that I'll show you later on derived from open banking, but this is just your client's self-declared
17:5817 minutes, 58 secondsexpenses just for you to have an understanding or a baseline to go up.
Chapter 10: The broker portal: credit scores, flags, and property valuations
18:0218 minutes, 2 secondsNext page, um, this is just a loan preferences tab. It allows your client to just communicate and share with the broker what they want to achieve from the loan. If they have desired loan
18:1018 minutes, 10 secondsamount in mind or any, you know, rate types they're after or payment types, they can go ahead and also leave any comments as well if they need to. This does help with the soccer later on too.
18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsAnd lastly is documents. So, um, middle provides a really safe and secure portal to upload documents. As you can see,
18:2718 minutes, 27 secondseach document requested will have its own little portal to upload into. So, you can drop files or attach them from your computer. Um, if you do complete middle on your phone or tablet, which is
18:3618 minutes, 36 secondsvery well optimized for, by the way, it allows you to use your camera on the phone, upload, take a photo, and upload it straight away into the middle portal.
18:4318 minutes, 43 secondsSo, really handy for those borrowers without a computer on the move or, you know, if they're doing it on the bus home from work. Super easy. Can be done in less than 10, 15 minutes. Um, with
18:5118 minutes, 51 secondsthe documents, you can see that we also rename them for you. So, first name, last name, document type, and date stamp, which is great. And as mentioned
19:0019 minutesearlier, we do also that automatic TFN redaction as well, which is fantastic.
19:0319 minutes, 3 secondsUm, that's pretty much it. Your client will hit submit and at that point, the broker will receive an email saying your client has, you know, completed the factf find. At this point, I can go back
19:1119 minutes, 11 secondsinto my broker portal and review that information straight away. Okay.
19:1519 minutes, 15 secondsDo you have any questions? Um before I go through the broker side of things, um I did want to double check that if uh
19:2219 minutes, 22 secondsa broker could actually pull through um data they may have already collected and have it sit there and then if it's
19:2919 minutes, 29 secondscorrect or incorrect um the client themselves could adjust it.
19:3519 minutes, 35 secondsYeah. So uh two ways at the moment we have that in play for any existing middle customers if they're coming back a year later or six months later for a
19:4419 minutes, 44 secondsrefi or a new purchase they'll their data will be stored obviously on middle and on the upon this return journey they'll be able to just go through a
19:5119 minutes, 51 secondsstreamline process where they can update whatever's changed or just provide new documents and keep the information the same as before. Um, we also have a
Chapter 11: Open banking expense report and verified bank statements
20:0020 minutesprefill functionality at the moment with um, Infinity. Brokers can pre-fill client data from Infinity to go through and start their journey with that basic
20:0820 minutes, 8 secondsinformation. Um, I assume we'll roll out something similar for LMG and Afg software soon as well.
20:1520 minutes, 15 secondsOkay. Um, but for non-aggregator users at this moment in time, could they web hook it over or uh, they they could. So we do have an
20:2420 minutes, 24 secondsAPI um open API that we can and we will give out to brokers essentially. Um it just needs an uplift at the moment. So that will be something available I in
20:3220 minutes, 32 secondsthe next few months that we can roll out to the network line.
20:3520 minutes, 35 secondsPerfect. Perfect. Because it's it's all about like reducing time and effort ultimately um and how brokers can optimize the way they work and
20:4320 minutes, 43 secondsobviously if you've already collected data you don't want your clients to double enter that information. You really want to streamline that process.
20:5120 minutes, 51 secondsYeah, of course. That's right. And and talking about streamlined processes, like if your broker prefills a bunch of the application and the client goes
20:5920 minutes, 59 secondsthrough it, it's about a 5 10 minute process really from what we see on average and then another five minutes of the brokerage probably review it and
21:0621 minutes, 6 secondsverify all the data. So all in all, you're looking at less than 30 minute job from completion of factind to importing to CRM and starting that loan application.
21:1521 minutes, 15 secondsNice. And it kind of gets to that almost one-touch process.
21:1921 minutes, 19 secondsCorrect. And that's what we you know we aim for. A lot of borrowers nowadays are time pool or they don't want to go back and forth emailing documents across or
21:2721 minutes, 27 secondsyou know completing PDFs. They want to do it once and just you know have it ready to go. And the thing with middle is because we've got you know smart
21:3421 minutes, 34 secondsintegrations like Equifax we've got open banking and whatnot. It gives the broker much better understanding of the client's end position in terms of
21:4221 minutes, 42 secondsverified information. um which gives them I guess more insight into the client but also a more accurate
21:5021 minutes, 50 secondsunderstanding. So it avoids that back and forth in terms of going back and asking and double-checking and go straight to the application from there.
21:5721 minutes, 57 secondsExcellent. And you have the ability to this is the broker side now where you've you're now reviewing the documents and
22:0422 minutes, 4 secondsif unfortunately someone supplied a photo instead of a income statement
22:1122 minutes, 11 secondsum you can reject that document and Exactly. Yeah. So, this is a broke up portal here. I've just opened up Amelia,
22:1922 minutes, 19 secondsthe recent application, and you can see a couple things off the bat. You'll see the credit score. So, we give you guys the apply score as well as um the one
22:2622 minutes, 26 secondsscore, which is great. Um if I click into it, you can actually download that full PDF as well. So, obviously, that looks like a regular CCI that you'd
22:3622 minutes, 36 secondsimagine. Um and again, this is our soft touch, so it doesn't affect your client's credit score whatsoever. So, always good to have these to start with.
22:4422 minutes, 44 secondsUm, we've also got some insights and flags here. It will pull up things like, you know, debt to income ratio if it's too high or things like that. So, great
22:5222 minutes, 52 secondsto just have a glance over property details. We've got built-in information from Kotality. So, it used to be core logic.
22:5822 minutes, 58 secondsCore logic. It keeps changing the names every few months. Um, but yeah, this gives you really accurate information in terms of the desktop valuation or the
23:0623 minutes, 6 secondsAVM as they call it for the property in question, which is great. good for a starting point in calculating, you know, serviceability or or LVR. Um, obviously
23:1423 minutes, 14 secondsflicking down the lines, applicant details, addresses, IDs, you can see it's been verified. Um, and the driver's license details are here below, as well
23:2223 minutes, 22 secondsas employment history. Finances, where the fun stuff begins. So, on this page here, you'll see a list of all the connected accounts via Open Banking. Um,
23:3123 minutes, 31 secondsand what you can do is click on this transactions button, which will download a nice big Excel spreadsheet, which I prepared earlier, um, which looks something like this. So it has a lot of
23:3923 minutes, 39 secondsinformation on it but I just want to highlight the important tabs. So firstly a list of all transactions which is great um as well as all the accounts
23:4823 minutes, 48 secondsthat have been connected and more importantly a list of all the categorized expenses. So just zooming in here you can see all these expense
23:5423 minutes, 54 secondscategories and their monthly expenses towards the right on on this histogram.
Chapter 12: Edit and custom portal: broker control over the fact find
24:0024 minutesIt does reflect it nicely for you to view as well. So having a glance, it gives brokers a more accurate understanding of what the client expense
24:0724 minutes, 7 secondsmight look like. Um, and if they really want to get into it, on the next tab here, you can actually analyze each expense category. So for example, if I want to see how much my client might be
24:1624 minutes, 16 secondsspending on groceries, I can come down, click on that, and I'll see, you know, a nice average over the last 3, six or 12
24:2324 minutes, 23 secondsmonths as well. So data like this gives brokers a really good insight and a more more um better understanding of the
24:3124 minutes, 31 secondsverified information coming through. So when they're applying to the banks to lenders, they know that they have the true figures in front of them. They're
24:3924 minutes, 39 secondsnot speculating and you know they're eliminating the um the room for error essentially.
24:4624 minutes, 46 secondsNo. And ultimately as a document, it just really gives you a clear view for the overall outcome of so for example like you can come down
24:5424 minutes, 54 secondsand look at the client declared income sorry um the client declared expenses and you can sort of see okay he reckons I spent two grand on groceries but if I
25:0225 minutes, 2 secondsgo back and have a look my average of the last 12 months is more oh you know what it is about two grand so he's right you can't have that back and forth um
25:1125 minutes, 11 secondscomparison tool which is great in terms of calculating and understanding those figures because ultimately The spreadsheet is from um
25:1925 minutes, 19 secondsyeah this is derived directly from the bank from the banks and the bank statements effectively.
25:2325 minutes, 23 secondsYep. And now you're matching what the client has said to what the actual bank is saying that they have done cuz for example often people forget about their
25:3225 minutes, 32 secondsum pay for whether that's you know afterpay or something like that. Yeah.
25:3725 minutes, 37 secondsAnd you can see that type of transaction um and say oh this is this is your situation.
25:4425 minutes, 44 secondsYeah. It uncovers a lot of things that clients might have forgotten about or they might be forgetting about on purpose. Compliance thing like I think
25:5225 minutes, 52 secondssome some aggregators or some lenders need to see bank statements as well for a proof of verification.
25:5725 minutes, 57 secondsUm so having this as a broker is you know giving you that step forward and that also the confidence in in what you're presenting. Perfect.
26:0426 minutes, 4 secondsJust moving down obviously with finances you got the income as well. It's all tableated makes it really easy to to visualize expenses. We spoke about that.
26:1226 minutes, 12 secondsLiabilities. Again, this is just data pulled from Equifax. So, if you want to read it on the report, you can or you can have a look on this table here as well. Um, as well as any assets the
26:2126 minutes, 21 secondsclient might already have, property, any connected accounts.
26:2426 minutes, 24 secondsUm, loan details. Again, this is those preferences that the client selected.
26:2926 minutes, 29 secondsUm, and ultimate documents. So, on the documents tab, you'll have two subtabs.
Chapter 13: The referral link and passive lead generation
26:3326 minutes, 33 secondsOne is for the bank statements. So, with open banking, you also get bank statements that you can use and and provide to the lenders if needed. Um, so
26:4026 minutes, 40 secondsyou'll find these here as well for each connected account. Um, and then ultimately documents that the client has uploaded themselves. So you can see here
26:4826 minutes, 48 secondsyou've got driver's license, got passports, we've got, you know, page income statements, self-employed income statements, um, and whatnot. So these
26:5726 minutes, 57 secondscan be downloaded individually if you want to. Otherwise, as part of the import to your CRM, they will go along and and be uploaded to those platforms as well.
27:0527 minutes, 5 secondsOkay. And you also have a download all as a zip. So some brokers like to download it and keep the record on on the desktop or
27:1327 minutes, 13 secondson a one drive. So you can do that as well. It's it's up to you.
27:1627 minutes, 16 secondsExcellent. Is there anything else that um a broker should know?
27:2027 minutes, 20 secondsYeah, I reckon the most important feature is this edit in custom portal function. So this is essentially a function which allows you to go into the
27:2727 minutes, 27 secondsclient's application whether it's at the start of the journey, halfway through, or at the end. It allows the broker to go through and complete or make changes
27:3527 minutes, 35 secondsas if you were the customer. So, this is great for reviewing. If a broker has gone through and reviewed the client's finances, for example, they might say,
27:4227 minutes, 42 seconds"Okay, their expenses are a bit too high or a bit too low from what I can see on the bank statements." So, they can go ahead and, you know, and make those
27:4927 minutes, 49 secondschanges. Um, another one is for like income. That's sometimes also uh a bit out of whack. If it's a self-employed
27:5727 minutes, 57 secondsincome, especially, the client might have some complex income structures. So, therefore, the client might want the broker to go in and actually add it themselves. So as a broker you have full
28:0528 minutes, 5 secondscontrol over going through completing the fact find making changes making edits even assisting your clients as well.
28:1228 minutes, 12 secondsYeah which is a big one. So we understand that you know brokers are dealing with a lot of clients that may not be so techsavvy and that's why it's really important that the broker can get
28:2128 minutes, 21 secondsin there and help them through straight away. Um again we want to make sure it's the most uh you know the smoothest journey possible most efficient pathway
28:2928 minutes, 29 secondsto collecting data and this is a big part of that.
28:3128 minutes, 31 secondsYeah absolutely. with documents like this also makes it easy for updating.
28:3928 minutes, 39 secondsExactly. Right. Like if if the client has for for whatever reason provided the expired driver's license or you want to upload the new one, you can delete it,
28:4728 minutes, 47 secondsupload it yourself or just you know help them a bit quicker.
28:5028 minutes, 50 secondsUm so as a broker you get fullfledged control and functionality. You are in the driver state at all times. So you can make those changes, edits and once
28:5828 minutes, 58 secondsyou're happy with it you can import to your CRM really easily. Perfect.
Chapter 14: Asset finance support
29:0229 minutes, 2 secondsThanks for the reminder, Bailey. So, referral link. This is actually a really cool feature that we have in the middle.
29:0829 minutes, 8 secondsUm, it's just a simple URL. It's called our referral link. And by the name, you can guess what it is. It's a way to get
29:1529 minutes, 15 secondsin more passive lead gen um footwork or traffic to your platform. Um, a lot of brokers, they can put this link on their
29:2329 minutes, 23 secondswebsite um or any ad campaigns they run, any advertising um and also give it to their referral partners. Like a lot of our brokers give it to their accountants, their real estate agents.
29:3129 minutes, 31 secondsAnd what it allows for is um a mutual handover in clients. So brokers can sort of have a platform where referrals can
29:4029 minutes, 40 secondscome through, slot in their name, email address, and you know, phone number and say, "Yep, I want to purchase a property." And then I'll get an email straight away on my broker portal
29:4829 minutes, 48 secondssaying, "Cool, we've got a new lead that's come through. They're warm.
29:5029 minutes, 50 secondsThey're hot. Give them a call." And they can start their application on the spot.
29:5329 minutes, 53 secondsJust to give you an example, I'm going to show you one of our brokers here in Sydney. Uh, I like Hero Finance. Shout out to you V. I love your website. Um, a lot of brokers do this. They put a start
Chapter 15: How to book a demo and get started
30:0230 minutes, 2 secondsyour journey or sort of call to action on the websites. And if I click on this, it will take me through to his white labelled middle page. Okay.
30:1030 minutes, 10 secondsSo, I can say if I'm a lead, I've come through the website or referral. I can say, "Yep, cool. I want to start a property purchase. It's just me, myself, and I." I can go ahead and start on the
30:1930 minutes, 19 secondsnext page. If I want to, I can start the full factf find. Otherwise, the broker will receive a notification on his portal saying Chris has come through as
30:2730 minutes, 27 secondsa new lead and then he can obviously reach out and and do whatever he wants to to convert.
30:3130 minutes, 31 secondsOh, nice. So, uh K originally I when I thought about it as a referral link, I thought it was something like um
30:3830 minutes, 38 secondsa say you have an accountant who you work with, you can put this on their website, right? That's Yeah, a lot of brokers do
30:4530 minutes, 45 secondsthat as well. So, it's very versatile. I mean, you can use it however you like.
30:4930 minutes, 49 secondsI've seen brokers put it on like the on a fence at a footy ground saying um scan QR code and it's like this link here to
30:5630 minutes, 56 secondstheir middle portal. So your creativity is the limit essentially. You can turn into a QR code you can put on your business cards. You can put online Instagram, LinkedIn. It's it's up to you.
31:0631 minutes, 6 secondsYeah. And there are some uh some updates to look forward to as well. We are building out uh this referral link feature um in the coming months as well
31:1331 minutes, 13 secondsto be able to create multiple links uh and you know link each each of those unique URLs to a specific referral so we
31:2031 minutes, 20 secondscan track those leads nicely and even do things like co-brand with them as well which should be pretty exciting to see when that comes out.
31:2831 minutes, 28 secondsNice. Um that would be great. If people wanted to reach out and learn more about Middle where should they go and what should they do?
31:3531 minutes, 35 secondsI reckon the best place is to is our website. So middle.finance finance. As simple as that. Um, and then click on brokers, middle for brokers. And from
31:4431 minutes, 44 secondshere, you can start now. We can book a demo. We run demo sessions every Tuesday and every Thursday where we go through about 45 minutes, show you guys how to
31:5231 minutes, 52 secondsuse the platform, all the ins and outs of it, best practices. Um, otherwise, you can start now. You can reach out to me. I'm down here. Um, I'll also pass
32:0032 minutesalong Bailey's and iPhone numbers. If you want to hand them out or or link them to the pod, you can. Um, but middle. finance/brokers. I reckon this is the best place to start.
32:1032 minutes, 10 secondsPerfect. Um, and of course, we'll have those types of show notes in the bottom. Um, as well as any other relevant links.
32:1832 minutes, 18 secondsUm, for anybody who is watching this, if you wanted us to have another pod or had more questions, feel free to put the
32:2532 minutes, 25 secondscomments below. I'm sure the team at Middle would love to help you. Um, again, thank you for joining me on the pod, Chris and Bailey.
32:3532 minutes, 35 secondsThanks for having us. you really appreciate it. See you later. You're welcome.
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