Dylan Salotti on Mortgage Broking – Why he made it a career.

August 9th, 2018

About Dylan Salotti, Divitis Finance.

Dylan Salotti is a highly successful young broker joining the MFFA Young Professionals Panel this year. Dylan won the 2017 MFAA Young Professional of the Year award and is a Finalist again in 2018. His business, Divitis Finance, has seen great success within the Sydney Gen Y market and focuses on assisting young professionals like himself with their property investment and wealth building journey.

We talked with Dylan about the benefits and challenges of mortgage broking as a profession for young people. He had so many fantastic insights that we’ve had to create two articles. In Part 1 Dylan talks about how he became a broker and why he thinks it’s a great career choice.

What were you doing before you became a mortgage broker?

I came to mortgage broking from outside of the finance industry. I used to be a qualified electrician specialising in railways. I did that for five and half years and it paid very well.

How did you hear about broking as a profession?

While I was working as an electrician, I became interested in property. It soon seemed like I was spending more time on property investment than working as an electrician, so I decided to move into the industry.

I looked at becoming a real estate agent – but realised the role of mortgage broker was more important in the property buying journey from my own experiences.

“One of my main motivations [to become a mortgage broker] was that I wanted to help people like myself get ahead, and that meant a role that put their interests first”.

Why did you decide to become a broker?

When I bought my first investment property at the age of 21, I felt there was a real disconnect in the service offered to me by my first broker. By comparison, the second mortgage broker I used was a bit of an inspiration! She gave me real service and support, as well as good advice and information. That made a big difference to my confidence and success.

I wanted to do the same for friends and family, as well as other young professionals I knew. This soon grew into an idea for my current business model, which is based on supporting young professionals on their property ownership, investment and wealth building journey.

So, I guess I am one of these people who worked themselves away from a very well-paid job!

But basically, I wanted to follow my passion for property and I knew I wanted to help other people do it too. I was constantly talking with friends about how I became a property investor and it seemed natural to focus on that young professional target market when I opened my own business. Our whole service proposition is about helping young professionals get into the property market.

What do you think are the biggest benefits of a career as a broker?

For me it’s an opportunity to follow my passion for property and building wealth. If you have a customer service focus like I do, then it gives you the opportunity to really help other people to do the same. To guide young people through such a big transaction as buying a property is extremely rewarding to me. Watching my clients as they go from first home buyer to a property investor is fantastic and very motivating.

“To guide young people through such a big transaction as buying a property is extremely rewarding to me”.

The opportunity to carve out your own brand is also extremely rewarding. For me, one of the biggest benefits of being a mortgage broker is building your own business. I’ve loved seeing my business ideas evolve and blossom. Starting out with a vision and being able to execute on that vision is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a broker and running my own brokerage.

What else can you say to motivate young people to consider broking as a career choice?

It’s a great business as long as you’re prepared, plan well and work hard.

You need to be realistic about your expectations. It isn’t super easy! The truth is its hard work and it’s not for everyone. The way to give yourself the best chance of success is to do your research. It’s important to understand how you will be remunerated before you begin. Work out your own strengths and weaknesses. Really making sure you can generate business and where it will come from is also vitally important.

The industry is changing, and this is a great opportunity if you can stay at the forefront of the changes. If you can stay ahead of changes you’ll have the advantage over everyone else.

Don’t miss Part 2!

You can read Part 2 of Dylan’s Young Professionals interview in Connective News on August 27. In the next article, Dylan discusses the challenges of becoming a new-to-industry mortgage broker and how he overcame them to become a multi-award-winning broker and successful business owner.