BDM in the spotlight: Rob Legge, AFM

The second entrant in our new Q and A series talking to the quality BDMs driving the industry

The second entrant in our new Q and A series talking to the quality BDMs driving the industry

'BDM in the spotlight' is our attempt to celebrate those elusive yet critical industry professionals working behind-the-scenes. Every Wednesday we’ll ask a different BDM the same eight questions, giving readers an insight into the profession.

This week we talked to Rob Legge, Australian First Mortgage’s BDM for NSW, an industry veteran of more than 20 years.

What do brokers want most from you?
Alternatives – a different way of looking at an application and taking ownership to try as hard to get a deal approved as the Broker themselves would.

How often do you see brokers in a week?
Try and see someone every day even if it is just a drop in for a cup of coffee and a chat.

What you did before entering the industry?
Been in banking & finance all my working life with stints at majors and second tier lenders, as a broker and with mortgage managers in both credit and sales roles.

What is your favourite part of the job?
Seeing a complicated / hard /different deal get approved based on the structure, presentation or information advice that I offered and providing brokers with an alternative they may not have considered or known of.

What distinguishes the best brokers you deal with?
Their commitment to providing their clients with a professional service level second to none and having the same expectation of all their business partners.

Describe your ideal weekend:
Relaxing with my wife and german shepherd, enjoying good food and the company of friends, completing a bushwalk with a group from national parks or taking a stroll round the Sydney Harbour foreshore and having a picnic in the Botanical Gardens or browsing the Rocks or Glebe markets.

What’s the strangest lending scenario you’ve ever encountered?
Not so much strangest but surprising was the refinance of a home loan and $90,000 worth of credit card debt for a very intelligent university professor who didn’t understand the concept that he was being charged interest on his credit card debt and the fact that he had been living beyond his means for a number of years.

How do you like your steak done?
Medium, with a green Pepper and lemongrass sauce over an outdoor barbecue on the banks of a river in a small village in Vietnam.

Every Wednesday we’ll feature a different BDM from across Australia. If you’d like to be included, please email the editor.