First time buyer mortgage loan via Facebook

For Serge Scekic and Jim Sharif, what started out as a handy method was for showing their families back in Serbia and around Australia how well their mortgage broking business, Aussie, was doing, it seems now that the Facebook site has become a business tool for business banking type transactions and deals via the popular social networking site.

It all started when a customer sent a “friend request” to him and then emailed asking about ‘Aussie Dee Why’s service’. Serge said he then submitted the application to the lender and the customer signed the papers for his first home loan this week.

“He said he was interested in a first time buyer mortgage and was interested in getting preapproval for a loan,” Serge said. I sent him a questionnaire, which outlined his needs and preferences for a home loan and he completed it and sent it back straight away.”

“He came into the office to sign up for the loan,” Serge said. “I knew what he looked like from his Facebook profile, but it was the first time I had met him in person.”

Serge went on to say that although it was a rather unconventional method for doing business, it had been quick, convenient and easy for both him and the customer.

“Facebook wasn’t something that we looked at before as a way of developing new business,” Serge said. “We really just wanted to show off our stores to our friends and family back home. But now that we’ve seen how it can work, and how easy it is, we will definitely look at doing more of it in the future.”

The Aussie founder and executive chairman John Symond commented that the “Facebook deal” was an excellent example of Aussie’s entrepreneurial spirit and applauded Serge and Jim’s innovation.

“Our franchise owners are committed to helping their local community by offering choice, convenience and exceptional customer service,” he said. Serge and Jim are proud of what they’ve created at Aussie Dee Why, and this passion to showcase it through modern channels like Facebook, has helped them get more business, investments, and a first homebuyer into his first home. The combination of increasingly popular social media tools online and great face to face service has proved to be a great option.”

Aussie is one of the country’s largest non-corporate bank providers of financial services, with a loan book of over $33 billion. It recently acquired Wizard, and there are now over 140 retail shopfronts and 800 brokers across the country ready to help customers get a better deal on their finances.