{"id":42653,"date":"2023-03-24T08:29:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T19:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/?p=42653"},"modified":"2023-03-24T08:29:30","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T19:29:30","slug":"why-this-psychologist-and-investor-chose-mortgage-broking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertynoise.co.nz\/au\/why-this-psychologist-and-investor-chose-mortgage-broking\/","title":{"rendered":"Why this psychologist and investor chose mortgage broking"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOTO: The son of blue-collared Chinese immigrants, Justin Zhu (left) and wife, Ning (right) have spent the past decade building a property portfolio across Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Helping other people is what Justin Zhu did for a decade as a clinical psychologist.<\/p>\n

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After building a $5.2 million investment property portfolio on the side with his wife, it\u2019s that same motivation that is now driving his career as a mortgage and finance broker.<\/p>\n

Zhu launched his mortgage broking business GG Loans in the second half of 2022. Based in North Ryde in Sydney, he is building a fast-growing, Zoom-dominated business that services customers Australia-wide, with a particular focus on building wealth for aspirational investor clients.<\/p>\n

It was the attraction of helping people with their financial goals \u2013 as well as some great experiences with his own mortgage brokers during his investment property journey \u2013 that led Zhu to choose to enter the mortgage broking profession as a career change at age 36.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHelping people as a psychologist was very, very rewarding, but after a decade, I decided I needed something a bit different,\u201d Zhu said. \u201cMaybe it was brought on by COVID, but I got to thinking about what else I could do, and I remembered how my brokers had had such a big impact on my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also saw that as a broker I could take the time to help people and listen to what their goals are, what their barriers are, and come up with solutions for them \u2013 so basically what I was doing as a psychologist but now with property, loans and numbers instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helping investor clients from personal experience<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zhu had other knowledge and skills to offer. Together with his wife, Ning, he had spent\u00a010 years acquiring six properties around Australia, starting with an apartment in Sydney\u2019s Zetland and moving on to three properties in Brisbane\u2019s Logan and then two in Perth<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen my broker first told me that, on my income we can get you to this amount of properties, I thought it was impossible. He explained it to me, but it wasn\u2019t until we got the third or fourth property that I thought this really actually does work.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a\u00a0property investor\u00a0and home owner myself means that now I really do get it, because I have my own lived experience and my own take on property investing and buying my own home \u2013 I know what worked for me and I find it very interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though his success as an investor meant he was probably just as qualified to move into other real-estate related professions, Zhu decided that it was mortgage broking that suited him best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did consider maybe becoming a buyer\u2019s agent \u2013 I had a lot of friends who were asking how to find a property, what is my methodology, because I find them all myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think buyer\u2019s agents and real estate agents help more in the immediate sense \u2013 buyers and sellers come to you and you sell or pick up the new place \u2013 but as a broker you have a much larger picture of your client\u2019s finances and what their goals are.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like a puzzle. Everyone\u2019s situation is different, and what works for one person might not work for another, so every client scenario is new and that is a challenge. And\u00a0if they want to invest and earn a large passive income, we can help map out that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

A healthy business vision for the future<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Zhu said his property experience and advice from other brokers prepared him for what the industry entailed and helped him set up and structure the behind-the-scenes processes at GG Loans. However he has still found some aspects of mortgage broking stressful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s when unexpected things happen. It could be a client not declaring something \u2013 like one who had a credit card he didn\u2019t tell us about \u2013 and others who filled out a form saying they were full-time employees, but from their pay slips it was clear they were contractors.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Zhu is still passionate about helping clients and he has plans for GG Loans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in terms of being a broker I want to continue to focus on helping investors, but also I\u2019m looking at health professionals, like doctors, psychologists and others, who work hard on the frontline but may not know their way around property, which is a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zhu is also looking at expanding his property portfolio into commercial investing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good asset base now, and we might start looking into commercial. I definitely want to learn more about that space and get into it, either that or development.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of his Perth investments is due to be rezoned as a development site, which he said could be his first step into the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t say I won\u2019t buy more residential homes, but at this stage I\u2019m very interested in commercial property or property development.\u201d<\/p>\n

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