Mandurah mortgage broker and business owner Brad Durtanovich has been named ‘Bankwest Broker of the Year – Western Australia’ at the Bankwest Broker of the Year Awards, which were held at Optus Stadium in Perth last Thursday evening. Mr. Durtanovich was also a Finalist in the ‘Customer Experience Award’ category. Approximately 150 guests attended the cocktail style event, including brokers, Bankwest Business Development Managers and Senior Management.

Bankwest’s ‘Broker of the Year’ award is presented to the lender’s top supporting individual broker for the previous financial year, who has met a minimum number of quality and customer metrics in the qualifying period, and has delivered exceptional customer service and top-quality deals.

After working in banking for over 30 years, Mr. Durtanovich became a mortgage broker when he joined MoneyQuest Australia as a franchise owner in January 2019. In his relatively short 32-month mortgage broking career, Durtanovich has been awarded Choice Aggregation Rookie of the Year 2020, Choice Aggregation Platinum Broker 2021, and ‘New Supporter of the Year’ at Bankwest’s event only 12 months ago.

Mr. Durtanovich was “gobsmacked” when the ‘Broker of the Year’ announcement was made.

“I was absolutely lost for words, I was like a deer in headlights when it was announced. It was a very nice surprise,” Mr. Durtanovich recalled.

In his acceptance speech, Durtanovich thanked the Bankwest team for their support.

“Thank you to Bankwest for providing such good service to me as a broker, and specifically to Michelle Giaimo and Steve Mitchell. The amount of effort you put into making sure brokers are OK and that we’ve got what we need to pump deals through is amazing.”

He attributes his success to remaining customer focused and commented that sharing in the excitement felt by clients is a great source of motivation.

“Customers are the centre of everything we do. We work hard to make sure that we’re providing top-quality service and are helping them to achieve their goals.”

“There is nothing more uplifting than hearing the joy in a client’s voice when their loan gets approved. I recently rang a client to tell her that her loan had been approved, and she started crying on the phone, she was so overwhelmed, which almost made me cry. I’m tearing up thinking about it now, and that’s the reason why I do it.”

MoneyQuest Australia Managing Director, Michael Russell, was thrilled to hear of Mr. Durtanovich’s achievement and commented that it was extremely well deserved.

“I wasn’t at all surprised when I heard Brad had won this very prestigious award. Brad is a quiet achiever who focuses his energy on making sure he creates a wonderful experience for his clients. His word-of-mouth referrals are testament to him doing just that!”

The team at Bankwest were also complimentary of Mr. Durtanovich’s commitment to customer service.

“Our Credit and Assessment teams constantly sing Brad’s praises – he is easy to work with and nothing is ever too much trouble, approaching everything with his trademark combination of professionalism and affable pragmatism. Most importantly, we see wonderful feedback from his customers through our surveys, waxing lyrical about his efficiency, sincerity, his endless knowledge, and an unparalleled commitment to meeting their goals and needs,” a Bankwest representative shared at the awards evening last Thursday.

Born in Bridgetown, Mr. Durtanovich has lived in Western Australia his entire life. He has called Mandurah home for the past 35 years and is very well known within the community. He lives with his wife and 12-year old daughter, and his daughter attends the local school.

Whilst finance is one of his major interests, Mr. Durtanovich also has a passion for motor vehicles. He is a self-confessed “car nut” who loves restoring and racing vintage cars such as Holden Toranas and Monaros. He currently has four or five cars that he is tinkering with.

“I’m the local car guy, everyone knows me as the car guy,” Mr. Durtanovich joked.

Mr. Durtanovich made the switch from banking to mortgage broking because he wanted to be able to offer his clients a broader range of finance solutions. Mortgage brokers are able to compare loan products from a wide variety of lenders, which gives clients more options. Mr. Durtanovich decided to open his mortgage broking business with MoneyQuest after being introduced to the group by an industry contact and fellow “car nut”, Peter Flint, who owns MoneyQuest Midland.

“Peter gave a glowing review of MoneyQuest and how they work. It was a no-brainer for me to get straight into it,” Mr. Durtanovich explained.

When it comes to managing his own finances, Durtanovich believes in the power of property investment. He has purchased a couple of different properties over the past 10-15 years, and enjoys assisting clients with investment loans, low doc loans, and business loans, to help them with achieving their finance goals.

Mr. Durtanovich and his MoneyQuest Mandurah team service a wide range of community members, including first home buyers, investors, those looking to refinance, and those that need assistance with debt consolidation. Having lived in the area for a long period of time, Mr. Durtanovich has established relationships amongst his customer base, as well as within the building industry and the car industry. Having this large network of community contacts has helped him with both launching and growing his mortgage broking business.