As part of a real estate professional's duty of care to clients, all clientele should have a satisfactory arrangement in place for organising financial approval for their potential property purchase.

Harcourts Financial Services CEO, Andy Graham says it is irrelevant whether this is via their local bank, existing relationships, or a new mortgage broker. It is part of the service that should be provided to ensure the client receives the best treatment as part of their duty of care.

"A recent independent survey indicated that on up to 65 per cent of occasions, finance was not discussed as part of the real estate transaction.

"I found this a staggering statistic, given that finance consultants are an integral part of a property transaction to ensure the sale is completed, and that some real value is added to the customer experience," Mr Graham said.

This begs the question, should securing financial arrangements be more of a focus for real estate agents to ensure their clients are receiving the service they require?

There has been recent discussion on whether any conflict of interest occurs with a potential ‘referral-based' relationship between a real estate agent and a finance consultant, particularly where the finance consultants are a division of that particular real estate group such as Harcourts Financial Services being an integral part of the Harcourts Real Estate Group.

"I firmly believe that this is NOT an issue - Standard Privacy Requirements and close monitoring of all compliance procedures ensures the finance transaction is always completed at ‘arms length'.

"This means there is never a conflict of interest, or any form of distrust by the client."

This is standard practice for any funding transaction, regardless of whether the client has been referred to a broker, or if they approached the broker or lender direct.

Given that there is no conflict of interest, the referral relationship then has a number of advantages for both the real estate agent  and the finance consultant:

There is a potential strong gateway for referrals for the finance consultant, via the real estate professionals, to enable them to build their business. However, the referrals will only occur if the real estate professional has full confidence that the finance consultant will look after their client perfectly, and that they have the knowledge and experience to complete the transaction in an efficient and professional manner.

For the real estate professional, it provides an ability to build on a one-stop-shop scenario. This creates further brand awareness, assisting to retain clients along with repeat business. It also provides some real ‘care' to potential clients to ensure they receive an overall outstanding customer service experience.