Here's a transcript of this episode: How are you? Yes. Good. Good, good, good. Love to see you today. You too. You too. So you are launching in devices, you've just moved to devices. That's an exciting life change. Yes, it has. I mean, we got to the stage, Jill, where we were sort of rattling around in the house in Gloucestershire and we thought that a downsize would be better now than should we say in five years time. And, having thought about that, and actually having done it, I'm so glad we did because there was a lot of hard work, there was huge amounts of stuff to physically dispose of, physically give to charity shops physically sell and of course there's lots of paperwork and stress involved in a move. So from a broker point of view, it really did teach me. It made me fitter and it taught me lots of lessons, to be fair. It made me really think, and I sort of appeal to all brokers out there who listen to this, you know, really think about your customer because they're going through an awful lot. You are just doing the paperwork, you are ticking boxes. You are getting hassley calls from a valuer or from a lender or from an underwriter. And you are thinking about it from your point of view, but sometimes you just need also perhaps, and I've certainly learned from this, and I've been doing this a long time, just think about the customer too, because they will be going through all kinds of different emotions. Yes it is, it is a very emotional situation because it's you know, it's your home. So talking of that, how are you settling into the new house? Love it. Love it. So basically, Jill, we come down to devices. We bought a house half the size. We just find everything so convenient here. So we were in the Cotswolds, we loved it in the Cotswolds. You had many, many friends up there but you know, Claire's just come back from shopping and it's taken a three minutes to go to the supermarket, whereas it's a 20 minute run and then 20 minutes back before. So think about that. You know, used to the environment and all that stuff and, and her time. And our time. You know, it's just a tiny thing, but it just shows and, and everything is around. The neighbors are friendly. The house is lovely. We got work to do. Of course, we have to make it as we want it, but basically, It works. Hey, we've got solar panels, Jill, so I don't understand them, but they seem to be doing the job because there's three green lights on whatever three green lights means. So I need a, I need a chap to come around and show me, a chap or a lady, I should say, shouldn't I, to come and show me how the green, how the solar panels work. But we've got a water softner, so I got a think it beep tap me the other night and I had to get up in the middle night and pour some salt in it cause he got hungry. So we're having lots of fun, um, working out new things. And we got one of those, one of those kettle Taps. Yes. Hot tap. So, so we now put the hot water straight in the cup. So that's the, that's another great thing. So yeah, loving the house, loving the area. We found some really nice walks. Wilshire is a, an understated county. Everybody talks about the Cotswolds and the beauty of the Cotswolds. Yes, I get that. But one of the reasons we came here was because we got married here 35 years ago and we wanted to come back and we are not disappointed. You just go literally a mile out from where we live and you are on a beautiful hill overlooking, you know, all the way back to Bath, all the way back to Salisbury. Absolutely fantastic, that's brilliant. That sounds great. And, yes, and I'm loving the solar panels and water softeners and, you know, and how, what a difference those things can make. In your life, you'll see a difference, I think, in your electricity bills. We certainly will. We've got no gas. We, I've got no gas bill now, so that's gone west.Dealing with, dealing with the utilities is another thing. You know, it's an interesting thing, I'm trying to deal with my county council to get my council tax up and paid, you know, the, the, the direct debit. Set up and everything else, and they keep asking me to register with an account number, well, they haven't given me an account number, so therefore I can't register. And so yet again, you know the frustration of dealing with a larger organization and all you wanna do is speak to someone. All I want to do is pick up the phone and say, if it's Jill, hi Jill, can you tell me how I access my account number for my council tax? Cause I'd like to pay you, but I can't speak to anybody. It's so frustrating. Bt promised me, I shouldn't say bt. Should I? A? A? Internet provider promised me it would be all done on the 3rd of May. The man came round and he was a nice man and he said, I'll have this done in 10 minutes. And then he disappeared for five hours and I never saw him again. And it, and his boss had to get involved and basically said to me, you know, It was a problem he should have solved. I'm really sorry. But that was four days later. And it is so frustrating because all you want to do is speak to someone and in the, I shouldn't say the old day, should I, but back in the day, you could phone someone and a local person would be involved. And I, it really worries me. You know, the, the whole future, the whole AI thing, and it's what we do, you know, helping people with mortgages. If people can't help people, then you can have as much AI as you like, but frankly it's going to cause major problems, rant over. That's really interesting and a very interesting rant, and I think, you know, that's something that we think about at House and Holiday Home is about relationships with customers and focusing and listening to what people's needs are. And then, you know, tailoring our response to that. And maybe what we need to do with AI is, you know, get it to do the number crunching so that we can focus on customer relations. Yeah, I know. Yes No, you're right. I mean, you know, the first question we're asked is, why, why should I come to you? Why can't I just go to the bank and do this? Well, you can, good luck. If your case is very straightforward, you can probably go to a, a high street leading bank in your town, online or whatever, and it will work, but, Honestly, Jill, 90% of the cases we see are not straightforward. There's always something. There's always someone else living in the house. There's always a little blip with the credit. There's always, I don't know, an annex on the property. There's always something, and that's why basically robot mortgages never really got off the ground because they thought it was a great idea, but in the end, what did they do? The robot companies all employed Lots of brokers to speak to people. Hey, that's interesting, isn't it? It really is. And, and you're right, and I, I read something in mortgage strategy today about how they, they're thinking that even more complexity is, is coming up in the future around mortgages, so we can have a little chat about that in the minute in. I, in fact, Jill, I'm really worried about you actually, Jill because everybody, Jill's our marketing lady and, and she is a creative writer by profession. And now she's talking to me about reading mortgage strategy. Jill, what have we done to you? I'm gonna speak to Joe when he gets back and say, just leave Jill alone. She's now reading mortgage Strategy. It's great. Jill, we're so pleased with what you are doing, but I'm very worried that you are going to, won't be able to write the next Harry Potter. I have to say, I'm finding the world of mortgages really, really fascinating and I'm loving it and I can see that it's actually a really interesting subject area. So there you go. There you go. People, hang on a minute. This pause. Pause this podcast. I gotta go and get a drink, Jill. I was like, this is good. I've been doing this for years and Oh, bless you. Okay, come on. Next question. Okay. So actually the next question was about the future. So, what are you looking forward to, forward to in the future as far as changes to your lifestyle and any property changes that you want to make around the house that you're thinking about? You know, not, not right now, not immediate changes, but things you might like to do. Okay. So I think Jill, it's really business as usual for me at the moment. Joe and I are embarking on growing this business and in the meantime, you know, I have a large book of clients who I know that when you, and, and I know brokers will relate to this, you come offline for four or five days because you have no internet and you know, despite your efforts to use your phone and everything else, It's a nightmare, you know, because basically we've gotta look after people and I've got a big enough mortgage book to continue looking after people for, you know, many a year certainly as long as I'm fit and able to do so. So it's just basically me moving the office from Gloucestershire across the border, getting a ticket to get out of Gloucestershire into wheelchair, get signed into Wilshire and carry on. Business as usual and carry on. I'm half an hour closer to Joe physically, so that's easier for us. We can meet halfway, half an hour away each, and, you know, we can continue to build and grow the business. So yes, I'd like to a little bit less, but I don't think it's going to happen for, for a while. I don't think I'm going to be allowed to. Joe won't allow me and the customers won't allow me, so I just won't give up and just keep going basically. But yes, no, I do want to think about my own mental health. Think about. You know, my future so I think really the honest answer to that question is, uh, Eight, Busby Close, Stroud is the same as 10 Tilly, close Devices, Wiltshire, crack on, keep going with our customers, speaking to customers from all over the country -- spoken to
