Of course, the ability to generate multiple loans over time from your clients depends on their stage in the borrowing lifecycle. At the risk of stating the obvious, the Lifetime Value of your new clients is higher the younger they are. It may also be higher for high net worth clients who tend to have larger loans and more investment needs.
By definition, a borrower’s first loan is when they are a First Home Buyer, and it is the point when they have their maximum future borrowing ahead of them.
For many Brokers, First Home Buyers are a more difficult and less financially rewarding market. This makes sense because there are longer lead times for many First Home Buyers, the loans are higher LVRs making them more difficult to place and the loan sizes are smaller as they are just getting started on the property ladder.
But when you take into account that they may have decades of borrowing ahead of them, the initial effort should far outweigh targeting easier and larger sized refinances for middle-aged clients — assuming you have postsales marketing process and business systems that keep you relevant to them as they move into different borrowing stages. For this reason, I think a long term strategy on helping people become first home buyers can pay off in the long run.