Keeping track of the cowboys, repeat clients and rocking horse s**t

Victor Meldrew has entered the building – my old sparring partner – the client I recently ditched as he didn't respect the work I'd done, and wasted my time, has come back into the fold. Guess what? He needs me as he desperately needs his mortgage sorting, so I relented and did it on Friday. Let's hope he's learned his lesson, and in future won't be so blasé at using my time wastefully...

This month saw the launch of AOBP, Association of Bridging Professionals, set up to bring a strong representation in this sector. It’s currently open to lenders and brokers alike, and anyone else it seems who will pay an annual fee to be a member, or associate as they call it.

I'm all for any “body” set up that helps promote professionalism in our business, so I'll be keeping an eye on this over the next few weeks and months. I hope it turns into the recognised “body” that they seek and it promotes what we offer to clients.

This morning’s Sunday Times has an advert running under their “Loans and Investment” column that immediately sets my mind racing, why? Well I class myself as one of the rare breed that is at home with both residential and commercial finance; as such I find adverts offering something that I can't offer both interesting, intriguing and probably untrue.

You know what they say, “If it looks too good to be true then it probably is not true,” the advert in question is offering loans up to £10m, both mortgages and remortgages, to employed and self employed, no proof of income required, adverse credit accepted, and completions in 7 days – WOW!!!

Where are the rest of us going wrong? Because I can't find any residential self certified mortgage, not that I want to really, do we really need to be going back down the road to mass repossessions of properties from clients that can't afford to pay the loans that dodgy lenders granted?

Same goes for adverse credit loans, in residential they're about as common as rocking horse s**t, however it is slightly different in commercial, we all know that the likes of Crystal Mortgages – through their lending arm Harpmanor – and Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, are more easily satisfied with respect to proof of income, but these guys that have placed this advert need investigating and I'm going to do it on Monday.

I just don't like to miss a trick when it comes to my armoury; if it's available then I want to have it available to offer.

I already have obscure and niche lenders, funds from private sources etc, Anthony Wall Financiers, iBridging, to name a couple, in fact Anthony Wall Financiers got me some excellent terms not too long ago for a London-based development project where a well-heeled Wimbledon lady was looking for development finance. To add to this niche panel is something I'm always striving to do.

Finishing this week, here's an article from the Sunday Times columnist Andrew Marr, in his quotes of the week, here goes:

A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy and bald, cauliflower nosed young men, sitting in their mother's basements and ranting.

Well you’re out of touch there Andrew, my mother hasn't got a basement.