Is this exuberant, big-hearted ‘smiling goddess’ really the face of Plaxo’s memes?

Today, we share the heartwarming stories of Elva, Plaxo’s top 1 mortgage adviser for 2021, and her clients:

 

The exuberant, big-hearted “smiling goddess”

‘Hahahahahahaha!’ Her laughter arrives before she does. There is no need to guess: Elva has come into the office.

In fewer than five years at Plaxo, Elva has already arranged several hundred million dollars in lending. Yet even more dazzling than her outstanding results is her reputation as the ‘smiling goddess’. Hailing from north-eastern China, home of the spirited exchange ‘What are you looking at?’ ‘So what if I’m looking at you?’, Elva is easy-going, wholehearted and true to herself, and always laughing. Her hearty, infectious laughter has won her a following of fans who love her personality:

To her colleagues, Elva is a source of joy, someone who makes their worries disappear and brings light to the gloom of the pandemic. Every day brings something that makes her smile, laugh heartily or even roll on the floor laughing. Our writer was lucky enough to see a video of the floor-rolling laughter: it really happened. Her colleagues have turned her smiling face into GIFs and memes to share in their work chats, reportedly with remarkable stress-relieving effects.

To her clients, Elva’s smile is the most effective reassurance. However difficult a case may be, she always smiles and says, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll do everything I can.’ And she does. Whether the loan is for hundreds of thousands or tens of millions, Elva gives every client the same wholehearted effort. She listens carefully and responds constructively in every conversation, prepares every document meticulously and tailors every plan to the client. Her working style evokes the poetic image of an enemy fleet reduced to ashes amid easy conversation and laughter. Only she knows how much hard work lies behind that apparently effortless confidence.

People say girls who love to laugh tend to be lucky, but Elva’s success owes far more to her choices than to luck.

Everyone encounters failures and setbacks in life, and Elva, who left home in 2001 to study alone in New Zealand, is no exception. In nearly 20 years of making her way abroad, she has experienced uncertainty, confusion and hardship, and all the worries and problems familiar to those living far from home. Laughter is her chosen response to life and its difficulties.

Plaxo was also a deliberate choice. After trying several careers, including accounting and working as a bank lending manager, Elva chose to join Plaxo Mortgages in 2018 because she believed in its company culture.

Elva remembers being moved by something York said when she first came into contact with Plaxo:

‘Helping one another and enabling one another to succeed is a very important part of Plaxo’s culture. Our work does not end with arranging a loan for a client. We help each other achieve our goals: moving from having no home to owning one, from a small home to a larger one, and from an old home to a new one. We grow and learn alongside our clients, working together in a foreign country and finding value in each other’s professional expertise.’

This was one reason Elva chose Plaxo. It is also the aspect of the work that makes York, Elva and everyone at Plaxo most proud.

 

Riding on “wind-and-fire wheels” with a heart of gold

Alongside her love of laughter, colleagues and clients know Elva for talking and walking quickly, being impatient yet warm-hearted, treating people generously and getting things done decisively. With her whirlwind energy at work, it is no exaggeration to say she rides on mythical ‘wind-and-fire wheels’ every day.

With her generous heart, Elva is a blessing to her clients. She always puts their interests first and never draws a line between what is and is not her responsibility. Whether a client’s question concerns lending or something else, she immediately calls an appropriate professional for help. Often, before clients have even asked, she has thought further ahead and made more comprehensive arrangements, worried that dealing with someone unprofessional might jeopardise their home purchase.

The colleagues and other professionals Elva has ‘troubled’, however, may feel a little less fortunate. Everyone knows she is impatient: there can be no delay in answering her questions or looking after her clients. Anything concerning an Elva client must be done immediately! Yes, Elva treats her clients like family. Delaying her own affairs may be acceptable; delaying her clients’ affairs most certainly is not.

Choosing Elva as your mortgage adviser is rather like gaining a frank, outspoken best friend from north-eastern China who always has your interests at heart:

‘Do you realise your pre-approval is about to expire? Do you realise you can’t put this off any longer?’

The client receiving these repeated reminders was not annoyed. Having worked with Elva several times, he knew she was worried on his behalf. ‘I got pre-approval before lending policies tightened, but I kept putting off buying because I still had questions. I didn’t know my pre-approval was about to expire, or understand what that would mean. But Elva is a professional, very alert to timing and policy changes. She knew that if I let my $1,300,000 loan pre-approval lapse, I wouldn’t get the same amount when I applied to extend it, so she was anxious for me. In the end, she answered my questions and helped me make up my mind. Without her reminder, I would have missed out on the home I wanted.’

‘Why wouldn’t you buy when it’s such a good opportunity? If you don’t act while the policy allows it, you’ll miss out!’

This time, quite a few clients received repeated reminders. They had several things in common: they were all planning to buy investment properties during Auckland’s first lockdown; they all had pre-approval for 80% lending but had yet to commit; and, most importantly, they were all Elva’s clients.

On 1 May 2020, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand removed LVR restrictions, gradually easing the deposit requirement for investment properties from 40% to 20%. This meant an investor buying a $1,000,000 investment property, who previously needed a $400,000 deposit, needed only $200,000 during the LVR adjustment period. In other words, someone with a $400,000 deposit could, income permitting, buy 2 investment properties worth $1,000,000 each. This gave many people with pre-approval for 80% investment-property lending an excellent investment opportunity. Many investors made gains of 30%–50% in just half a year. Among them were clients Elva had urged to act, who were deeply grateful for her efficiency and ability to get things done.

Elva sees her work as more than helping clients borrow larger amounts. Above all, it is about helping them buy the most suitable property, establish a home they are happy with and make the most advantageous investment plans. Her ‘impatience’ is really a sense of urgency about her clients’ needs. Her repeated reminders are not reckless persistence: they are her best recommendations, grounded in professional knowledge, years of experience and objective judgement, together with a thorough understanding of each client’s needs and an ability to see things from their perspective.

 

A working mum with no days off

Juggling work and family is no easy task for today’s working mothers. By day, they wear high heels and carefully applied make-up as they work hard in the office. By night, they cook, play with their children and read picture books amid pots and pans, with untidy hair and dark circles under their eyes. Between career and family, balance is elusive: each makes competing demands.

Elva’s son is four, a mischievous little charmer. Spending his days at home with Mum during the pandemic, one of the first things he learnt was to look at an iPad screen and say, ‘I am busy, I am working’—the very image of Elva.

For the first time, Elva does not laugh when the conversation turns to her son. She feels a little guilty. This year’s property-market upheavals and successive waves of new policies have kept lending managers busier than ever, making overtime routine. Months of working from home during lockdown have completely merged work and life, yet have not given her more time with her child. A child not yet four has already learnt to hold an iPad and chat to Siri; coming to Mum’s study, yawning, has become a bedtime habit. The struggle to find a place for children during lockdown is a pain shared by many working mothers.

Even so, Elva enjoys her work, her in-depth conversations with clients and the fulfilment the work brings. To her, working late can be an expression of understanding. ‘Many of my clients are professionals such as lawyers, accountants and doctors. They are busy every day during the pandemic too, have children of their own to settle to sleep, and only have time to deal with their mortgages late at night. I understand them very well and really want to share their burden. So, after putting my child to bed, I feel calm and happy when I return to my study to help clients solve their problems.’ A client who works as a real estate agent said in an interview, ‘With Elva, everything is followed through, every matter is dealt with and every query gets a response. That reliability is a rare and valuable quality. We’re all too busy during the day to send her documents, so we send them at night, even though we urgently need things done. She understands and does everything she can to find time to process our documents. It really moves us.’

Sometimes, working late is also an act of consideration. Some of Elva’s clients have returned to China or moved to Australia, the United States or elsewhere for family or work reasons. They still have properties or investments in New Zealand and need lending and ongoing loan support, but time differences create a formidable barrier. Elva has several countries’ times set on her phone. ‘It’s for me to accommodate my clients, rather than expect them to accommodate me. They place so much trust in me. Only by giving their cases my wholehearted attention can I reassure them and live up to that trust.’

One of Elva’s clients in the United States had sufficient income to borrow NZ$2,000,000. However, his first adviser did not properly understand how much overseas income lenders would recognise, or how the structure of that income could affect borrowing capacity. Errors in handling the application meant less than $1,400,000 was approved. After taking over, Elva resolved the income-structure issue and tackled each obstacle, overcoming the hurdles of opening an account from overseas and meeting anti-money-laundering requirements. She helped the client borrow nearly NZ$2,000,000, to everyone’s delight. In doing so, she gained a loyal client and further referrals.

What kind of mortgage adviser is right for you? Everyone will have their own answer.

Elva’s answer is someone professional and dependable, who always considers things from the client’s perspective.

That is what she says, and what she consistently puts into practice.

Has Elva won your heart?