How we score mortgage brokers in Perth

Compare A Broker Directory currently scores 380 mortgage broker businesses across Perth. Every score is calculated the same way, from the same set of measured signals, so you can compare a broker in Joondalup against one in Fremantle on equal terms. This page explains exactly how that number is built, why we weight things the way we do, and where the method runs into honest limits.

The five signals and their weights

Each business gets a composite score out of 100, built from five weighted signals. We list them here from heaviest to lightest:

• Sentiment (28%): a synthesis of what recent reviews actually say, separating genuine praise from recurring complaints.
• Rating (26%): the business's aggregate star rating on Google.
• Volume (20%): how many reviews the business has collected, log-scaled so ten reviews don't carry the same weight as five hundred.
• Completeness (16%): whether basic contact details are listed and correct: phone number, website, hours, and address.
• Recency (10%): how recently customers have left reviews, so we're not leaning on feedback from years ago.

Why sentiment carries the most weight

A star average on its own can hide a lot. Two mortgage brokers can sit on the exact same 4.3 rating, yet one has recent reviews that keep mentioning the same problem, slow communication during pre-approval, a broker who vanished after settlement, fees that weren't explained upfront, while the other has nothing but scattered, unrelated notes. The stars alone won't tell you which is which. Reading what people actually wrote, and looking for patterns rather than one-off gripes, is the only way to catch that difference. That's why sentiment is weighted higher than the star rating itself in our model.

Why the other signals matter

Rating still matters because it's the broadest, simplest signal of how customers feel overall, and it's what most people check first. Volume matters because a broker with six reviews and a broker with three hundred are not equally proven, log-scaling stops a small handful of reviews from outweighing a genuinely large track record. Completeness matters in a practical way: a mortgage broker who lists a working phone number, current hours, and a real address is easier to actually contact and vet, which matters when you're handing over financial details. Recency matters because brokers change staff, processes, and responsiveness over time, and a review from three years ago may no longer reflect who answers the phone today.

Where the score has limits

Businesses with only a few recent reviews don't get a fabricated confidence boost. They receive a low-confidence score and are labelled as such on their page, so you know to treat that number more cautiously. We also don't republish reviews verbatim, we synthesise the themes across recent reviews into a plain-language summary, and we link out to Google so you can read the original source reviews yourself and form your own view.

What never changes the score

Scores are earned strictly from this rubric and the underlying data. Nothing else touches them. Where paid placement exists on this directory, it is always labelled clearly and never affects a business's score or its ranking position. If any list on this site has picks or an order that were reviewed or adjusted by an editor rather than generated purely by the score, that is disclosed directly on that page.

Who's behind this

This directory is published by Scout Local Media, an independent Australian publisher that's been building it since 2026. Scout Local Media focuses on practical local guides and business directories that help people make informed decisions, and help genuine local businesses get found. Rankings and methodology on this site are maintained by Nathan Ellis, Research Lead. You can find more of the publisher's work at scoutlocalmedia.com.au, or reach the team directly at hello@scoutlocalmedia.com.au. For a curated starting point, see our best mortgage brokers for first home buyers list, or head back to the home page to browse all 380 scored businesses.