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We are on a quest to transform the mortgage industry!
We believe there needs to be more transparency, which is one of the reasons why we decided to share a monthly report on what we have learned, what worked and what didn’t, and what’s next in our plans to grow a Billion Dollar Brokerage.
We hope you find a few useful ideas and tidbits to help you in growing your own mortgage business.
Welcome to September 2022
September Report
Production since August 1, 2021
Total Volume: $229,387,189
Total Units: 493
Agent Stats
Rookie Agents: 101
Pro Agents: 19
Total Agents: 120
Funding Update
We launched BRX Mortgage on August 1, 2021 since then, we have funded 493 mortgages, for a total volume of $229,387,189.
Keep in mind that we initially only hired and trained rookies. On August 30, 2022 we started to recruit Pro level agents. (More on this later.)
In September we saw a decrease of 50% in volume and units compared to August. However, our year over year volume is actually up 5,207.86%. This reflects that fact that we didn’t fund our first mortgage until September 25 2021.
We expect our month over month to be down, given the current market.
However, we expect our year over year production to increase as we onboard more Pro level agents.
How to Create Passive Income (Revenue Share)
We finally launched Revenue Share for our brokerage for August. This is one of the 5 Pillars of our brokerage. In August we paid out $7,955 in revenue share. This number is small now, but we expect to grow dramatically in the next year.
Revenue sharing allows our brokers to benefit from their contribution to the growth of our company, which I love.
I like to think of our Revenue Share model as a way for any broker to create passive income without having all the hassles of managing licenses, insurance, payroll, admin., etc.
Basically, it allows a broker to build a Brokerage Without the Brain Damage of running a traditional brokerage.
I often see brokers make the mistake—once they start funding a lot of mortgages—of thinking that the next logical step in their career is to start a brokerage.
In the vast majority of cases, they find that their personal production and income goes down, while their frustration and stress level goes up. (I share my experience here)
This is because running a brokerage is not the same thing as being a successful broker. They are two completely different businesses.
So how can a mortgage broker build a brokerage without the aforementioned brain damage?
Two words. Revenue Share.
What is Revenue Share?
Revenue Share is a percentage of revenue that agents earn for attracting other agents who generate revenue for the company.
All Pro brokers at BRX are on a capped 85/15 split. With revenue sharing, when an agent closes a deal, a percentage of the company's 15% goes back to the agent who sponsored them.
Let me break this down some more. The revenue share is paid by BRX from BRX’s commission of 15%, not from the agent's commission. We’ll refer to this 15% as “company money.” Revenue share is paid on every deal until the
agent caps for the year and no more company money is earned.
The cap is $15,000 in gross commission income paid to BRX Mortgage. This totals $100,000 in total commissions. $100,000 x 15% = $15,000 paid to BRX Mortg
age. At that point, the agent is on a 100% split until the end of the year, when their cap resets. (We currently have 3 agents on 100% split, with more to follow.)
Why is Revenue Share Important?
Revenue share allows a broker to build both passive income and a retirement plan. The mortgage industry has no retirement plan, and brokers generally have to work until they can’t, or no longer want to, work.
I believe that, if you help grow a company, you should be able to benefit from the growth of that company.
Which is why I love revenue sharing.
How Revenue Share Works
There are four tiers of Revenue Share payout:
Any agent you personally sponsor will be on your Tier 1. You cannot, nor would you want to, add an agent to any other tier.
Whenever an agent you personally sponsor attracts another agent, that new agent is now on your Tier 2. This continues in this manner until you have agents on your Tier 4.
The revenue share payout is based on two factors: the number of agents you personally sponsor, and your personal production.
Base Revenue is earned based on the number of agents you personally sponsor. You are paid this as long as you are licensed and with the company.
Your personal production is determined by the average number of mortgages you have funded over the past 90 days.
Let's Look at Some Numbers
Let’s use the example of Bob. Bob sponsors 1 new agent per year, for a total of 5 agents over the next 5 years.
This is a passive example that someone could do without disrupting their personal mortgage business.
Let’s also assume that Bob helps his agents do the same. Bob would now have 5 agents on his Tier 1 and 25 agents on his Tier 2.
Keep in mind that Bob can earn a Base Revenue share of $3,000 per agent in his Tier 1 and $2,000 per agent in his Tier 2. This assumes that all his agents cap every year (more on this later).
This means that Bob could be earning $65,000 in Base Revenue per year.
Now, if Bob averages 3 loans a month, he would be earning a Top Revenue share of 4% on his Tier 1 and 3% on his Tier 2. This means that Bob could earn $4,000 per agent in his Tier 1 and $3,000 per agent in his Tier 2.
Which means that Bob could be earning $95,000 in Top Revenue per year.
To be fair, it is unlikely that all of the agents in Bob’s organization will cap, so let’s assume that half of them cap, which would mean that Bob could earn $47,500 per year in Top Revenue share, simply by bringing on one agent a year for 5 years, and helping them do the same.
Let's Look at a More Active Example
Let’s assume that Mary is a real go-getter. She goes out and recruits 10 agents in her first 2 years. For the next 3 years, she shows her 10 agents how to recruit 2 agents per year.
In the 5th year, Mary would have 10 agents in her Tier 1 and 60 agents in her Tier 2.
Since Mary is a baller and crushes 100 mortgages a year, she earns Top Revenue share on her entire organization.
If all her Tier 1 agents capped, she would earn 10 x $4,000 = $40,000/year. On her Tier 2, she would earn 60 x $3,000 = $180,000/year.
This would total $220,000 per year in Top Revenue share.
Now again, it is unlikely that everyone in her organization will cap, but even if half of them cap, Mary would be earning $110,000 a year.
Keep in mind that this does not include any revenue share from Mary’s Tier 3 and Tier 4 agents. I left out the additional tiers to keep the math simple, but as you can imagine, the number can add up.
It really is the power of compounding, but it is working for you, the broker.
This is also one of the reasons for eXp’s rapid increase in agents and income.
What happens when an agent retires?
Provided the agent maintains their license with the BRX they will continue to earn revenue share. I recently spoke with an agent who is 49 and she plans to retire at 55. She is intending on using this, and selling her book of business, as a way to supplement her income.
If you want to find out more about how we are transforming the mortgage industry, check out www.whybrx.com.
Agent Demographics
Below is a breakdown of the total number, location, and status of our current brokers. Here is a google map where you can see our current agent distribution.
Rookie agents = 101
Rookies who have graduated = 12
Pro agents = 7
Total Pro agents = 19
Total Agent count = 120
Agent Update
3 more rookie agents graduated this month and funded their 10th file. If you want to hear their story in their words, you can check out my conversations with Ryan Delisle and Taylor Atkinson. Rowena will be in an upcoming episode.
On the Pro side we currently have 4 agents earning 100% commission. (More to come on this next month.)
Total Rookies Hired and Median Production
I have been asked how many Rookies it took to fund that $178,000,000 (link to blog previous post).
I thought I would do a detailed analysis of how many Rookies we have hired, and how many left and why.
Reason for leaving the brokerage:
Exited industry - These are agents who didn’t renew their license or decided to leave the mortgage business.
Transferred to another brokerage - These are agents who joined us and ended up leaving our brokerage. Most broker owners don't like to talk about this, but I think this is just part of running a large brokerage. Not everyone is going to be a good fit. Of the 8 agents who transferred to another brokerage, I was only sad to see 2 of them go. The other 6 were not a good fit for our model. (One of them reached out to me after my last blog post and indicated that the grass was not greener on the other side. She is on her way back to our brokerage.)
Took a paid position in industry - These are agents who took a paid position in our industry. One took a job as fulfillment at a national lender and the other took a salaried position at a large call-centre type of brokerage.
This was an interesting analysis for me to do.
All 9 agents who left the industry resided in Ontario.
I believe part of the reason for the high turnover in Ontario is because of the ease of entry in that province. In Ontario, you can be licensed in as little as 7 days with a $385 course, after which you simply have to pass an online exam. In comparison, the BC course costs $1,150 and consists of 26 modules, with assignments that you must submit every week. Also, BCFSA intentionally slows you down (read this for more details) by only allowing you to submit 2 assignments per week.
This means that the fastest you can complete the licensing course is in 13 weeks, after which you have to write an exam at UBC or one of their satellite sites.
The problem with the low barrier to entry is that people mistakenly assume that it must be easy to be a mortgage agent.
I can’t tell you how many new agents tell me that, since they like real estate and numbers, and pretty much everyone they know has a mortgage, it shouldn’t be all that hard.
Of course they say this before they actually start, and are in for quite a surprise once they begin calling on all their friends and family, only to discover they are often not too keen to work with someone inexperienced.
I do like that FSRAO is putting a private mortgage designation in place for agents who want to do private mortgages. I think this is a step in the right direction, and will help to protect both new agents and the public.
The Median Number of Files Funded
The total number of Rookies who funded at least 1 mortgage is currently 65. The median is currently 3 funded mortgages per agent. The highest number of mortgages funded by a rookie is 57. This is a crazy high number, and is the result of some really hard work and a little bit of luck. Well done, Jeff Mudrick.
You can listen to my interview with Jeff here.
To date, we have had 12 Rookies graduate. Those 12 grads have closed a combined 231 mortgages.
How to Survive this Difficult Market?
12 years ago, I ran a 50 km trail race called the Scorched Sole. You can check out a video I shot of the experience below (I can’t believe this is still on YouTube).
Prior to that race, the longest I had run was a 21 km half marathon, so I decided to join an Ultra running clinic to learn how to train for this beast.
Our coach routinely ran 140 km races, so he really knew his stuff when it came to Ultra running.
The one piece of advice he gave me that relates perfectly to our current mortgage market is this:
“Walk the hills and run the flats and downhills.”
Since it is supposed to be a race, doesn’t this seem counterintuitive?
My coach explained to me that, when you run Ultras, which are defined as 50 km and up, you may save 30 or 90 seconds running that hill, but it will destroy your legs, and by the 30 or 40 km mark, your legs will just stop working and you will end up with a much slower time … if you can even finish.
You have to remember that you are running further than a marathon, on hilly terrain. You have to pace yourself for the really long game.
What does this have to do with your mortgage business right now?
Everything.
We are currently in an uphill market.
A lot of borrowers either can’t qualify, or are choosing to sit on the sidelines, waiting to see when the rate hike cycle will end and house prices will stabilize.
I believe the BOC will end up pushing our economy into a recession. Historically, when we go into a recession, the BOC pauses rate hikes, and then reverses course and cuts rates.
This is when we will switch from an uphill market to a flat or downhill market.
The trick for agents right now is to pace yourself and survive the uphill climb, so you have the legs left to cruise through the flat and downhill market when it comes back. And it always comes back.
I also believe that, once the cycle starts over, there will be a mini-boom because of the pent-up demand that is currently going unmet.
The rate hikes are not solving the supply side problems, and are only slowing down demand. We still have a massive shortage of supply, which is not going away anytime soon. This is why I don’t believe we will see the bottom fall out of the real estate market.
What does this uphill market mean for Rookies?
Unfortunately, the failure rate for rookies is going to be higher than usual. There are simply fewer files going around.
However, rookies have the advantage of not having had files fall in their laps for the past two years, and knowing that they have to prospect in order to build their business.
Many of the experienced agents I talk to have gotten out of the practice of prospecting. That muscle has atrophied because they have not needed it for the past couple of years.
It is important to really protect your mindset as a rookie, and to just keep walking up that hill. Also, know this—when the market turns, and it always does, the work you put in now will pay off handsomely.
I also think rookies need to be sure to align themselves with a brokerage that is forward thinking, and is focused on developing new lead sources. This is something we are working on at our brokerage.
Three ways we are helping our rookie agents succeed in this uphill market:
Mindset - We have do weekly mindset calls for our all agents. We also assign a Mindset coach for every rookie who joins us and do one-on-one coaching sessions with them.
100 Day Challenge - We have a very clear step-by-step plan for training our agents on how to prospect and build a referral based business.
Additional Lead Sources - We are currently developing additional lead sources outside of Realtors as we know that this market is going to have fewer real estate transactions.
To find out about how we can help → Rookie to Rockstar
What does this uphill market mean for experienced brokers?
I believe you will see a number of experienced agents who have been in the game for a while decide to exit the industry. They have made their money, especially in the last cycle, and the thought of having to prospect again sounds about as much fun as swimming with sharks.
I also believe that experienced agents who plan to stay in the game are going to be looking at all of their expenses, including what they pay their broker owner, and start asking tough questions, like, “What do I really get for my money?”.
I believe we will see massive migration in the industry throughout this cycle, as brokers seek to align themselves with brokerages that are providing value and are in the game for the right reasons.
If you want to see how we help experienced agents make more, and keep more, check out www.whybrx.com.
Broker Talks is Back!
We recently relaunched Broker Talks. It was our version of a mortgage event we held a few years ago.
What exactly is a Broker Talk?
It is one part TED Talk, one part Mastermind, and a whole lot of awesome.
One of the things I have always loved about TED Talks is they are short length, usually under 20 minutes, which forces the speaker to really distill down to their best ideas and thoughts.
I like to say, "It is all filler and no fluff."
A Broker Talk is a little different.
How does it work?
A speaker will share their best ideas on a tactical topic for 20 minutes. Then, a guided 20-minute table mastermind discussion about that topic will ensue. For the last 10 minutes, we do an open Q&A with the speaker.
The idea is to take the best of the speaker's ideas and tactics, and then collaborate on how you would apply, or modify, it for your situation or market.
Truthfully, this is where the magic happens.
I have personally found that many of my best ideas don’t come from the speakers, but from conversations with a colleague in the hallway between sessions.
I have found, when you give good ideas to smart people, they come up with improvements that you could not have imagined.
Our goal is to create a highly tactical event, where everyone brings their brain to the party.
The Speakers
Jeff Mudrick: on his Following Up With Realtors strategies. Jeff funded 57+ mortgages in his first 12 months as a broker, and 99% of that business came from realtors. Jeff will be sharing how nearly all of his business came from a simple follow-up strategy that he employed.
Zach Lofeudo: on how he gets realtors to cold call him. Yes, you read that right. Zach has figured out how to get realtors to reach out to him to start working together.
Scott Peckford: on how to find and convert financial advisors. I believe that financial advisors are an untapped opportunity in our current market. I will show you how to approach them, and convert them.
This event is being hosted by BRX Mortgage and Lendesk. I will also be sharing how BRX is reinventing the modern mortgage brokerage.
If you like to collaborate with amazing people and want to find out more about what we are doing at BRX Mortgage, register below:
Toronto: Tuesday, October 25, 2022 Calgary: Wednesday, October 26, 2022 Vancouver: Thursday, October 27, 2022
Cost: $200/ticket
Space is limited for each event.
Software Tools We're Using
Finmo – For Mortgage Apps, Submissions, and Compliance
Scarlette – For Payroll
BluMortgage – For managing our pipeline
Zoom – For our Virtual HQ
Kajabi – To host our online training modules
Notion – To keep everyone on the same page with projects
Calendly – For scheduling calls
Lastpass – To share passwords with our team
Clickfunnels – For our Rookie-to-Rockstar webinar
Freshworks – To run our chatbot (The icon in the bottom right corner of our web pages)
Zapier – To connect all of our apps and tools. This program is a must-have if you want to reduce work and errors.
MyFax Services – To have a fax that we hope no one ever actually needs to use
Aha Slides – To run live quiz training for our agents
Close.io – For managing our new agent discovery calls
Namecheap – To manage all of our domains
Next Month:
Our Un-contract
How to earn 100% Commission
What we Learned from Hiring our Most Recent Underwriter
Feedback from Broker Talks
Check it out! -> Oct 2022 - Journey to $1 Billion
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