The Collective Mortgage Group's co-founder, Christine Buemann, explains how the brokerage keeps the avenues of conversation open with its brokers, while sharing the perks of the business
The mortgage business is often a lonely one. Many brokers keep their cards close to their chests when closing loan deals. Rather than disclosing their loan process and working together, they see other brokers as competition.
Bucking the traditional ‘every broker for himself ’ mortgage mentality, The Collective Mortgage Group looks for qualities such as cooperation, communication and transparency in its brokers, and these qualities form the core principles of the business.
“We have a very unique structure as a brokerage,” says co-founder Christine Buemann. “I would say that our primary objective is to provide a safe and transparent space for high-producing agents to collaborate and maintain their autonomy, but also have as much support as possible.”
Viewing the mortgage process as a collective effort, The Collective Mortgage Group has also made it a top priority to create an environment in which its brokers can feel like they are part of a mortgage family working toward a collective goal.
With its head office in Surrey, BC, and a broker presence up the West Coast to Prince George, the brokerage’s business approach is reflected in the high-volume mortgage producers it has hand-picked, Buemann explains.
“We are definitely a boutique brokerage. Our focus is not on quantity; it’s on quality. Our agents are all very experienced, and they also have exceptional character, which is by far the most important thing to us,” she says.
Buemann points out that the quality of the brokers it has chosen means that a lot of talent has been turned away by The Collective Mortgage Group “because the culture and the space that we all broker in is the most important thing.”
Sharing each other’s successes
Just as the company’s culture is central to its mortgage approach, so, too, is the way The Collective Mortgage Group’s brokers are compensated for their high-quality deals. Its brokers share in each other’s successes on a transparent and supportive team level, while also benefiting from the unique bonus rebate program offered by the brokerage.
“I think transparency is something that’s really lacking in our industry. So we share consistently our volumes as well as all the funds that come in with our brokers,” Buemann says.
“A lot of lenders pay points, or they may pay some sort of back-door money, and we disclose all this to our team.
“For those lenders who pay incentives, we actually funnel the funds [from these incentives] forward to the respective brokers, and we also share our funding ratios with everyone. A lot of those compensation structures are based on the funding rations themselves.”
This form of compensation not only benefits the brokers financially but also gives them the incentive to maintain positive and mutually rewarding relationships with lenders.
Riding high in 2022
The Collective Mortgage Group is a young player in the industry, having launched at the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020. Right out of the broker starting gates, the company was forced to adapt to the changes brought about by COVID-19 restrictions.
“Like a lot of high-quality brokers who trust each other, who can rely on each other, it’s been a different run. We started in 2020 and have had only one team trip, so we haven’t been able to experience the same journey that we would have outside the pandemic,” Buemann says.
Providing a supportive environment for brokers to have open conversations and share in the mortgage process helped move the The Collective Mortgage Group team forward during the pandemic. And this same approach is propelling the brokerage forward into 2022.
“We’re focusing on efficiency and the relationships we provide,” Buemann says.
With the worst of the pandemic hopefully in the past, current factors impacting the mort-gage sector remain on Buemann’s radar.
When asked about the recent rate increases by the Bank of Canada and other inflationary pressures, she says cautiously: “I think the media is probably overpricing the rate increases. There are so many safety measures in place that I don’t foresee rates quickly becoming unaffordable.
“Ultimately, the only thing we know to be true is that everything will change,” Buemann adds. “So we have to acknowledge that we need to be as fluid and open as possible.”
