Always answer that phone

Rakhi Madan has only been in the industry for seven years but she’s a staple on CMP’s top broker lists and won her first Canadian Mortgage Award earlier this year.

What’s the Brampton-based broker’s secret? She’s available to clients, day and night.

“You shouldn’t be a broker if, one, you don’t know your products and lenders, and, most importantly, if you have poor response times,” said the broker with Key Mortgage Partners under the Mortgage Intelligence umbrella. “Customer service is my secret. It’s mindboggling how often people don’t respond to calls, emails and text messages. Be there for them when they need you. If a client is closing tomorrow and they’re panicking, I don’t care what time it is or what I’m doing, I’m taking that call.”

Unsurprisingly, Madan won a CMA this spring for Alternative Broker Specialist of the Year—New to Canada, in large part because of her indomitable work ethic and second-to-none customer service. The other reason is in 2018 Madan did 147 transactions worth about $63.5 million.

It isn’t always easy, though.
“The people who come to me are heavy rate shoppers, so I’m constantly educating them. Just because a client sees a good rate, it doesn’t mean it’s a good product. The education aspect of my job is a constant battle.”

The other constant battle is fighting the torrent of potential fraud that the mortgage industry doesn’t much like talking about. Madan says that while fraud occurs virtually everywhere, it’s especially pronounced in Brampton, and that brokers must remain vigilant in not getting caught up in fraudulent activity, wittingly or not.

“A good broker has to be careful in our market because we’re the capital for fraud,” she said. “I get calls from people who expect me to do their paperwork and write fraudulent documents. Good brokers need to be careful not to get caught up in something like that.”