A new BC-based brokerage is taking an educational approach that addresses the problems faced by many new agents
It’s no secret that the last 20 months have been some of the most hectic on record for mortgage brokerages across Canada, with demand and market activity skyrocketing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
In that environment, onboarding new agents to keep up with the frenetic pace while providing new recruits with the education required to survive and thrive in the industry has been a huge challenge.
Yet one British Columbia-based mortgage professional who’s recently launched his own brokerage believes he’s struck just the right balance, with a strong focus on education and support allowing his new company to add more than 60 agents in just over four months.
Scott Peckford (pictured), a Kelowna broker and podcast host who’s spent the last five years training experienced mortgage professionals on how to increase volume and efficiency, decided to start coaching new industry members last year – a move that led him to realize there was more to that job than simply learning sales.
That was the catalyst behind his decision to launch the ILMB (I Love Mortgage Brokering) Mortgage Pros brokerage earlier this year, with a longer-term focus on training and education of newcomers to the industry paying off for both the brokerage and its agents.
“For over 40 hours a week, we have live Zoom rooms with underwriting coaches that our agents can go ask questions to all the time,” he said. “They don’t have a mentor that they have to email and hopefully hear back [from] in three days. We hire really great people, and we pay them well to be able to support our agents so that we can help them have success.”
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That continual emphasis on education is one that Peckford feels is essential for new entrants to the mortgage industry in Canada, particularly given the frequent charge that agent courses across the country don’t adequately prepare newcomers for the rigours of the profession.
Peckford said that from experience, a comprehensive training course to ensure new agents were fully equipped with the knowledge required for the role might take 10-12 months, meaning that it made more sense to provide continued education and experience at the brokerage level.
That training is centred around three pillars: finding, converting and funding business. For Peckford, the fact that ILMB is infused with years-long experience and expertise in coaching mortgage professionals gives it a strong value proposition, even if balancing the brokerage and his training academy for more experienced pros is a gruelling task at present.
“The great part about having the academy is I get to learn a lot,” he said. “I always say that there’s no problem in somebody’s business that somebody else hasn’t already solved. Your challenge is [finding out] who’s got the answer.”
The ability for new agents to enter a Zoom Room and run a question or problem past one of the brokerage’s experienced professionals was an important component of building the new brokerage, with Peckford highlighting the fact that it can otherwise sometimes be difficult for newcomers to acclimatize quickly to all the information they’re required to master.
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“The challenge new people have is that an experienced person has a lot of knowledge in their head, and they can do [a task] quickly,” he said. “But if you’re new, what happens is that the longer things take, your confidence goes down, and time kills all deals.
“We knew that for new people to have success, they needed to be able to get access to support fast. That was why we built it this way.”
The brokerage has the goal of making sure that a majority of those who go through their program ultimately renew their mortgage license, particularly given the anecdotally high number of people who enter the profession before leaving it shortly after.
As 2021 nears its end, Peckford is already gearing up for the next steps at the ambitious new brokerage – continuing that educational focus while also growing the company throughout next year. “This is level one of the plan – to create an amazing environment where we have training that actually works and supports new people,” he said.
“For us, growth is part of the whole thing. I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t trying to grow it, because it wouldn’t be worth doing.”
