It's a welcome development for an industry where the lack of adequate training remains an issue
Considering the mind-boggling volumes so many Canadian brokers achieved in 2020, one might think that the owners of services targeting them would consider 2021 an opportune time to quietly jack up their prices.
Mortgage Magnates, an online streaming service providing educational content for mortgage brokers, sees the situation a little differently.
“2020 was a lucrative year for many mortgage professionals, but that didn’t encompass everyone, and many newer mortgage professionals struggled to gain footing in a very strange year,” said Mortgage Magnates’ president and CEO Chris Baker. “We heard a lot of feedback from our newer broker and newer agent members that they didn’t do as well. Some veteran mortgage pros struggled too.”
Baker says a desire to level the playing field between established brokers and those still struggling to find a foothold in the industry led Mortgage Magnates to make its entire library of content free for members for all of 2021. In 2022, the platform’s original monthly subscription fee of $13.99 will fall to $1.99.
“We wanted to give something back to help out the industry after such a difficult year,” Baker said. “The biggest thing we could do was give learning back.”
With a national Code of Conduct for Canadian brokers currently being negotiated, the timing of Mortgage Magnates’ offer of free training could prove highly auspicious. There is a widespread belief across the industry that most agents and brokers enter the mortgage space woefully unprepared to assemble complex deals, generate leads, or build a mortgage business – let alone perform all three tasks simultaneously. Additional training in any form will be welcome.
“There are lots of good opportunities to train when it comes to licensing. Everything from [Mortgage Professionals Canada] to [Real Estate and Mortgage Institute of Canada] to the people providing the license are great,” Baker said. “It’s beyond the license – how do I get clients? How do I develop leads? How do I actually build a mortgage business – that seem to be somewhat missing, so we get the top mortgage professionals telling us exactly what they do to succeed.”
Baker insists that the quality and overall amount of content delivered by Mortgage Magnates won’t dip simply because viewers won’t be paying for it in 2021. He projects that the amount of content will double from three to five videos a month to as many as 10. He said the ability to deliver more while charging less is the direct result of the ongoing commitment of the platform’s business partners, who have upped the ante as advertisers, putting their names on the Mortgage Magnates site, providing content, and sponsoring the company’s affiliated BHB podcast.
“They’ve done a lot of different things that have contributed financially, but also content-wise. They’ve been huge for content,” Baker said.
In terms of new content, Baker said Mortgage Magnates has some exciting additions planned for early 2021, including “What Realtors Want”, where successful real estate agents explain why they choose certain mortgage brokers over others to send business to, and a unique social media-focused session that should prove enticing for brokers looking to expand their reach with younger borrowers.
“We’ve got a great new video coming out from a TikTok influencer in the States who’s a mortgage professional, but he’s got 220,000 TikTok followers. He’s developed a ton of mortgage business out of that,” said Baker, adding that videos about lead generation and building a brokerage remain the most avidly watched categories on the platform.
With COVID-19 cases rising and Canadians once again being urged to shelter in place, agents and brokers who have not yet built a self-sustaining business are likely to find themselves with ample time over the coming weeks with which to identify the parts of their business that need improving. Watching a few 20-minute videos might be all they need to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
“We’re all stuck at home,” Baker said, “so why not spend some time with life-long learning if it’s not going to cost you a cent?”
