Ontario’s re-licensing race just got more interesting, with industry trainer REMIC introducing a course loaded with extras and for as little as $30 – an offer designed to challenge CAAMP’s own free online invitation to members.
Ontario’s re-licensing race just got more interesting, with industry trainer REMIC introducing a course loaded with extras and for as little as $30 – an offer designed to challenge CAAMP’s own free online invitation to members.
“Mortgage agents and brokers often find themselves competing against the banks, who will undercut them on pricing, and as they know, it’s necessary to compete on value,” said Joe White, president of the Real Estate and Mortgage Institute of Canada Inc. (REMIC). “It’s that brokering philosophy that has inspired REMIC to provide its course with additional value.”
That value is focused on several bonuses, including a customized marketing video and a video tutorial on competing with the banks. The free package has a combined value of over $300, said White, and is being offered to all brokers and agents registering before December 1, 2011.
“These tools are designed to help agents and brokers increase their market penetration and overall success, a philosophy that REMIC is dedicated to,” said White.
Each broker and agent will pay $30 for the online course or $50 for REMIC’s in-class version.
The pricing announcement follows CAAMP’s decision to offer its own online re-licensing course free of charge to members. The national association hasn’t yet released prices for in-class instruction for members, although non-members will have to pay for the course, whether online or in-class.
REMIC’s pricing strategy should allow it to pick up Ontario brokers and agents who are not CAAMP members at the same time challenge the national association’s fee structure for non-members.
Neither IMBA nor Seneca College – also approved to offer the mandatory course – have published their pricing schedules for programs expected to go live as soon as next month.
To be completed by March 31, 2012, the course will bring Ontario mortgage brokers and agents in line with counterparts in Alberta and British Columbia. They already submit to similar education requirements as a condition for license renewal.
That new requirement may ultimately encourage as much as 15 per cent of Ontario’s licensed brokers and agents to quit the business rather than submit to the rigors of testing, said CAAMP President Jim Murphy and other industry veterans.
“In the last license renewal period in March 2010, 15 per cent of Ontario licensees – agents and brokers – did not renew their license,” Murphy told MortgageBrokerNews.ca last week. “In the 18 months since ….They have made up for the 15 per cent loss. Brokers and agents in Ontario this time must also take a re-licensing course, which they did not have to do last time (and) my guess would be (the loss could be) 10 per cent to 15 per cent.”
