Last year’s No.1 on the Top 75 Broker list removed himself from the running this time around but believes, contrary to growing speculation, he would come out on top even if the criteria were altered to focus on profitability.
Last year’s No.1 on the Top 75 Broker list removed himself from the running this time around but believes, contrary to growing speculation, he would come out on top even if the criteria were altered to focus on profitability.
“Obviously I haven’t seen the bottom line results of other brokers, but I would guess we would be at the top of that list (if CMP measured profitability instead of volume),” Dan Eisner of True North Mortgage told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “Maybe Jim (Tourloukis) and I should take a private moment to compare bottom line numbers.”
The idea of measuring profitability instead of volume was brought up by Jim Tourloukis of Advent Mortgage Services – this year’s No. 1 broker on the Top 75.
“A more interesting comparison would be to compare profitability, both in absolute and a margin basis,” Tourloukis told CMP in July. “When you factor in his lower margin… and his overhead… I’m not sure he’d be at the top. So you have to ask, which numbers really count?”
Eisner acknowledges his company’s model differs from the traditional broker model and, as a result, recused himself from the competition this year, arguing his participation would be unfair to the others.
“The rules are set up to measure a more standard business model,” Eisner said. “What you really need is a ‘No-Dan’ rule."
As for his decision to remove himself from the running this year, Eisner has no regrets.
"It was nice to read that the winners for the most part were supportive of our rights to choose our own business model and actually did want us to participate,” Eisner said. “They wanted to be inclusive and that is an admiral trait.”
Looking forward, will Eisner participate next year?
"Likely not. In 2012 we did $697 million, which is clearly above the top winner this year and next year it will be more,” Eisner said. “I think the way you guys have the rules, it seems fair in general, but when applied to us specifically it’s not fair to other competitors; we meet the rules of the competition but not the spirit of the competition."
