While volume is by no means the only mark of success in the mortgage brokering industry, it's a measurement that shows someone's ability to bring in business - a key trait to a thriving mortgage professional.
A high volume and a large number of deals can indicate that you are doing something right to stand out from the crowd, be it launching a clever marketing campaign, tapping into new referral sources, building a list of "niche" clients or simply providing top-notch customer service. It also, in many cases, speaks to a mortgage professional's hard work over his or her years in the industry.
This brings us to the results of our second annual CMP Top 50 Brokers list, a ranking of mortgage professionals from across Canada who sent us their total funded volume and number of deals in 2008. The rules for submitting were straightforward: you must be employed as a mortgage professional able to write loans; the volumes included must be settled residential sales within 2008; and the deals must have been personally originated by you (back-office support in processing the loans is acceptable, but no other parties have been paid commissions on the deals).
We went to great lengths to confirm figures submitted by everyone with brokerage head offices and lender underwriters. We recognize that although numbers are paramount when it comes to ranked lists there are complexities to any survey and reasons behind every ranking.
Each entrant has a different business model depending on the size of their operation, their location (small town versus big city) and a number of other factors. For instance, some are involved in every part of the process from getting the referral and signing papers with the client to submitting the deal on Filogix. Others have set up a model where they originate the deals, but rely on back-office support staff to communicate with lenders and bring the deals to a close, allowing them more time to market themselves to potential clients and referral sources. The latter example is the case for Peter Kinch, who clinched first place on this year's list.
"Every mortgage that funds through our office is as a direct result of my origination and I am the broker who receives the commission from the bank," Kinch explains. "I have three underwriters who are licensed brokers who process the deals and I pay them salary plus bonus."
To provide some differentiation of business models, we added a new question to this year's survey where each entrant had to specify the number of support staff he or she employs who write loans and the number who don't. Another new column in this year's list indicates the ranking from last year's Top 50 Brokers list for those who were on it last year.
CMP congratulates all the mortgage professionals who took part in this year's list and would like to thank Scotia Mortgage Authority for being an official partner to the CMP Top 50 Brokers for 2008.
1. Peter Kinch, The Peter Kinch Mortgage Team: $145,333,442
2. Paul Gazzola, Mortgage Architects: $128,206,505
3. Larry Barkley, HLC Home Loans Canada: $117,354,444
4. Jim Tourloukis, Verico Advent Mortgage Services: $101,124,655
5. Michelle Beet, Mortgage Alliance Meridian Mortgage Services: $100,200,000
6. Dan Eisner, Verico True North Mortgage: $94,866,379
7. Laurie Furness, Mortgage Centre Canada: $89,300,000
8. Scott Travelbea, Dominion Lending Centres: $82,494,811
9. Donna Ramsay, Mortgage Architects: $79,567,575
10. Baldev S. Dhah, HLC Home Loans Canada: $76,800,000
11. Collin Bruce, Dominion Lending Centres: $68,091,578
12. Debbie Belair, Mortgage Architects: $65,254,530
13. Mark Goode, Mortgage Architects: $64,971,129
14. Dave Butler, Mortgage Intelligence: $63,782,398
15. Darrell McCollom, Verico McCollom Mortgage Corp.: $61,471,829
16. Sean Stephens, Mortgage Centre Canada - Courtesy Financial Services: $56,795,991
17. Diana Zitko, Meridian West Coast Mortgages - Matrix Mortgages: $53,936,400
18. Dwight Trafford, Mortgage Centre Canada - Mountain Mortgage: $53,344,000
19. Frank Napolitano, MortgageBrokersOttawa.com: $52,503,549
20. Shaun Zipursky, Mortgage Centre Canada - City Wide Financial: $51,751,563
21. Donald Estrada, Dominion Lending Centres - Absolute Rate Mortgages Inc: $51,699,055
22. Robert Polehoyki, Verico Estate Mortgage Group: $51,660,684
23. Kim Aitken, TDMP.com: $50,586,965
24. Deborah White, Dominion Lending Centres - White House Mortgages: $50,505,715
25. Beverley Brandl, Dominion Lending Centres: $50,083,568
26. Angela Calla, Dominion Lending Centres: $50,000,000
27. Gordon McCallum, Axiom - First Foundation Residential Mortgages: $49,469,261
28. Ray Silvestri, Mortgage Architects: $48,459,861
29. Bruce Gilkinson, Mortgage Centre Canada - Gilkinson Financial: $48,233,584
30. Lisa Manwaring, Meridian Southwest Mortgage Group: $46,714,053
31. Gemma Riley-Laurin, Dominion Lending Centres - Integrity Financing: $45,498,000
32. Greg Martel, Dominion Lending Centres: $45,000,000
33. Janet Rideout, Dominion Lending Centres - Mortgage Connection: $43,000,000
34. Brad Unrau, Dominion Lending Centres: $42,293,681
35. Francine Tracey, Mortgage Architects Metro-West: $38,630,554
36. Dan Sauve, Verico Mortgage Corp. Financial Services: $38,622,370
37. Ken Lankin, Mortgage Intelligence: $38,279,501
38. Jack Oyhenart, Domion Lending Centres - Aegis Mortgage Services: $37,283,000
39. Kent Bittner, Dominion Lending Centres - Canadian Mortgage Network: $36,679,222
40. Andre L'Ecuyer, Mortgage Intelligence: $36,591,278
41. Rudy Dedic, Dominion Lending Centres - Casa Mortgage: $36,101,736
42. David Griffin, Re/Max Eastern Realty Inc: $35,953,178
43. JoAnne Purcell, Dominion Lending Centres: $35,624,000
44. Catherine Evel, Dominion Lending Centres: $35,508,000
45. Shaddy Estephan, Dominion Lending Centres: $35,018,478
46. Carolyn Callero, Dominion Lending Centre: $34,000,000
47. Yves Cormier, Verico Cromier & Cormier Consultant: $33,696,056
48. Kevin MacGregor, Mortgage Architects: $33,179,218
49. Barry Emerson, Dominion Lending Centres - Mortgage Professionals: $31,000,000
50. Marvis L. Olson, Mortgage Architects: $30,708,612