In an industry like mortgage brokering where education is a small piece of the career puzzle and making it past the first few months on the job is far from easy, finding a mentor is a smart way to start out. On the flip side, when you've reached a level of professional success and want to share your experience, being a mentor can be a rewarding and career-enhancing experience.
"I think if you're committed to the business in a long-term fashion, you should always be coaching," says Jared Dreyer, broker/president of Verico Dreyer Group Mortgages. Dreyer conducts hands-on training with his new team members and recently joined 180 Coaching, a new program headed up by broker Greg Williamson, who is also in the Verico network.
If you're looking to take on a mentorship role, take a look at the common traits among seasoned brokers who have become successful mentors and coaches in the mortgage industry.
Patience
When Julia Krause began teaching a group of six new brokers last year, she discovered that keeping them motivated to bring in deals was a bigger task than she thought - especially in the middle of an economic downturn.
"Everyone was optimistic when they started and said they were ready for the sales aspect of the job," says Krause, broker and director of training at Dominion Lending Centres Okanagan in Kelowna, B.C. "Then they started and were surprised at just how challenging it could be."
To keep morale up, especially at the beginning, Krause emphasizes that sales skills are key and encourages brokers to spend less time talking about marketing plans and more time doing things like meeting potential clients and referral sources and handing out flyers. This fits with her goal of getting new brokers over the hump of building a client base and becoming part of the office's team.
"I know how hard it is to come into something that's brand new, and as a mentor you really have to have that feeling you want to help somebody learn and be successful," says Krause, who is currently training eight new brokers. "What we've come to realize is that it isn't a certain period of time a broker needs to
be ready to go out on their own, but a certain number of deals. It's very individualized."
Steve Sadler of Invis has also learned the virtue of patience when it comes to mentoring. After more than 30 years in the business he was asked to head up an underwriting training program for Invis, which led to the brokerage's "Access Desk," a helpline-like tool for brokers with questions about tricky deals.
"I think the hardest thing for anyone who has been in the industry and is trying to mentor someone who is new to mortgages is remembering to cover off all the little details we just do automatically and don't think of any longer," he says. "I've seen that be a difficult challenge for people who don't want to take the time or don't have the patience to go through those little steps."
Knowledge
The obvious component of being a mentor is having the knowledge and experience to be confident in an advisory role. In Sadler's case, it's staying on top of what lenders have and what lenders want, particularly companies that service private and B deals.
"I get calls from both new and senior agents and I think it has a lot to do with the constantly changing landscape - lender policies tightening up, for example," he says. "I manage to keep on the product knowledge and guidelines more than the average broker. And if I don't know the answer to a question, I'll go and find it."
Knowing the ins and outs of deals is also something Connie Graham says is essential to mentoring. Graham, a broker with TMG The Mortgage Group in Edmonton, trains new brokers (usually just out of school) with her business partner as a way to build up her own team. On average, she takes on four new recruits a year and guides them through their first 10 deals. Graham said many of the questions new brokers have involve lender knowledge and how to put a deal together paperwork-wise.
As brokers gain experience and start doing more deals on their own, the questions become more complex.
"We get very specific deal questions such as where to send the deal and why and how to understand why one person qualifies and one doesn't," she says. "We really try to make sure we're not sending lenders business that isn't solid."
If you are dedicating time (and sharing hard-earned knowledge) with a new broker, it is common practice to ask for a cut of their deals. Graham, for example, has implemented a 50/50 commission split for a new broker's first 10 deals, and Krause has a similar policy.
"The commission split can put some new brokers off, but the reality is that they get more than what they pay for in training value," says Graham, who asks new brokers to sign a two-year contract with her. "When they're done their first 10 deals, they're way ahead of someone who started at the same time they did with no help."
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