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July 2026 - Journey to $1 Billion
- Scott Peckford
- Jul 14
- 5 min read
We are on a quest to transform the mortgage industry.
We believe there needs to be more transparency, which is one reason why we decided to share a monthly report on what we have learned, what worked and what didn’t, and what’s next in our plans to grow a Billion Dollar Brokerage.
We hope you find a few useful ideas and tidbits to help you in growing your mortgage business.
Welcome to July 2026
Brokerage Stats
Production since August 1, 2021
Volume: $6,813,720,212
Files funded: 14,708
June Production
Volume: $268,557,780
Files funded: 573
June Agent Stats
Rookies: 174 (+10)
Intermediate: 55 (+7)
Pros: 183 (+1)
Total Agents: 430
Licensed assistants: 57 (+1)
Top 10 Lender Volume YTD
Scotiabank - $257,114,433.98
TD - $197,430,268.82
First National - $118,957,784.02
MCAP - $112,991,280.47
Merix Financial - $98,565,982.40
Manulife - $61,895,020.37
RFA (A) - $49,091,807.42
Home Trust - $45,313,433.30
Strive - $45,126,452.64
RMG - $42,301,154.05
Most rookie brokers don't need more motivation
A lot of rookie brokers think they're struggling because they're not motivated enough.
I don't think that's usually true.
Most are struggling because they don't know what to do next.
Should I call Realtors?
Should I work on social media?
Should I take another training course?
Should I spend more time learning lender products?
Everything feels important.
And when everything feels important, it's easy to feel stuck.
This is why I believe most rookie brokers don't need more motivation.
They need a framework.
Something I've noticed after years in the mortgage industry is that the brokers who grow the fastest aren't necessarily the most talented.
They know what a successful day looks like.
They know which activities move their business forward.
And, just as importantly, they know what to ignore.
Clarity creates consistency.
Consistency creates momentum.
And momentum builds confidence.
This is one of the reasons we created the 100 Day Challenge at BRX.
We realized that giving new agents more training was actually creating confusion.
They didn't need more content.
They needed a clear path and the right training in the right order.
When you know what a successful Tuesday looks like, you stop second-guessing every decision.
You just get to work.
Being new doesn't mean you need to work harder than everyone else.
It usually means you need more clarity than everyone else.
-> Let’s Chat
The business that got you here won't get you there
One of the biggest challenges with success is that it can be misleading.
The habits that helped you build a great mortgage business are often the same habits that make it difficult to grow.
Think about what gets most brokers to their first level of success.
Working harder.
Taking every client call.
Solving every problem.
Reviewing every file.
Making every important decision.
Early on, these habits work.
In fact, they're often necessary.
But eventually the business grows.
You have more clients.
More files.
More people.
More decisions.
And the same habits that created growth start creating friction.
You become the approval process.
The decision-maker.
The problem-solver.
The bottleneck.
What got you here won't get you there.
Because the next stage of growth usually isn't about becoming a better producer.
It's about becoming a better owner.
A producer asks:
"How can I do more?"
An owner asks:
"How can the business do more?"
That's a completely different question.
It forces you to think about systems.
People.
Processes.
And how to build a business that doesn't require your involvement in every decision.
I have found that many successful brokers don't realize they need to make this shift until they feel stretched, overwhelmed, or stuck.
Often while producing more than ever.
The skills required to build a great mortgage business are not always the same skills required to scale one.
At some point, you have to decide which game you're playing.
Producer?
Or owner?
You don't have to know everything
One of the biggest pressures rookie brokers put on themselves is believing they need to have every answer.
They don't.
Your client isn't expecting you to memorize every lender guideline, underwriting exception, or product nuance.
They're looking for someone they can trust to guide them.
There's a big difference.
Your value isn't measured by how many answers you have.
It's measured by your ability to help the client find the right answer.
I think a lot of new brokers struggle with this.
A client asks a question they don't know and they immediately feel like they have failed some sort of mortgage broker test.
You haven't.
The mortgage business is complicated.
Underwriting is nuanced.
If you ask four experienced underwriters how to structure a difficult file, you may get three different answers.
The goal isn't to know everything.
The goal is to keep learning.
Every file should teach you something.
Why was that lender chosen?
Why was the deal structured that way?
What was the underwriter really asking for?
What would you do differently next time?
This is one of the reasons I believe new brokers need access to experienced people while working on real files.
You can't learn how to underwrite by simply reading lender guidelines.
You learn by solving problems.
Ideally with someone experienced sitting beside you.
Over time, you'll ask fewer questions.
Not because you suddenly know everything.
Because you learned something from every file.
And that's how experience is actually built.
-> Let’s Chat
Advice isn't the same as coaching
I've spoken with a lot of rookie brokers over the years.
One thing I hear surprisingly often is:
"My brokerage told me to just cold-call Realtors."
That's advice.
It's not coaching.
There's nothing wrong with the advice itself.
The problem is what happens next.
What if the conversation doesn't go well?
What if nobody answers?
What if the Realtor asks a question you weren't expecting?
Too many rookie brokers are left to figure those parts out on their own.
Advice tells you what to do.
Coaching helps you know what to do next time.
There's a big difference.
I have found that improvement usually comes from feedback.
You have the conversation.
You review what happened.
You figure out what worked and what didn't.
Then you try again.
The same thing happens with underwriting.
You work the file.
Ask questions.
Understand why a lender was chosen and why the deal was structured a certain way.
Then you take that knowledge into the next file.
This is why I believe coaching is so important for new brokers.
Learning isn't always linear.
Some weeks everything clicks.
Other weeks you wonder if you're making any progress.
But every conversation and every file adds up.
Eventually, the things that once felt overwhelming simply become part of how you work.
That's the difference between getting advice and actually getting better.
The question successful brokers eventually start asking
Early in your mortgage career, one of the first questions you ask is:
"What's my split?"
85/15?
90/10?
100%?
It's an important question.
But eventually, successful brokers start asking a different question.
"How profitable is my business?"
Those are not the same thing.
I've met brokers earning seven figures who couldn't clearly explain where every dollar in their business came from or where it went.
Not because they weren't smart.
They had simply spent their entire career thinking like producers.
Close more mortgages.
Earn more commission.
Repeat.
The problem is that a great commission split doesn't automatically create a great business.
You can have an amazing split and still leak money through inefficient systems, unnecessary expenses, or opportunities you didn't know existed.
This is why I believe profitability is a better question.
How does money flow through the business?
Where are we creating value?
Where are we losing money?
What investments will generate a return over the next three years instead of the next three months?
These are different questions.
They're the questions an owner asks.
The goal isn't simply to earn more commission.
It's to build a more profitable business.
Because a bigger commission cheque is nice.
A better business gives you options.
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