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We are on a quest to transform the mortgage industry.
We believe there needs to be more transparency, which is one of the reasons 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 own mortgage business.
Welcome to November 2022
November Report
Production since August 1, 2021
Total Volume: $274,971,570
Total Units: 603
Agent Stats
Rookie Agents: 127 (+15)
Pro Agents: 30 (+4)
Total Agents: 157 (+19)
Funding Update
We launched BRX Mortgage on August 1, 2021. Since then, we have funded 603 mortgages, for a total volume of $274,971,570.
In the past month, we have added 19 agents. This represents a new one-month record for us, surpassing last month’s record of recruiting 18 agents.
We decided to increase the Rookie Commitment fee to $3,000 on December 1, 2022, which I believe led to the surge in rookies signing up. If you want to know why we increased the fee, read here.
In the past six weeks, we have signed up 19 Pro-level agents. Only five of them are reflected in the agent count for November, as the other 10 will be onboarded in December and January.
The combined volume from these 19 agents was $460,000,000 in 2021.
We are pleased as this will help us maintain and surpass our lender volume requirements, which will benefit all our agents.
Our Company Mission is Probably Not What You Think...
When you start a business, you need to determine your company's mission, and how you plan to define success.
A company mission is like a North Star—it is something that everyone can see, and aim at, to determine our direction.
When I launched the 10 Loans a Month Academy, if asked what the company mission was, I immediately replied: “We are obsessed with broker success.”
I felt that focusing on what the broker wanted was the best way to build a training company. After all, focusing on the customer is always a good way to build any company.
Now, we did not always get it right, but we did have a lot of success, as you can see from some of these stories and reviews.
This decision to focus on broker success made it really easy for me to sell the training company because of our track record (more on this in a future post).
When I launched BRX Mortgage, I knew we were going to focus on broker success, but I felt that the word “success” was not specific enough.
We needed a clearer, and preferably measurable, definition of success.
We decided to focus on one key metric and use that as our filter for making our business decisions.
We ended up defining success as: Increasing Agent Revenue per Hour.
We intentionally avoided focusing on volume because volume doesn’t always tell the whole story.
When I see someone sharing their volume, I can’t help but think, “Okay, but how much did you keep? And how many hours did you have to work to make that happen?”
Focusing on volume is a lot like a golfer who brags about their 300 yard drive, but ends up with a score of 8 on a par-4 hole.
Volume is only one metric, and for anyone who is paid on commission, it is not really the best metric.
Revenue per hour is more akin to a golfer focusing on their score on the hole, instead of just their drive off the T-box.
If, as a brokerage, we make revenue-per-hour our focus, we are going to make better decisions about how to best support our agents.
For example, if one of our Pro agents has the exact same volume year over year, but can work 20 hours a week instead of 40, they would be earning more revenue per hour, and if their goal was to spend time with their kids, they would consider this a success.
Another problem with volume as a metric is that not all volume is the same. It really depends on the type of business model you are running.
Let me illustrate this with an example:
Imagine that Agent A buys down rates and averages 50 basis points a file, whereas Agent B runs a referral-based model and earns an average of 100 basis points. (The exact bps would vary in a real scenario.)
Agent A works 60 hours a week and funds $100 million at 50 basis points, which equals $500,000 in gross annual revenue. Agent A’s revenue per hour would be $160/hour.
Agent B works 40 hours a week and funds $50 million at 100 basis points, which equals $500,000 in gross annual revenue. Agent B’s revenue per hour would be $240/hour.
Now, it is also probable that Agent A had to handle twice as many files as Agent B, which likely means twice as many headaches.
If we made volume the goal, we would say that both agents are successful. However, I would argue that Agent B has a better quality of life.
Defining broker success as Increasing Agent Revenue per Hour allows us to focus on strategies and tools that will help agents to either increase volume or decrease workload.
Let me share three examples of how this focus on revenue per hour influences our decisions on how to best help our agents.
Example #1 - Revenue Share
A way to increase our agents’ revenue per hour is with our unique Revenue Share model.
Our agents can create passive income by helping grow the company. This is not a new concept, but is certainly one that many fast growing companies, such as EXP Realty, have adopted with great success.
A Pro agent who recently joined us informed me that they were responsible for bringing 22 agents to their previous company.
That is a lot of production they were responsible for recruiting, but that company didn’t have a model for any long-term revenue share.
Also, keep in mind that most mortgage brokerages pay recruiters to help grow their brokerage, and many of those recruiters are paid a revenue share, based on the agents they bring to their network.
I would rather skip hiring recruiters altogether, and let our great agents find other great agents.
As one of my mentors often reminds me, “Great people know other great people.”
By creating passive income, our agents are able to increase their revenue per hour with very little time commitment on their part.
Imagine earning an additional $2,000 or $5,000 a month, or more, with no extra work on your part.
Again, this would definitely help our agents earn more revenue per hour.
Example #2 - Done-For-You Marketing Templates
We recently rolled out Done For You marketing templates. The idea is to give our agents really good content that they can use on their social media sites.
As you can imagine, this saves our agents a lot of time.
Rather than having to come up with content, they simply take our content and add their own unique personality and style to it.
Instead of spending hours trying to create the perfect social media post, they can take one of our templates and copy, edit, and post it in minutes.
Many of our agents are now setting aside just one hour a week to schedule their entire week of social media content.
Done for You marketing is another example of how we are focused on increasing agent revenue per hour.
When deciding where to invest the brokerage money and resources, we filter ideas through the lens of “Will this help our agents earn more revenue per hour?”
If the answer is a resounding “Yes,” we are likely to test it to see if it works.
What do you get for your $150 a month anyway?
It seems that nearly every brokerage has a monthly fee. Most companies call it a Tech Fee, but I don’t think that accurately reflects the various kinds of support and resources that we offer our agents.
We have a $150 a month membership fee.
With your membership, you get Tech Support, Marketing Resources, Training, and Live Support.
Here is what is included in our monthly membership fee:
Training
What | What is it? | If Purchased Separately |
|---|---|---|
Pre-Recorded Training | We have a library of over 170 training videos on how to find leads, convert clients, and fund mortgages. Everything you need to know to build a referral-based mortgage business is included. | $2997 |
50 Awesome Realtor Training | 7 Strategies to help you rapidly build a list of awesome realtors. (Feedback) | $97 |
Perfect Realtor Pitch Training | A powerful strategy for building trust and rapport with realtors, and generating referrals (Feedback) | $1,997 |
Hired in 7 Day | How to hire an amazing unlicensed assistant in 7 days (Feedback) | $97 |
Live Weekly Training Calls X9 | 9 Live weekly training calls. All calls are recorded and can be searched by keyword. 1. Monday Mindset 2. Tuesday Sales Training 3. Tuesday Game of Phones 4. Wednesday Game of Phones 5. Wednesday Live Lender Training 6. Wednesday Budget Training 7. Thursday Discovery Call Training 8. Thursday Weekly Advanced Sales Training 9. Friday Rookie Sales Training (Feedback) | $299/month |
Marketing
What | What is it? | If Purchased Separately |
Social Media Posts | 9 Social media posts per week. You can take and modify and use. (Sample) | $50/month |
Blog Posts | 2 Blog posts per month (Sample) | $50/month |
7 Pre-Built Presentations | Professional presentations designed for you to use in your mortgage business. We are always adding new presentations that our agents can use. 1. First-time Buyer 2. Self-employed 3. Bruised Credit 4. Financial Planners 5. Downsizing 6. BNI Presentation 7. 5 Ways to Inflation-Proof Your Mortgage (Sample) | $99/each |
Realtor Listing Bundles | Marketing templates you can use with your realtor partners. 1. Featured Listing Website 2. Featured Listing TikTok Reel 3. Down Payment Cheat Sheet 4. Is now a good time to buy?(Email Template) 5. First-Time Buyer Seminar Brochure 6. Open House door hanger 7. Open House Instagram post | $199/month |
Win Your Mortgage Payment | The company does a monthly WYP giveaway, where one of your clients can get a free mortgage payment, just for referring you to a client or friend. | $99/month |
Game of Phones | Twice a week group calling sessions, where we make outbound calls in a group with a live coach. The coach has their mic on, so you can listen in as they make calls. (Sample) | $197/month |
Technology
What | What is it? | If Purchased Separately |
VIP Club | A database marketing software that runs email contests to your database on a monthly basis. | $249/month |
Lender Spotlight | The full version of Lender Spotlight, to help you search rates and guidelines | $49/month |
Agent Websites | A high converting agent landing page you can use to capture leads | $29/month |
Support
What | What is it? | If Purchased Separately |
Live Underwriting Support | We provide live underwriter room coaching 40+ hours a week. This is free for our Rookies and is available to Pros through an additional fee, or through a scholarship. (Feedback) | $500/month |
How Do We Keep Our Agents Updated?
One of the challenges of a rapidly growing Virtual Brokerage is keeping agents updated on all the upcoming events, enhancements, and upgrades that are being made at the brokerage.
We were initially sending a weekly email to our agents, but agents get a lot of emails, and the weekly email was easily missed.
We opted instead to create a specific blog that we update every Saturday morning.
The idea is to have one place where our agents can see what is happening at the brokerage in the next week, and catch up on any important updates or changes they may have missed.
Another way we attempt to keep our agents updated is by using a billboard in our Virtual Office.
All of our training, support, and calls are done through our virtual office, and when an agent enters the office, they are greeted by a live receptionist, who moves them to the correct virtual meeting room.
Whether they are going to Game of Phones to make calls, attending a live training session, or meeting in the Coffee Room, everyone passes through the virtual reception area, where they can’t help but see the virtual billboard.
Here’s a sample of our virtual billboard:
Next Month:
Funding Update
Our Company Has ADD and Yours Should Too
Tech Support Update
What do Chess Grandmasters and Top Underwriters Have in Common?
Check it out! -> Dec 2022 - Journey to $1 Billion
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