A simple formula for success
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07/03/2010 8:00:00 AM
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The main branch of RDM, a strictly Ontario franchise under the MCC banner, is located in Mississauga, with other branches in the Niagara Peninsula, Toronto, Oakville and Burlington, ensuring that it thoroughly covers the western part of what is referred to as Ontario's "Golden Horseshoe" area.
Beginning in Welland in 1992 with what was then called The Mortgage Centre FirstLine, MacDonald would begin to grow his business by acquiring another MCC branch in Mississauga (which was at that point the oldest in the country). Since then he has seen a lot of changes in the industry.
"I remember in the early '90s there were only 600 or 700 broker/agents in Ontario. Now, I don't know what the number is," says MacDonald, adding that with the disappearance of so many institutional second mortgage lenders, just a few B lenders are left to serve a once large market, not to mention that private mortgages are currently back to where they were in the '90s.
But despite these ups and downs, RDM has not only stayed afloat, but has continually grown alongside the growth of the MCC network.
"When I first bought my franchise there were only, I believe, 14 MCC franchises at the time," he says. "There were two of us, then I took over the franchise in Mississauga and at that time there were two agents there. But we now have 23 agents, myself included, and five assistants to some of these agents."
Quality in, quality out
The secret to RDM's success, says MacDonald, is simple. His team consists of top producing agents and brokers, some of which CMP has taken notice of in its Top 50 poll, and others who are actively out in the community teaching, speaking at events and generally giving back to the broker industry.
"With the nucleus that I have, this attracts respected agents who are better-than-average producers. I have been selective in who joins this team, which has worked well over the years," says MacDonald.
And fortunately for MacDonald, he doesn't need to actively recruit.
"I have actually sought out very few of my agents, most of them came to me to join the team," he says. "For the top producers, their success has continued to grow as the relationship grew."
A simple structure
Dealing with 23 agents though can be a lot of work, so MacDonald makes sure the structure of the company is straight forward and simple.
Each agent will submit their own deals, with several of the agents having status relationships with specific lenders. For the agents without status, they simply submit their deals to those lenders through the status agent.
"This works very well and easily with the technology," he says. "The owner of the deal handles the whole process from start to finish."
MacDonald also considers each agent a "business partner," he says, and he gives them the independence that the position deserves.
"Each person's business is what they have built themselves," he says, adding that he presents the means to deliver their business to the market, deal with incoming funds, outgoing pay, and all of the other day-to-day tasks involved in owning a franchise. "For them I am not an employer," he says. "I am the broker that allows them to deal in mortgages under my brokerage licence in a manner that frees them to focus on continuing to grow their business."