Casting Off: Retail to Broker

I get asked a lot from LOs what making the transition from retail to broker is like.

Here is the best way that I can describe it:

Retail lending is like going on a guided fishing trip. For the most part, the guide takes you out, their spot, their boat, their rods, and you just fish.

Being a broker is essentially being given a boat and being told “good luck.”

Depending on how you feel reading those two examples, probably tells you which pathway is best for you. Because being a broker isn’t for everyone.

A great real example of a challenge that I had:

Canadian client who didn’t have established US income or credit, was supposed to have transferred to US income on the 1^st of the month to have a full paystub by closing. Well, he didn’t. Instead, he stayed in Canada and hoped for the best and informed me of this a week after the fact.

I sent out an email to over 30 AEs in my network to see what options were available. The next morning I had 4 and I was able to keep the deal alive for my client. But here’s the part nobody tells you — I closed it with a company I’d never worked with, through an AE whose first words to me were a reply to that email. That’s broker. The freedom to go find the answer anywhere, and the nerve to trust a stranger to deliver it when your client’s counting on you.

Sometimes being a broker feels like you are on choppy waters, over a spot that you had a “good feeling” about, you bait the line and drop it in, unsure if you will get a bite.

But man is it worth it when you get a fish on.