Mortgage 101 – giving expert advice even if we don’t get the transaction | March 2022 Part 1

In this episode of Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins and Todd Veinotte, as heard on CityNews 95.7, the guys talk about the growing pains of starting up Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team to what it’s like now, and the importance of a great business model. We are dedicated to doing the right transactions for a client’s financial wellness, and giving that expert advice even if it means we don’t get the transaction.

Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins & Todd Veinotte: Giving expert advice even if we don’t get the transaction

Don’t feel like watching the video? Check out the transcript below.

Transcript:

What’s happing at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team?

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:00:03] Mortgage 101: Your Guide to Homeownership, as mentioned, and Clinton Wilkins, for those who don’t know, and I can’t imagine people don’t know about you, but let them know about what you are all about for people tuning in for the first time, what you do.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:11:09] I’m a mortgage broker here in Halifax. We have offices in downtown Halifax and in downtown Dartmouth, and I’ve been in the mortgage industry for 16 years. Recently, we just passed a big milestone.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:22:15] Yeah, billion bucks?

One billion mortgages funded

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:23:20] One billion in mortgage volume funded. And you know what? It’s been a real ride. As you can imagine, there have been a lot of changes that have happened in the mortgage industry in the last, you know, 16 years since I started. And, you know, there’s nothing that I would rather do with my life, currently.

You know, I haven’t always been here. I haven’t always been in like this mindset of, you know, things are good and I’m happy. But right now, you know what? There’s nothing else that I would rather do than this. And you know, the only thing that I really talk about all day long is mortgage lending. Yeah, and that’s why you’re going to hear for the next hour!

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:59:11] So when you’re talking a billion bucks, you’re talking about total deals. Total mortgages, like combined?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:06:03] Combined a billion and we started tracking that from 2009 onward. So that’s basically our 2009 results to today, and we passed the billion mark sometime in early February, which is, you know, a big milestone. As you can imagine, in Halifax, our average mortgage amounts are probably one of the lower, you know, amounts from the entire country.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:28:23] Yeah.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:29:04] Even now. Even with what’s happening in the marketplace out there.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:32:19] For the major cities, you’re talking.

Awarded Broker of the Year three times

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:34:04] For the major cities. So as you can imagine, we have to do a lot of transactions to be able to compete on the national level. And, you know, we’ve been able to do that. I’ve been awarded Broker of the Year three times.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:46:18] For who?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:49:05] For, under the Canadian Mortgage Awards.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:52:14] Oh, is that right?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:53:08] Yeah.

Nominated for a fourth time

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:53:18] Yeah. So that’s very prestigious?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:55:14] Yeah. And I’m actually nominated this year. I’m a finalist and they’re now doing it for different regions. So I’m nominated for Atlantic Canada and will be in Toronto for the Canadian Mortgage Awards here in April, so I’m super excited for that.

Challenges from 2009 to now in the mortgage business

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:10:04] So what’s been the biggest challenge getting the business to where it is today? What are some of the biggest challenges?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:15:14] Well, you know, I think just like any small business, Todd, there’s good times and there’s bad times. And, you know, I’ve made some good decisions. I’ve made some bad decisions. And, you know, here we are today.

There have been times that I’ve wanted to quit. I won’t lie to you. You know, I think in Halifax, the economic situation wasn’t as hot maybe, you know, in the 2012, 2013, 2014. It was kind of like a bit stagnant here. And you know, I was probably, you know, living that good life and wanting to go on vacation and drive my fancy cars and all these things.

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:51:01] What’s changed?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:53:06] Well, what’s changed is I kind of went back to work. I think at one point I was kind of like just skimming the cream off the top. And, you know, I wasn’t really putting the, you know, sweat equity into it or the muscle into actually running the business and seeing clients. And I actually see clients full time. And I think that surprises people.

I think some of the clients of our business, they perceive that, you know, I do things like the radio and, you know, I wrote a book and we do a homeownership guide and, you know, other media things that we do and they think that that’s what I do full time, you know, manage the business operations and stuff like that. But I actually do see clients. And I think that provides the most value to our business here, but also to our consumers because I’m in the thick of it.

And it’s not just the other mortgage brokers who work here on my team. You know, I’m doing transactions every single day so I can see what the challenges are. And you know, we’ve done over 4,200 transactions since that 2009 date.

Adapting to new things everyday

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:55:03] I want to say that we’ve seen everything, but every day I see something new.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:58:22] No, you don’t.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:59:22] I honestly do.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:00:19] Yeah?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:01:17] Everybody’s situation is different. You know, every file that we look at is like a snowflake. It’s made up of a combination of income and assets and credit, and we need to figure out what the best path is for that consumer. It’s really, you know, I find it very empowering. I love what I do.

You know, we make dreams happen. You know, we get first-time home buyers into homes. You know, we put people in a better financial position, potentially with a refinance. And a lot of the transactions that we do every day are for existing clients, repeat clients and referrals from those existing clients, obviously.

So obviously, we love helping new clients, Todd, and we’re in the business, obviously of mortgage lending. We want to do every single transaction that we can do. You know, obviously we have capacity and we can’t help everyone. I mean, I assume everyone understands that.

We try to help everyone we can

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:48:13] What do you mean you have capacity? You can’t help everyone?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:50:06] Well, we can’t do every single transaction. You know, there’s thousands of transactions that are happening every year and even in the province of Nova Scotia.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:58:14] Anybody who comes to you and wants you to do a transaction, you’re going to make that happen?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:03:05] Yeah, we’ll make it happen, obviously within, we have some constraints. There are some transactions that we just are not able to do. And some transaction types that you know, we don’t do maybe as often.

But, you know, for the lion’s share of the customers that come in to see us, we want to do every single transaction that we can and we want to provide those consumers with the best advice. And quite honestly, we will not do transactions when we don’t think it’s in the client’s best interest.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:30:03] Yeah. Give me an example.

We give expert advice, even if it means we don’t get the transaction

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:31:13] I’m going to give you an example. I actually had a transaction this week and I had an approval for this client. Some of the situation changed. They wanted to change, you know, the mortgage amount, the closing date, you know, and based on their current scenario, they had an approval at another lender.

The other lender was actually able to provide a lower rate because they got the approval before my file started. And obviously, we know pricing changes from time to time. And I recommended that client go back to that existing lender.

I would have love to have the transaction. It would have made my life a little bit easier, honestly. But it wasn’t the right thing for the customer. And I would rather give advice like that. You know, if the client likes it or doesn’t like it, I’d rather give the client that advice than just do transactions for the sake of doing transactions, because that’s not a sustainable business model and it’s not a business model that we want to be in.

We want to be able to give the advice, and I think that’s what really kind of differentiates us in the marketplace. But I think also it differentiates us from going to see a bank lender. The bank lenders are only able to give what they have access to, right?

We’ve access to a variety of different products, a variety of different lenders. And you know, we can look at the entire situation and kind of figure out what the best, you know, the best path is.

“Look, you’re getting a better deal, you should go for that better deal.”

Todd Veinotte: [00:06:53:04] How rare do you think that is in your business, that somebody, your competitors, I’m not looking for you to name anybody or anything like that, but it’s obviously quite rare that somebody would say, “Look, you’re getting a better deal, you should go for that better deal.”

Clinton Wilkins: [00:07:06:15] I would say it’s quite rare. And you know, there’s a couple of things that that could come into play here. There are some ultra discounted brokerages out there that are like you’re dealing with online and like a call centre, right? So, you know, I think sometimes they may have that buying power to provide a lower rate. And if it’s all about rate, that’s probably where the customer should go, to be honest.

We really pride ourselves on being that full service brokerage that we’re going to be able to give that advice. We’ve brick and mortar locations like we are in an old bank branch here and in downtown Halifax. We’re actually recording here Wednesday night. So you’re listening to us on the weekend, but it’s Wednesday night and we’re recording. We’re actually in my office in downtown Halifax.

And, you know, we believe in brick and mortar. I think we run our business kind of like it is a bank branch, in some ways. Obviously, we’re not a bank. We’re not owned by a bank. We’re independent. We’re part of a national brokerage and we’ve access to a variety of lenders. But what really sets us apart, I think, is the lenders that we have.

We’re in the relationship business, so we can ask for exceptions

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:12:03] We have a very deep and entrenched relationship with them. And that I think oftentimes can enable us to, you know, dig a little bit deeper, maybe on the pricing piece so, you know, give a very competitive rate, but also get that service. And we, likely, are able to get, you know, maybe, you know, an exception that maybe somebody can’t get.

You know, I think when you have a lot of volume behind you, like kind of like what we have the lenders that we deal with, if we need to go to the table and really ask maybe for help or for an exception, we’re probably more likely to get it, you know?

And I think it’s kind of like the Costco analogy. You know what? Where is it better to buy your toilet paper or is it better to buy it at Costco? Is it better to buy it at the grocery store? Or is it better to buy it at the corner store? And in some ways do it due to our volume, you know, we have the buying power of something like a Costco or the grocery store would be.

Todd Veinotte: [00:09:07:09] So in the show today, we’re going to talk about what do you want to get to next refinance? Do you think that would be in? And what else do you want to talk about?

Spring is the busiest time for real estate

Clinton Wilkins: [00:09:12:26] You know, it’s spring and you know, we kind of coin it as “Spring into Homeownership.” Spring is literally two weeks away here, Todd. So we’re pretty excited about spring.

Spring is typically one of the busiest housing markets across the country. So, you know, we want to talk a little bit about what’s going on here in Halifax and you know, some of the challenges, right? I certainly want to talk about refinance.

And for existing homeowners, spring might be a good time to refinance and we can talk a little bit about that. And I think we would be remiss to say, you know, about what’s happened with the Bank of Canada last year.

Todd Veinotte: [00:09:47:10] Yeah, let’s do that. So we’ll be right back Clinton Wilkins and myself Todd Veinotte. Mortgage 101 returns in a bit.

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team! You can call us at (902) 482-2770 or contact us here.

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