Episode 5: Are Brokers Better?

All In Uncensored with Ryan & Bryon

Welcome to All In uncensored with Ryan and Bryon!
In this episode Sean Lee, Senior Vice President of Business Development for Adcom Group (our parent company) is going to share his thoughts on the mortgage wholesale channel and draw on his experience as a business development leader in Zillow and what he took away from that experience to help Adcom Group experience explosive growth.
Some of the topics we will touch on in this episode:
• Who is Sean Lee?
• How did your time at Zillow translate to our industry now?
• Why Wholesale Mortgage channel?
• Why is the Wholesale/Broker Channel better for loan officers?
• How can people save money by utilizing our services?
• Thoughts on Housing and Mortgage market and where he see it trending in 2024
Who is Sean Lee?
Tell us about where you are from and how you got into this business
Sean was a semi professional whitewater kayaker. He graduated from the University of Colorado and got into sales with 24 hour fitness. From there he transitioned into secondary finance market. He is a family man, loves the outdoors and is into fitness. Family, fitness and being a good person are pillars. He met his wife Katlin who is a realtor with Windermere on the Eastside (Bellevue and Kirkland). He moved here from Colorado after they had their first child on the way.

What is the flow zone? Flow zone is a nickname from Kayaking but it has now taken on a deeper meaning: Flowing like water while being in the zone to be a better leader and help people grow and get better.

How did your time at Zillow translate to our industry now?
• What did you like about working at Zillow? Even though Sean had experience with developing business and recruiting, the Zillow leadership had him start at the ground level and grow from there. They gave him a lot of feedback on how to be better and he was coachable and was able to grow from there until he developed the entire rental division of Zillow into a $250 million per year arm of the business.

What were some of the challenges? Challenges were when he exploded the growth of their rental platform, more fingers were in the pie so to speak and it was harder to do what he felt he needed to do to scale.

What led to transition over into the wholesale channel? Rich Hunt, owner of Adcom Group Inc, met Sean through their wives at the time and they developed an instant friendship and Rich plugged him into the network here.
Why Wholesale channel?
• What is different about this versus retail? Based on HMDA data, the average borrower saves over $9000 per year by using a broker. Wholesale offers loan officers more control of their business and also allows them to be competitive.

What drew you to wholesale? The opportunity to help loan officers grow and scale knowing that they could believe in the product they are selling.

Why is wholesale/broker channel better for loan officers?
The broker channel is better for loan officers because it allows the loan officer to have control over their business. It cuts out the bloat of management we often see in retail. Also, the technology has caught up. 12 year ago banked retail dominated the market due to their ability to offer everything on one platform. Fintech has caught up and leveled the playing field and in some cases broker channel’s tech has surpassed that of retail.

How do people save money by utilizing our services?
We are able to eliminate corporate bloat and pass the savings onto the clients.
Thoughts on Housing and Mortgage market going into 2024
Where do you see rates going? No one has a crystal ball but we see rates likely leveling out and possibly going down in 2024

Do you think we will see any changes in inventory? The millennial generation has a lot of pent up demand for housing so we will not likely see inventory getting to a more normal cycle if rates come back down.

What should real estate agents and loan officers be doing right now to help people find success in becoming homeowners in 2024? We should all be working on our business and building systems and platforms to be better for our clients in 2024. Also now is a great opportunity for loan officers to join our team and explore transitioning from the banked retail model over to the broker channel.

Final thoughts
The mortgage wholesale/broker channel offers a lot of advantages to loan officers who decide to make the switch from retail. If we keep our focus on the consumer and trying to give them the highest level of service while keeping costs as low as possible, the broker channel provides a great option for that. If you are a retail mortgage loan officer, please hit us up. We would love to collaborate.