Our Un-Contract

What exactly is an Un-Contract?

It’s a contract unlike any other brokerage contract because it is written to protect the broker.

We believe that the best way to keep our brokers is by innovating and providing value. If we are not doing that, our brokers should leave.

If I convince you to sign a seven-year contract with me, where is my incentive to be constantly improving and innovating?

As a broker owner, if I am not constantly experimenting, seeking more ways to help my brokers, I believe I have failed.

Before joining any brokerage, you should ask them the following questions:

Who owns my clients?
Are there any special deals available?
Are there any penalties for leaving?
What happens to my outstanding commissions if I leave?
Can I see a copy of your contract?

Here are BRX Mortgage’s answers:

1. Who owns my clients?

You own 100% of your clients.

You did the hard work of finding the client, convincing them to work with you, and closing their mortgage.

They belong to you.

We are so committed to this that, when an agent joins our brokerage, we don’t issue them a BRX email address.

Instead, we show them how to set up their own email address, so if they do leave, they will continue to receive all communications from their clients.

Now, we hope they never leave, but if they do, we don’t want to hold them hostage with their email address.

I have heard too many horror stories of brokers who thought the company was doing them a favour, only to discover this was not the case when they decided to leave.

The email below was sent out to a broker's clients when he left the franchise.

Did you catch that?

‘Hey client, your broker has left the company, but don’t worry—we can help you out.’

This sort of thing happens far too frequently, and brokers don’t find out until it is too late.

As a side note, there are three things that you should always own:

Your cell phone number
Your primary domain name
Your email address

Do not let anyone convince you otherwise.

We do keep copies of documents for any mortgages you fund with us for compliance purposes, but we will never market to your clients without your consent.

2. Are there any special deals available?

I love that you ask, but the answer is still “No.”

We will never use cash and restrictive contracts to entice brokers to join us. If you don’t believe in our vision or values, we are not a good fit.

There are some franchises that will write you a check if you sign a 5-to-7 year contract. When I spoke to a friend of mine who closed $400+ million last year, I asked if he was offered a special deal.

He said he was offered a very large check, but didn’t take it. As he explained to me, “Most brokers are not business owners, and they don’t do the math. There is no such thing as free money.”

The reality is that most of these cash incentives function like a cash back mortgage or a credit card advance.

You might get a quick hit of cash but the person writing the check has done the math, and they are not going to lose.

3. Are there any penalties for leaving?

No.

We have no penalties if you leave our brokerage. If you decide we are not a fit, you can leave by giving us 30 days’ written notice.

4. What happens to my outstanding commissions if I leave?

We will pay you every nickel of commission we owe you if you leave for any reason. The only thing we ask is that you give us 30 days’ written notice.

We will not hold your commission ransom, or threaten to not pay you. This is a small industry and, even if a broker does leave, I prefer not to burn bridges because I believe many of them will be back working with us again in the future.

That may be naive, but we are obsessed with creating a broker-centric company, and with always innovating and improving.

I believe in playing the long game, and know that the right people will find us in their time.

5. Can I see a copy of your contract?

Yes, absolutely. As I mentioned, every one of our agents gets the exact same contract. We believe that everyone should get a good deal, but no one should get a special deal.

We have nothing to hide; when you don’t give special deals, you don’t have to worry about everyone seeing your contract.

View the contract here.

I guarantee that if you were to approach top brokers who work at the same franchise, you would find that many of them have dramatically different contracts.

This is not always the case, but it happens far too often.

In fact, some of the examples I have seen recently are:

One franchise within a network being allowed to use a technology that other brokers are penalized for using.
Brokers being charged considerably higher royalties because they didn’t negotiate as well. For example, I know of a female broker who paid $80,000 more in one year than a male colleague, because she didn’t negotiate as well. (As a father of two daughters, this really pisses me off.)
Cash incentives to the owners for switching franchises that are not disclosed to the agents of the brokerage. Incidentally, the reason you see lawsuits between broker owners and franchises is usually because of these incentives.
Penalties being imposed for breaking a contract early, but no clear definition of how this penalty is calculated. The highest amount I have seen was a broker owner charging an agent $300,000 for leaving. Nowhere in the contract did it explain how the penalty was going to be calculated. We scold clients for taking mortgages with punitive penalties, but we don’t even ask this question when signing a contract for our mortgage business.
A broker being told she has to pay out her monthly fee for the next two years because she left a brokerage, even though she left because they didn’t provide the support she was promised. (Again, this was not disclosed in clear terms in her contract.)

These are just a few of the games I have seen played with contracts.

This is the year 2022, and I personally believe that we need to do better.

To be fair, there are a few great brokerages out there running honest businesses, and if you are one of them, I challenge you to share your contract publicly, to demonstrate that you also have nothing to hide.