Len [00:00:02]
Welcome. My name is Len Lane, and I am the founder and president of Brokers for Life Inc., and we are Dominion Lending Centres in Western Canada. The topic of our podcast will be about what we consider to be Real Life Mortgage Solutions. Wow! Episode 48. Who thought we would ever get this far? What started out as a project to maybe help my own agents and learn more about what they do and help maybe promote the company itself. We’ve come a long way from first talking with Amy Wilson on the team, and people like Ray Meredith, who are bankers to brokers. You know, Cheryl Wilkes has done an amazing job in the industry and all of those things that go along with it, which slowly, continuously developed into talking to more people ranging from, you know, talking to people and talking with Carl Wong at MNP and, and going through all the hoops with Heather Sermak and how all of this works. Multiple time guest Sandra Landry from Senior Vice President with the MNP, talking about bankruptcy and credit and how all of that works. And of course, our great lender friends. So Leanne McAllister, director of sales at Mcap, you know, walking it through all the different ones over the last couple of years, 48 episodes, basically four seasons of this. Having the opportunity to talk to Gary Siegle on his way out of the industry into retirement, about 50 years of experience in the mortgage industry in Western Canada, that’s actually quite phenomenal.

Len: [00:01:43] We’re going to wrap up this season as you got the last episode. Our last episode was with Hayley Stradlin as Fisgard and Neighbourhood became partners and one kind of blending into the other. It was interesting to get her take on the industry and what the amazing things that she has done in the industry as well. We talked with lawyers. We talked with several different types of lawyers, actually. Shane Parker, a local Edmonton longtime lawyer, talking about the real estate industry. His whole family has actually been involved in the homebuilding side. Cyndy Morin in Calgary, talking about Resolve Law and all of the things that happened during divorce to actually to make her almost fall off her chair when I told her that I offered to actually go back and give my ex-wife at one point more money because I was making more money. So it doesn’t usually happen, I guess. But home building with Leslie Cairns out of ATB. There’s a long list of other opportunities we had in here, but there’s nothing more exciting than, you know, when you see people you’ve known for the last 20 years, like Brian Menzies talking about, hey, we’re doing mortgages in Mexico now.

Len: [00:02:53] It’s… it’s always something. And of course, we got a chance to give back to the industry, to the people that we’ve supported over the years with Little Warriors and to talk with Dr. Wanda Holman, who is the CEO, which I did not expect to get her. I expected to have someone in her organization. And it’s one of the ones that we’ll continue to support all through the next whatever years it is. Marjorie Benz, Edmonton Food Bank. We actually did a little more than support. We actually went to the point of, we are now actually doing some volunteer work with them. $5 from every brokerage flight mortgage we donate to them. I know it doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it’s a cup of coffee, right? And if you drive through Starbucks, it’s not even a cup of coffee. It’s a tall cup of coffee. Right? So lots of different things that we’ve been able to do with this program. We’re going to take a break from it because I think there’s a book out there that needs to be written.

Len: [00:03:52] Well, maybe two actually. One maybe about the mortgage industry and the things we’ve seen over the last 20 years. And the other one is going to be called Six Miles of Dirt Road. It’s a little bit about my journey through life from too many places and too many things that went on that I need to get written down. So that’s where you’ll find me over the next couple of years, as we continue to build Brokers for Life. The team is sitting at 35 agents this morning. We are still licensed across Canada, and we continue to hope to do that for a few more years. I’m trying to find a partner that wants to maybe join us in taking over some of it. But, now the… that process still continues. So thanks for listening in. It’s been an exciting couple of months. A couple of years, I guess. And, it will the podcast will still be online, so you can still find us on Spotify, Apple, and in YouTube. Anyway, have a great day. Thanks for listening today. I hope you found the information that we provided to be useful in your mortgage journey. And remember, you can always find our associates at www.brokersforlife.ca/associates. Have a great day.