Chris Turcotte (pictured) of CENTUM, a coast-to-coast network with over 2,200 agents, told Canadian Mortgage Professional that the company’s model (flat-fee and royalty-free) offered huge opportunity for brokers and agents to manage the current downturn and maximize profit when things pick up again.

That’s an approach that Turcotte said reflected CENTUM’s status as a company run by executives steeped in the mortgage broker profession. “What I’m most proud of is the fact that CENTUM is 100% designed from the broker perspective,” he explained. “This team is stacked with employees within the company that have been in the business. We’ve actually done the job.

“So when we speak to our brokers, we have a proven record. We’re in the trenches saying, ‘Here’s how you navigate these storms because we have done that ourselves, and we’re in it with you.’”

An innovative approach to broker pay

Among the key elements to CENTUM’s value proposition, according to Turcotte, is its DirectPay platform – a payroll system he described as a “game changer” that allows its brokers and agents to receive daily pay on closed deals.

Brokerages can segregate commission as soon as it arrives, regardless of team size or volume funded, with licensees and owners receiving a reconciliation paystub featuring a comprehensive breakdown of deal number, details of which client relates to each transaction, and the amount received from each.