The $1B Blueprint: How to Scale Without Chasing a Single Lead - Stephen Michaels and Jonathan Valentino #148
Show notes
Stephen Michaels and Jonathan Valentino settle 1.1 billion dollars of loans a year with no marketing, no advertising and no cold outreach. Every broker in the business is on a salary, and the whole instruction to them is one sentence: delight the customer.
Stephen Michaels and Jonathan Valentino are the founders of Catalyst, a brokerage they have run for 14 years, submitting around 150 million dollars of loans a month across 40 lenders and taking their business from about 60 referral partners.
What you will learn:
- Why every broker in their business is salaried rather than contracted, and what that does to quality control
- How a bridging loan actually works, on real numbers, and why they say 60 percent of approved bridges are never drawn
- The 26 million dollar bridge at around 7.5 percent, and the house that took nine months to sell
- The 24 month rule they use to explain why most new brokers quit just before it starts working
- Why they would tell a new broker to learn credit policy before touching social media
Chapters
00:00 The reverse mullet: party at the front, business at the back
04:21 How they got past a billion a year in settled loans
06:40 Doing every job end to end before trying to teach it
08:06 Why every broker in the business is on a salary
11:42 Taking the admin off the salesperson so they only have to close
14:50 What actually keeps good staff: the money, or the learning
17:57 The three deals you nail, and the three you only do 8 out of 10
21:15 The confidence play, and why most approved bridges go unused
24:19 Who a bridging loan is actually for
26:42 What a bridge really costs, and the rate you pay on the gap
27:54 The 26 million dollar bridge, and the mansion that would not sell
31:08 If you started again tomorrow, learn policy first
34:50 The 24 month rule, and why most brokers quit too early
38:54 The sale that opened the network, and the ones done for free
42:00 What makes a good broker, and why resilience is the job
47:16 Do not try to take on everything in your first year
50:57 Development lending, and why the banks pulled back
53:27 Private credit, and the banks now competing to come back in
55:51 The decision tree on a site the bank said no to
58:52 Making the complex simple, and why that is the whole job
Stephen Michaels and Jonathan Valentino settle $1.1 billion a year without advertising. Property should work the same way.
Most properties only make money if the market does. The ones that pay for themselves from the day you settle are bought differently, and it comes down to four points.
Get the free guide: https://go.bothsides.au/score
Bothsides:
◼️ The weekly email - https://bothsides.au
◼️ Bothsides Buyers Agency - https://www.bothsidesbuyersagency.com.au
◼️ Dan - https://www.instagram.com/daniel_beardall/
◼️ Watch on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@bothsidespodcast
General information only. Not financial, tax, legal or credit advice. Bothsides is not a mortgage broker or credit provider.