Keep the next commercial file you would have referred away and run it with a deal desk beside you. Learn one asset class well, then tell every business owner and accountant you know.
Almost every commercial broker started residential and kept the first commercial file they would have referred away. The licence already covers it in BC, Alberta and Ontario; what is missing is the experience, and that is learned on files, not in courses. The way in is to find a brokerage with a commercial deal desk, bring the first file, and watch every step: the scenario, the structure, the lender conversation, the conditions.
Start small and simple: an owner occupied purchase, a small multifamily, a refinance on a stable income property. Pick one asset class to understand properly before the second. Then tell every self employed client, every investor and every accountant and lawyer you know that you now do commercial, and say it again.
A generic first year looks like one file in the first quarter, two or three funded by the end, one asset class understood and a lender or two who know your name. The new to commercial path sets it out.
Commercial is a pillar here, not a specialty. The Commercial Deal Desk structures, underwrites, places and tracks commercial files with the broker, from the first residential broker who keeps a commercial file to the established commercial broker who wants a second underwriter. The client, the relationship and the renewal stay with the broker who brought them.
The full guide, with the detail and the numbers.
New to commercial: learn commercial and build a second revenue streamThere is no separate commercial licence. How residential mortgage agents move into commercial files: the skills, the lenders, how pay works and support.
Why commercial files are the fastest lever for a residential broker at $10 to $30 million, where the files already sit in your book, and how to start.
A practical path for residential brokers into commercial mortgages: which deals to start with, what lenders need and how an underwriting desk helps.
Bring your questions to a discovery call and a broker owner will answer them directly.