As Broker/Owner of Price Mortgage, Andy Price knows how to scale a business. Starting out on his own, Andy took over a year to build out and perfect processes before he hired his first employee. Now with five years running his own brokerage, he has grown Price Mortgage to a team of 50 through organic growth and investment in his existing employees. 

Andy first joined the housing industry as a real estate agent but quickly made the change to broker, joining his family’s shop. That is when everything clicked. He worked as a loan officer for years until he opened his own brokerage, Price Mortgage, in March 2017. 

In the first year of Price Mortgage, Andy did not hire anyone. Instead, he focused on setting up the groundwork, the processes, and the tech stack so when he did begin to hire loan officers everything would fit perfectly in place. He focused on making Price Mortgage a brokerage where LOs have all the tools and resources they need to thrive. Andy worked to identify pain points he experienced during his time as an LO so he could minimize or remove them. 

When he did begin hiring staff, he took a quantity over quality approach. Andy has never pushed to massively grow Price Mortgage. Through organic growth, Andy now has a team of 50 loan officers, processors, and loan officer assistants. The key to not only building a large team, but a successful one is to hire the right people, Andy said. That also means knowing when someone is not a good fit for your company. “Not everybody’s a good fit and you can’t always make them fit,” he said. 

The other key to building a successful team is to continue investing in your current staff. Instead of always hiring new loan officers, Andy works with his existing LOs to help them grow. It’s easier and ultimately a better return on investment to help a current employee increase their production instead of going through the hiring process. When he does bring on new employees, he is careful to bring on a few people at a time at most. If you bring in a flood of people, your resources will be strained to accommodate all those new hires.

Andy’s parting advice: Treat others the way you want to be treated and give them the service you’d expect. A mortgage is the biggest decision many borrowers will ever make so make sure they understand the whole process and are comfortable with everything. The same advice goes for your team. Andy never asks his employees to do something he is unwilling to do himself. Any brokerage that is more focused on money than building relationships will lose in the end, Andy said. If you focus on your borrowers and staff, the money will follow. 

Getting into the Industry (2:06)Starting your Own Shop (10:03)Hiring & Training (25:22)Parting Advice (36:27)

This Episode is sponsored by Homepoint