The $1B Blueprint: How to Scale Without Chasing a Single Lead - Stephen Michaels and Jonathan Valentino #148

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.