Your clients were happy. Why didn’t they come back?

Every broker knows the moment a file closes. The documents are signed, the client is grateful, and the pipeline needs feeding. Our industry rarely examines what happens to that relationship next.

In CMHC’s 2025 Mortgage Consumer Survey, 65% of recent mortgage consumers were renewers, up from 58% in 2023. Mortgage Professionals Canada’s 2024 consumer survey found that 44% of mortgage holders simply accepted the rate their lender first offered at their last renewal. Renewal is now the biggest part of the market, and for many borrowers it passes without anyone shopping the rate.

A five-year term brings every client back to that moment several times over a career. Often the client is not unhappy with their broker. The relationship simply went quiet, and the decision went to whoever was in front of them. The original broker may never hear it happened.

That is the problem at the centre of my book, Own the Homeowner, and the cause is structural. Commission is paid at closing, so the business organizes itself around the next closing. Wealth advisors and accountants work differently because their income depends on the relationship continuing. Thirty years later, one has a book of clients and the other has a production history.

The homeowner life cycle, from first-time buyer to reverse mortgage, produces a steady run of decisions: purchase, protection, renewal, refinance, equity access, move-up, downsizing. Each goes to someone, usually the professional who stayed in touch with something relevant.

Mortgage Monitor, built by the Charlwood Pacific Group, sends homeowners personalized reports on home value, equity and interest savings, and has sustained an open rate above 70%.

Coordination matters too. A typical purchase involves six or seven professionals, and almost none of them talk after closing. Brokers and agents who keep working around the same homeowner serve clients better. HomeHub, from the same group that owns Centum Financial Group and Century 21 Canada, lets Centum brokers and Century 21 agents refer clients to each other, with compliant referral fees in both directions.

The group’s executive chairman, U. Gary Charlwood, wrote the book’s foreword, and three industry voices have endorsed the book. Robert Reffkin, chairman and CEO of Compass International Holdings, writes, “Real estate has always been a people business.” Wayne Einhorn, president of Inner Circle Broker Coaching, calls it “a powerful, practical blueprint” for lasting client relationships. Mario Cloutier of Manulife’s creditor insurance group calls it “a thoughtful and timely contribution” to the industry conversation.

Try this test: take your last 20 closed files. For how many could you name the home’s estimated current value and the mortgage renewal date? If the answer is few, the opportunity is already in your book. Build the business around the relationship.

Adrian Schulz is President of Centum Financial Group and the author of Own the Homeowner, available on Amazon and Audible.

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Last modified: October 15, 2026