How do you expect to overcome these challenges?

Ali: It’s my dedication to learning about the new regulations, keeping up with guidelines, and understanding how I need to implement them. I have a dedicated team for every part of a loan. That gives me the ability to avoid any unexpected delays and set the right expectations with the clients. It makes the process so much smoother.

Brouwers: It’s always about having an open ear to the consumer, and consumer feedback is extremely important to us. It’s about listening to feedback from all the people who are instrumental to the business and the clients themselves and having different faces other than just the person signing for the mortgage. It’s all the people who lead up to that process. Making sure that we’re hearing them, communicating openly with them, hearing what their needs are and determining what needs we’re able to meet. Realtor partners are looking for trusted advisors. My approach to the business is about how I can help increase your productivity.

Flodin: The slowdown in mortgage volume means that I’ll be working on adding a few more referral sources. My business has always been 100 percent referral-based from my relationships with agents, financial planners and CPAs — no advertising or buying leads. I joined a leads group in my second year of business and have just become involved in another one where I can build new relationships. I am at broker open houses every week helping Realtors as much as I can. We have many things we do for Realtors to help them market, advertise and get their name out.