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Financial Freedom: Duncan Wilson Delivers Windsor’s First Mortgage Trifecta

Author: Jesse Ziter
Photographer: Syx Langemann
1 week ago
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Did you know Canada’s leading mortgage team is hard at work two minutes away from where you get your groceries?

It’s hard to keep up with Duncan Wilson, which is why so few do.

Wilson, who boasts a background with one of the big banks, is one of the most productive and longest serving mortgage professionals in Windsor-Essex, and he is more than willing to tell you all about it. Since 2001, he has been helping clients purchase, refinance and renew their homes. “I grew up doing mortgages my whole life,” he boasts. “I want people to know that.”

This holiday season, The Drive enjoyed a freewheeling conversation with Duncan, whose outsize personality fits his imperial-scale professional ambition, and whose language can be as colourful as his trademark three-piece suits. As many of his competitors were no doubt wrapping up their Christmas Eve planning, Duncan welcomed us to his local headquarters, where we learned what makes him different, why he is so passionate about his clients’ financial situations, and how local investors can get a little more for themselves while meaningfully contributing to the local economy.

If you’re anything like me, it can be hard for you to get excited about mortgage lending. Duncan doesn’t have this problem.

First, the basics: Duncan is team lead, broker, and sales manager for the Mortgage Suite Team, a 14-person client-facing mortgage office operating under or “powered by” the brokerage Mortgage Powered Financial Group (MPFG), which is a franchise of the major network Mortgage Intelligence. He also runs the administration company Erie Shores Capital Management and is CEO at the mortgage investment corporation (MIC) Erie Shores Capital—more on that later. In the big picture, Wilson and his team like to categorize the various operations under his purview as a “mortgage trifecta.”

Next, the big announcement: After 15 years with Dominion Lending Centres, Duncan has recently taken his business and brand under the Mortgage Intelligence umbrella. In the industry, this was quite a big deal.

“I find most mortgage brokers eventually become bogged down and busy dealing with borrowers until they grow complacent,” Duncan explains with characteristic bravado. “They fail to look forward to the next steps needed to make this industry better. That’s where I differ: I keep striving to innovate the industry itself.”

Key to Duncan’s innovation strategy is the acquisition of an administration licence—one of only two in our region.

Karen Wilson, Duncan’s wife, is executive administrator and compliance officer for the Mortgage Suite Team. According to Karen, while a mortgage broker is an intermediary between a lender and a borrower, their ability to interact with clients on a private deal if, for example, they have missed a payment, is limited. “The administration licence allows, among other things, Duncan and his administration partners to control payments on the client’s behalf,” she explains, “so the private lender does not have to worry about it.”

“We became licensed because we see it as the next step in an ambitious mortgage broker’s career,” Duncan elaborates confidently. “We’ve taken mortgages to the next level.”

Are you a homebuyer looking for a mortgage?

According to Duncan, in our current difficult market, mortgage brokers can get a bad rap. “There are a few bad apples, but they shouldn’t spoil the whole batch,” he reasons. “It’s important to not paint them all with the same brush.”

“Duncan’s goal is always to educate the client as much as possible,” says Karen. “They should know the what, why, where, how, and how much of their mortgage. We are focused on not only educating our clients but also making sure our agents are well versed in the lending space to best serve their clients.”

Duncan and Karen instill this ideology when they onboard new agents to the Mortgage Suite Team, ensuring these high standards are maintained. “I have surrounded myself with a true mortgage family,” says Duncan, “and I’m lucky that they all share the same diligent work ethic and drive for success and care about their clients as much as I do.”

The Mortgage Suite team, which includes six fully licenced brokers working under Duncan, deals with more than 50 lenders, including prime lenders, “B-lenders,” and private financial groups, to ensure clients can match with the best possible lender option (for their financial situation) with which to place their mortgage. Regardless of client circumstances, the Wilsons and their colleagues promise a one-stop borrowing process. Some Mortgage Suite clients have found themselves facing down tricky situations like bank declines, bruised credit, divorces, or unfavourable rent-to-own arrangements. Many others are investors looking to purchase or refinance commercial or income properties.

“Our number one goal is always to protect the client and give them the best solutions,” adds Karen, speaking on behalf of the Mortgage Suite Team. “If Duncan feels a client’s best bet is to stick with the bank, for example, he’s not doing anything to try and persuade you to move over. He’ll talk to you when the situation changes. There has to be a net-positive gain for the borrower.”

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Are you a licensed mortgage agent looking for a better future?

About six years ago, Duncan began to grow his client base substantially by training a competent, professionalized team of agents underneath him—in doing so, breaking from the way other mortgage outfits do things. Today, the Mortgage Suite Team is constantly open to bringing aboard motivated, promising young and early-career professionals, provided they have a mortgage licence and a high-performance work ethic.

Duncan advocates for an apprenticeship model, in which trainee agents work closely with him and his team of seasoned brokers to learn the intricacies of not only the mortgage submission process, but also the best way to fit their clients into the right mortgage product.

“Honestly, it’s like Obi Wan Kenobi teaching Luke Skywalker,” Duncan reasons. “I’m sorry, Luke never would have gone and been too successful without Obi Wan’s guidance. Or maybe even Yoda.”

While Duncan’s towering stature certainly doesn’t call to mind the green Jedi master, you can squint and see how the Mortgage Suite’s offices offer a Dagobah-like developmental culture.

Breaking with industry norms, Duncan doesn’t extract monthly “desk fees” from his trainees. Instead, Mortgage Suite team members pay a reasonable “split” (essentially a percentage of income generated) every month. “Most broker-owners or team leads, approach their position from a landlord standpoint,” says Duncan. “I approach it from a performance base, because I’m not a tied to a rent operation. I want top quality rather than quantity.”

Tough, but fair.

“The brokerage we have just moved to has the same mentality,” adds Karen. “Donna Thornton and Meagan Walker, our brokerage owners, don’t want a huge brokerage just for the sake of having numbers. They want people who are producing, who care about their clients, and who are actually doing mortgages properly. This ties into their brokerage motto: The Right Mortgage Matters. Ergo: the right mortgage professionals matter.”

According to Duncan, most individual, independent agents would find an advantage working under the Mortgage Suite umbrella. “I’m trying to rally the clans to say, just come under the Mortgage Suite Team and submit,” he offers. “You’re gonna get all your knowledge, you’ll get further ahead, and you’ll get more income per deal.”

Duncan Wilson in a suit

Are you an investor looking to diversify your portfolio and see real gains?

Since he started in banking as a fresh-faced 17-year-old, Duncan has observed an industry in decline. “I’ve noticed the stripping of retail bank branches,” he offers as an example. “Everything becomes centralized over time, and once that happens, workforces are pushed to Toronto. I’ve noticed over the course of my career, alternative lending solutions

offered by the banks simply involve sending borrowers to Toronto brokerages. Revenue essentially trickles to the top, and out of our beautiful city. I want to create more jobs down here. I ask myself: What’s trickling to Windsor? Like, really, what is staying here in our wonderful city to make it better?”

Enter Erie Shores Capital, a community-driven investment opportunity designed to provide robust returns while safeguarding investor capital—and the only MIC in Southwestern Ontario.

Duncan’s administration licence allows him to operate a MIC, a specialized investment vehicle enabling individual investors to pool their money in a legal company governed by the Ontario Securities Commission. Essentially, the MIC draws from that pool of funds, lends it out on private mortgages, and generates healthy, compounding returns for its investors. As an investor, because your money is spread across a diverse portfolio of properties, the structure offers significant benefits compared to individual private mortgage deals. For borrowers, rates are typically much more reasonable than traditional mortgages offered from outside our area.

According to Duncan, Erie Shores Capital brings together local lenders to help finance local properties. “The alternative,” he explains, “is Toronto MICs lending out on properties they have of no idea about, with no local benefit to the borrower or our city. These are local investors helping local people who may have extenuating circumstances that require alternative financing.”

Have a spare $25,000 or more and looking to invest in real estate? Invest in the MIC. “You’re lowering your risk but you’re still getting between 8.25 and 9 percent every year, as dividend payments spread out monthly over the year,” he explains, comparing his opportunity favourably to just leaving that money sitting in a low-return savings account. “People need to realize this exists out there, and we’re the only people in Windsor that do it.”

As ever, it’s a bold, confident claim from Duncan. But would you bet against him?

For more information, phone (519) 419-3825 or email [email protected]. You can also connect with the Mortgage Suite Team via LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, Spotify, or TikTok.

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