My Story: From Running a Team of Thirty to Handling Every File Myself
I am Morning Lee (李会民). I am a licensed mortgage broker in British Columbia, licence MB609900, and a licensed realtor, licence 172540. Both licences are mine and I use them myself. Over thirty years I have worked in business, then real estate, then mortgages. This page is how I got here, and why I no longer run a team. At its largest that team had close to thirty licensed realtors. I built it, and I am the one who wound it down, so that I could go back to handling each client myself.
Last updated 2026-08-12
Thirty years, three industries
I did not start out in mortgages. Over thirty years I ran a business first, then worked in real estate, then in mortgages. The three connect. Running a business taught me what a person's income looks like by the time it reaches a tax return. Real estate taught me what a date on a contract actually means. Mortgages taught me how a lender reads both of those things.
To be clear about the number: I have not been a mortgage broker for thirty years. Thirty years is business, real estate and mortgages added together. What that time is worth is not product knowledge. It is knowing how many places a file can break between the first showing and the keys, and which step it usually breaks at.
The team of almost thirty, and why I wound it down
At its largest I had close to thirty licensed realtors working under me. I recruited them, I set the process, I assigned the files. Those years went well by most measures.
The problem was on my side. Once the team got big, my time stopped going to clients and started going to management. People came for my name and were handed to someone on my team. Every extra layer means the information gets relayed once more, and every relay drops something. What drops is rarely the big thing. It is the small thing nobody thought mattered, which then shows up in the last week.
One week I realised I had barely spoken to an actual client. That was the point I decided I did not want to keep going that way.
So I wound the team down. Not because it was failing, but because I did not want to work like that. I handle each client directly — no middlemen, no confusion, just consistent communication and results you can trust.
Here is what those years taught me: real estate and mortgage clients aren't looking for more layers — they're looking for more care. The cost of that decision is real. I take on fewer clients in a year than I used to. The upside is that when you call, you get me.
Why I hold two licences
Because buying a home is two jobs running at the same time. On the property side someone is negotiating price, conditions and dates. On the money side someone is calculating what you qualify for, getting it approved and getting it to completion. Those two have to line up. When they don't, that is where deals get hurt.
The usual setup is two people doing those two jobs, with you relaying between them. You explain your situation twice, you watch the dates yourself, and when one side stalls, the other side is often the last to hear about it.
With both licences in one pair of hands, both jobs sit in one head and you are not the messenger. How that works in practice, and whether two licences create a conflict, is covered on the realtor service page.
What I will do for you
Look at your actual situation first, then tell you what is possible. Not pick a product and then work out how to fit you into it.
In practice that means running your income the way a lender runs it, laying out the routes that are open to you and what each one costs, preparing the documents in the form the lender wants, and staying on the file until it funds. If something goes sideways in the middle, you hear it from me then, not in the final week.
I work in English and Mandarin, and I serve the Greater Vancouver area.
What I will not do
I will not talk you into borrowing more so a deal closes. My job is to help you succeed, not to push you into something you don't need.
I will not present something uncertain as settled. The lender approves, not me. What I control is how well your file is built, which route it goes down, and how the timing is set. I do not make promises on a lender's behalf.
And I will not hand you off. From the first call to completion, you are dealing with me.
Where I am licensed
Mortgages: Dominion Lending Centres - A Better Way (0952130 B.C. Ltd.), 325A-20178 96 Ave, Langley, BC V1M 0B2. Independently Owned & Operated.
Real estate: Royal Pacific Realty (Kingsway) Ltd., 3107 Kingsway, Vancouver, BC V5R 5J9.
Both licences are held in British Columbia in my own name: MB609900 for mortgages, 172540 for real estate. To start, call (604) 727-1629 or send me your situation through the site.