Earning his turns

brokers off-the-clock

Growing up in Saskatoon, Sask., the mountains were out of reach. Back then, Diener spent most of his time at the hockey rink. He was eventually drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers and later played professionally with the St. Louis Blues farm team, before suffering a serious injury with the Vancouver Canucks.

“That was my life to age 23. Hockey was everything. Then, I had an injury on the first day of training camp with the Canucks. It ended my career.”

After that, Diener went back to school to study business administration and began to focus on another sport he’s passionate about: golf.

“I was a club golf professional for about seven or eight years and ran the golf shop and taught the game,” he recalled. “Then, I moved out to Nelson for some real estate endeavours and eventually reinvented myself in mortgage brokering.”

Although his background is diverse, the one common thread is a love of sports. Diener said there is a social component to sports and people want to work with those who share common interests.

“I started to leverage that in the mortgage business,” he said. “It really worked, because people liked to hear me talk about sports as well as fixed or variable rate mortgages.”

Besides snowboarding, ski touring and golf, Diener plays with an informal hockey league once a week. He supports associated charity events whenever possible, and has volunteered with the Rotary Club of Nelson.

It hasn’t been easy pivoting into new sports or new careers, he reflected.

“For me, nothing came easy. To excel in sports, you have to put time in. You don’t just go right to the top. I’ve always had that mentality; I always humble myself and learn from the bottom up. That’s a big thing for me and that’s what helped me get started in the mortgage broker business. It still helps me, because I get in there to understand

“what’s happening with my clients and then I work hard for them. I always scale it back to learn the nuts and bolts of my clients’ unique situations, and then use my experience and expertise to get them the best mortgage product possible.”

Just as he prepares to summit a mountain, Diener researches the mortgage market daily, so he can best understand the current landscape.

As 2023 unfolds, Diener expects it to be a slower year where the emphasis will be on customer service, as well as keeping up with economic developments and changes with lending partners.

“Be available for my current and future clients and stay informed: That is my focus as we move into 2023 – it will be crucial for my book of business moving forward.”

Left: Derek

Right: Nowadays Derek plays in an informal hockey league about once a week.

“I think as the world gets more complex, our job as mortgage brokers becomes more important,” he concluded. “Everyone has a unique situation and their own complex considerations. As mortgage brokers, we have a lot of knowledge and connections with multiple lenders, and the trend is that more and more people are using us. Having someone experienced in mortgages who can give you options is very important.”

This interview with Derek Diener continues our series Brokers off the Clock. In every issue, we ask a mortgage broker to tell us what they like to do when they’re not behind a desk. Be it working with animals, travelling to exotic places or researching your family roots, we want to know how you unwind. Would you like to be profiled in a future edition –or suggest a fellow mortgage broker? Contact info@cmba-achc.ca

Steep penalties for those found guilty of violating the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act

BY RAY BASI, J.D., LL.B., DIRECTOR OF EDUCATION FOR CMBA-BC AND MBIBC