People of the OCQ: Balraj
Originally from Singapore, Balraj relocated to Nanaimo for his wife to attend the teaching program at VIU. Balraj continued to work in tourism and real estate consulting for clients in Hawaii. When they were ready to buy a home here, they were instantly turned away by the bank.
“My wife was working part time. I'm foreign to Canada, a person with little credit history and employment in the US,” he recalls. “So how do you get a mortgage? Within 30 seconds of meeting with the bank, they said ‘thank you so much, we can't help you, please maybe come back in two years.”
A mortgage broker figured out how to get them a loan.
In the process of getting a mortgage, Balraj became incredibly intrigued by the profession and interviewed their broker about the career. They were not hiring at the time but found Balraj’s background and obsession with data and statistics interesting and after passing the mortgage broker exam in what felt like record time, he became their first commission based broker. “What I heard was that if you treated people well, helped them make good decisions, they would come back and tell their friends and family about you”.
Balraj worked for a brokerage for a few years before branching out to create his own mortgage broker firm, Lendlab, which celebrated its third anniversary in June 2024.
“I tell people I would never put you in a mortgage that I wouldn’t put my mother in,” he explains. “I joke that I’ll likely retire the poorest mortgage broker because I always want to put the clients’ first.”
He says a misconception about mortgages is that people make mortgage brokers their plan B, but seeing a broker first could save you money by opening up opportunities to a wide selection of available options.
“Sometimes in your life, a bank might be a better option. Sometimes a broker is a better option. The idea is to understand both and choose what's better for you at that time in your life.”
Balraj reminds people that there is no obligation to speak with a mortgage broker and a good broker will work with you start to finish whether it takes a month or ten years.
Almost hitting the ten-year mark living in Nanaimo, this city wasn’t a place Balraj imagined to put down roots. Coming from crowded cities in Singapore and Hawaii that made one feel anonymous to moving to a city where everyone knows your name felt incredibly foreign at first.
“And now we are set. Nanaimo is home,” he explains. “For the last twenty years people have been saying Nanaimo has potential. We need to stop saying that. Nanaimo is here. We need to start highlighting the good, because there is an abundance of it.”
Balraj says his favourite place in Nanaimo is the Old City Quarter. He jumped at the opportunity to open up shop here a few years ago.
It’s just nice being able to walk around and chat with fellow business owners in the area. It's like a shared experience,” he says. “It has that old community feel that is missing in most other places.”
That sense of community has led Balraj and his team at Lendlab to give back to Foodshare, a non-profit in Nanaimo that donates fresh produce to some of Nanaimo’s most vulnerable people. Growing up with limited resources, and also his wife seeing the impact of children struggling in schools, raising funds for Foodshare seemed like the perfect choice to give back to. Balraj says there are a lot of businesses in the area doing good in their community, but it’s never highlighted, because that’s not the point of it.
“It's not just about running a business and making money. It's also about having a positive impact in our community. You live here, you work here, your kids grow up here and your friends are here. Why wouldn't you try and make it a more positive place? “
Lendlab is located at #105 360 Selby Street, and they service clients from all over the island for their mortgage needs.