RCN Capital’s blueprint for broker loyalty
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The lender’s Executive Advantage Program has expanded beyond correspondent lenders to include brokers for the first time − and the ambition behind it goes well beyond a volume rebate
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In lending, everybody has a pitch. From rates and service to speed, brokers hear it from every lender competing for their book of business, and the difference between one and the next can be difficult to discern.
RCN Capital had an answer: the Executive Advantage Program (EAP), a tiered rewards structure that the Connecticut-based private lender has now expanded beyond its correspondent lending base to include brokers for the first time.
The premise is straightforward − close loans with RCN, move through the tiers, get paid on top of what you already earn − but the ambition behind it is bigger than a volume rebate.
“Our partners are always looking for an edge for themselves and their clients,” says Alan Johnson, director of partnerships at RCN Capital. “As we move to a more wholesale lending platform, we wanted to incentivize our brokers and correspondent lenders to partner with RCN more often. We want to become their primary lender.”
RCN Capital is the leading nationwide wholesale lender specializing in residential investment loans for non-owner-occupied single-family and multi-family properties. RCN Capital’s loan programs are designed to support a wide range of investment strategies, including ground-up construction, fix-and-flip projects, and long-term rental properties. Backed by a strong reputation for reliability and industry expertise, RCN offers a wide range of financing solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of real estate investors across the country. RCN proudly lends to both new and seasoned real estate professionals helping them scale their investment portfolios with confidence.
“Our partners are always looking for an edge for themselves and their clients. As we move to a more wholesale lending platform, we wanted to incentivize our brokers and correspondent lenders to partner with RCN more often”
Alan Johnson,
RCN Capital
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Published Sep 21, 2026
“Incentives are tools in our toolbox, alongside education, technology, and marketing resources, to do that. If you’re working with RCN, we want to reward that and help you grow alongside us”
Erica Sikoski,
RCN Capital
Built on feedback The EAP’s first iteration was rolled out to correspondent partners. It was well received, but there was pushback on its complexity. Too many metrics, too much reporting, and time-to-close calculations made it hard for participants to know where they stood at any given moment.
RCN listened, adjusting to a completely volume-based model − a change that also helped lay the foundation for the program’s expansion to broker partners. The result is a five-tier structure with entry thresholds set deliberately low, so that even a one-person shop or a newly onboarded broker can qualify at the base level. The rewards are additive, coming directly from RCN without touching existing commission structures or being passed to the end client.
It’s the simplicity that really comes through with this one, says Johnson. In the past, “we’ve tried to do more than we needed to.”
“This time around, we really wanted to encompass more of our clients. Not a ranking base, not who is better or who did more to only incentivize the top 30 or 40. Every single one has the ability to achieve it, regardless of where they rank amongst their peers at RCN. It’s so much more inclusive and easy to understand.”
Erica Sikoski, wholesale marketing director, agrees. This structure allows partners to feel like they’re part of the program versus being monitored and rewarded at set points.
“Now participants can celebrate as soon as they hit a tier without having to wait and be told at the end of a quarter that they reached it,” she explains. “That really emphasizes that partnership model that we’re working towards.”
Rewards are also paid out quarterly rather than at year’s end, which Sikoski says matters more than it might seem. It puts money in partners’ pockets right away, funds that can be funnelled into marketing budgets for more leads or into hiring processors or loan officers to grow their teams.
“All of that comes back around and helps them hit the next tier,” she notes.
Taking on feedback and course-correcting is a cornerstone of the lender’s approach, says Sikoski, and the lender intends to revisit the EAP once the brokers have thoughts on how it’s working for them. RCN does separate feedback surveys throughout the year for both correspondent lenders and brokers, asking how they’re doing so far and what can be improved on.
“We really love listening,” Sikoski says. “One of the big outcomes of that process was how we could evolve this program to not only make it easier to obtain and track, but to include our broker clients as well.”
Meeting partners where they are Brokers are practical. When they come on board with a new lender, the first question is always the same, says Johnson: “How do I get paid?”
“And it’s a very important question,” he adds. “It should be the first thing they ask.”
RCN’s wholesale lending model is built to answer that question well, with competitive compensation across its product suite. But Johnson says the EAP conversation tends to generate something the compensation conversation rarely does: genuine curiosity.
“I explain the minimal amount of work needed to qualify, which is a really great point to push home when having initial conversations,” he says. “There’s a lot of excitement about it. They don’t understand it, which I love, because they ask questions.”
The marketing challenge, says Sikoski, is making sure that message reaches brokers at the right moment and in the right way. Compensation and customer service will always be the initial draw, she says, and brokers are having those conversations with every lender. What differentiates RCN is what comes after.
That means meeting partners where they are and delivering segmented messaging. Newly onboarded brokers get step-by-step guidance to reach the first tier without feeling overwhelmed. Longer-tenured partners get data: here’s what your production looks like and where you’ll land if you maintain it; here’s what one or two more loans could mean in real dollars.
Throughout a partner’s journey with RCN, that support extends well beyond the EAP itself. The Accelerated Launch Program is designed to get them producing within the first 90 days, while Amplify − RCN’s self-paced training platform covering DSCR, processing, and platform use − gives partners the knowledge infrastructure to grow at their own pace. For correspondent lenders specifically, mastermind strategy calls with RCN’s upper management add a further layer of one-on-one strategic support.
“What really resonates is helping them grow beyond just the rate talk,” she says. “Incentives are tools in our toolbox, alongside education, technology, and marketing resources, to do that. If you’re working with RCN, we want to reward that and help you grow alongside us.”
Playing the long game The point of the EAP specifically is to draw in partners who see the value in a long-term relationship versus shopping around to do one-off deals. The biggest reward a broker can receive from the program is that partnership.
“An ideal partner is somebody who’s engaged and consistently trying to work and adapt with us,” Sikoski explains. “I think that says a lot. It’s about longevity.”
Johnson agrees, adding that coming onboard to close a loan or two a year isn’t the exchange they’re looking to build.
“We’re hoping when people hear about this program, they’ll start thinking more relationship rather than transactional. That’s the whole point.”
The logic behind RCN’s support infrastructure is grounded in what the lender has observed over time: partners who have stronger relationships last longer and produce more. On the broker side, Sikoski watches for engagement with Amplify, meetings scheduled with the lead development team, deals being priced out in the loan calculator, and application volumes climbing. A broker who comes in with a few deals and doubles their volume within a quarter is showing early success; a correspondent lender re-tiering in three months rather than waiting six is showing something similar.
Success at the partnership level is RCN becoming a partner’s primary lender, the one they market and build their business around. When they’re asking questions about the platform and seeking more control of the process, it’s a sign they’re fully committed.
“Good partners want the reins so they can move quickly and precisely and leave us out of most of it,” Johnson says.
For Johnson, it all comes back to who is waiting at the end of the transaction. Whether they’re flipping a property that will provide them with income or setting up a long-term rental as a retirement plan, the point is to take care of them.
“Clients rely on all of us not to fail them, to execute transactions to achieve their goals. That’s what we’re really trying to push with this program − true partnership to deliver on that. When it clicks, the partner’s won. They’ve found a home.”
Brokers are on the rise
The US mortgage broker market is forecast to grow from $7.62 billion in 2025 to $9.88 billion by 2031, a compound annual growth rate of 4.42%
Total single-family mortgage origination volume is expected to reach $2.2 trillion in 2026, up from $2.0 trillion in 2025
Millennials − now the largest cohort of homebuyers at a median age of 38 − are increasingly turning to brokers for help navigating complex loan products and non-traditional income documentation
Sources: Mordor Intelligence US Mortgage/Loan Brokers Market Report, 2026; Mortgage Bankers Association forecast, October 2025
Private lending is expanding
More than 5.5 million home purchase, refinance, and cash-out refinance mortgages were originated in the US in 2025, totaling $2.22 trillion
Fix-and-flip activity is expected to grow in 2026, driven by price stabilization, lower financing costs, and new tax incentives for renovation expenses
71% of active fix-and-flip investors surveyed expect to purchase more properties in 2026 than in 2025 − the highest share in the survey’s four-year history
Sources: Motley Fool/CFPB HMDA analysis, July 2026; John Burns Research and Consulting/Kiavi Fix and Flip Market Survey, February 2026
