15 Nov

Communications Tips

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Do you use an email tagline to encourage referrals? If not, you’re missing out on an opportunity to invite satisfied customers to forward your contact details to their family, friends and acquaintances. It’s important to remember that if you’re not asking for referrals your clients may not be passing on your details to people they know who are also in the market for a mortgage or refinance.
 
Some referral tagline examples include: 1) Referrals are the backbone of my business. Please refer your co-workers, family, friends and neighbours, and I will provide them with the same high level of service you have come to expect; 2) A referral is a big responsibility… it’s also the biggest compliment a client can give me and it’s never taken lightly. I pledge to treat everyone that is referred to me with the utmost level of respect and professionalism; 3) The referral of your family and friends is the greatest compliment you can give me; or 4) All referrals from family and friends are greatly appreciated.
 
15 Nov

Insurer News

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

CMHC is hosting a free Avoiding Mortgage Fraud – Tips & Trends webinar on Thursday, November 28th at 11am-12pm PT, 2pm-3pm ET.
 
 
Select “Enter as Guest”. Type your full name and click on the “Enter Room” button.
 
To join the audio portion of the sessions – Dial-in Number: 1-877-413-4785; Participant Code: 9326527.
 
15 Nov

Leander News

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Congratulations to the final 2013 winners of MCAP’s iPad Mini giveaways (for October): Donna MacDonald, DLC Metro City Mortgages, for commitments; and Scott Travelbea, DLC Travelbea & Associates, for funding!
 
In celebration of 25 years in business, First National wants to send you to the Cayman Islands – as part of its first broker appreciation trip!
 
There are two ways to win: be one of the 17 highest total volume producers; or through eight random draws.
 
In addition, First National is holding random monthly draws throughout the remainder of the year where one lucky winner will earn $2,500! Every funded mortgage earns a ballot for the monthly draw.
 
Click here for full details on these great contests or speak to your account manager.
 
Cove Mortgage is offering DLC BC brokers a special promo between October 1st and December 15th, 2013, whereby DLC BC brokers are eligible to win one of the following prize options:  
 
The winner can choose:
1.     Doren Aldana – Business Coach for Brokers to help improve your marketing skills as a broker ($750 value, www.superstarmortgagebroker.com/public/department59.cfm).
2.     The New iPhone 5S – the latest and greatest technology to stay in touch ($750 value).
3.     Take the $750 in cash.
To be eligible you must close a file with Cove Mortgage during the designated time period. The winning broker will be chosen randomly from a list of DLC BC brokers who have closed a deal with Cove during the noted time period. 
 
To submit a file: Filogix (under private lenders Cove Mortgage); or email cove_mortgage@telus.net.
 
For more details, contact: Christine Perkins, AMP BDM for the Mainland of BC, 778-988-8940,
christine@covemortgage.com; or Ross Elliot, Agent to Cove for brokers on Vancouver Island, 250-480-9566, ross@covemortgage.com.
 
15 Nov

Baby Boomers

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

The millennials (known also as the children of baby boomers born between 1972-1992) and the post Second World War baby boomers (born 1946-1965) are making the greatest impact on the real estate industry today.
 
“Both the boomers and the millennials want move-in ready homes,” says Century 21 Real Estate Canada President Don Lawby. His company, in conjunction with Rona, recently conducted a national homebuyers’ preference survey that looked at the generations’ purchasing preferences and regional differences.
 
“Time is very important to people… they want to spend time doing what they want to do and not the things they have to do,” says Lawby. The survey also showed that 37% of millennials planned to move within two years.
 
“The message that it sends sellers is that if you’re thinking of selling or putting your home on the market and something needs to be done, do it before you put it on the market,” Lawby says, adding it may be something as basic as painting a room. Digital images of the home showing its curb appeal are becoming more important, says Lawby.  Sellers should be aware of how the home looks when presented digitally.
15 Nov

Insurance Premiums

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

In his 13 years as an insurance broker Bryan Yetman has regularly witnessed the havoc credit scores wreak on consumers. No case, however, unsettled the Past President of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) more than that of a woman diagnosed with breast cancer while in the midst of a divorce a few years ago. The client needed a double mastectomy, which required time off work. She missed some bill payments due to the upheaval and her credit score plummeted. Her home insurance provider responded by doubling her premiums.
 
Yetman thinks this is outrageous. “Because you were late on a bill payment or you lost your job, is your house more likely to burn down?”
 
Inflated insurance premiums are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the ever-expanding use of credit scores for reasons for which they were never designed.
 
“We have a situation where the credit score is now being needed for everything,” says Toronto paralegal Dan Barnabic, who represents clients in credit disputes. In the past, your credit score was intended solely to determine whether you could qualify for loans or credit cards, and at what interest rates and what limits. But now they’re checked when you get a cellphone plan, rent an apartment or even apply for a job.
6 Nov

Great Articles and a Video on Rate Predictions….

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Industry News 

 

Will higher mortgage rates ruin the housing market? How much will mortgage rates rise in the next 12 to 24 months?

 

Click here to watch a quick video with Globe and Mail Personal Finance Columnist Rob Carrick and BMO Chief Economist Doug Porter.

 

Canada’s small businesses want us to give up our credit cards one day a week, and use debit or cash instead.

 

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents almost 110,000 small- and medium-sized concerns, teamed up with financial commentator Gail Vaz-Oxlade today to launch a campaign for “Credit Free Friday.”

 

It’s to their benefit, of course, and the CFIB acknowledges the merchant fees attached to credit card use.

 

But it also points out that consumers can save themselves a bundle, too, while scaling back on the record high debt burden among Canadian households.

 

“Very few consumers know than $5-7-billion each year in credit card processing fees is embedded in the cost of everything they buy, and with ever-higher tiers of premium cards hitting the market, that cost is only going up,” CFIB President Dan Kelly said as he launched the campaign.

 

Click here for the full Globe and Mail article.

 

Lucky number seven. That’s where Vancouver appears on Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2014 – top 10 cities.

 

Lotus Land is sandwiched between number six Shanghai and number eight Chicago – the only other North American city included on the list. Sorry, top “brand” cities New York and Toronto.

 

The world’s best city for travel, according to Lonely Planet, is “The City of Love,” Paris, France.

 

Vancouver, regularly cited as one of the world’s “most livable cities,” was lauded by the travel publication for its natural surroundings: Vancouver delivers on nature’s eye-candy – visit, and you’ll never be too far from spectacular mountain vistas, rambling evergreen parks and protected sandy beaches. You’ll appreciate the big-city-look/small-town-vibe the moment you arrive at the airport. Situated neatly on the Burrard Peninsula, a hotchpotch of office towers and hastily planned condos compete for the best of some of the world’s most expensive views, earning the nickname ‘City of Glass’. People live here because they love to run, bike, swim, ski and play. Boredom is not permitted here. If you simply can’t take any more of how good it gets, or it won’t stop raining, or you’ve run outta cash, head for the hills: Cypress, Seymour and Grouse Mountains, and the world-famous Whistler (ski) and Blackcomb (snowboard) areas are within easy reach.

 

Click here to read more from BuzzBuzzHome.

 

The CMP Canadian Mortgage Awards are back with a focus on charity and ready to honour this year’s leading industry players.

 

Online nominations opened earlier this month, giving nominees even more time to campaign before the event kicks off May 9th at the Liberty Grand in Toronto.

 

New this year, CMP has put together a how-to video on nominations to guide you through the process and ensure finalists are, once again, drawn from across Canada’s broker channel. That aid, along with much more on the event’s future and history are available on the CMA website. Click here to access the video.

 

And, once again, organizers are publishing the judging criteria for each award on the same web portal, inviting you to review that list before making your nominations. But above and beyond the nominations themselves, CMP is also identifying leading brokers in all award categories as deserving of a nomination and consideration by the judges – a collection of experts drawn from within and outside the industry. You can find the criteria for all 21 awards by clicking here.

 

Click here to make your nominations today!

 

Be sure to review this information early and encourage your clients, referrals sources, industry partners, etc to nominate you for your award(s) of choice! Being proactive during the nomination process is much more likely to result in you becoming an awards finalist!

 

24 Oct

Lots of Great Articles…

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

There has been a sea change at the Bank of Canada. No longer are policymakers setting a specific monetary course. For the first time in more than a year, they have dropped any reference to interest rates eventually rising.

 

At the same time, they’re also taking a less-rosy outlook for the economic climate, in Canada and globally.

 

What hasn’t changed, however, is the central bank’s biggest policy lever – its benchmark lending rate, which has remained at a near-record-low of 1% since September 2010 and which has been locked in by lower-than-anticipated inflation and lagging growth.

 

Today, those policymakers – now under the leadership of Stephen Poloz, who replaced Mark Carney in June – again kept that rate as is. They also downgraded growth estimates for Canada, despite some positive economic signs coming out of Europe and Asia, tempered by ongoing uncertainty over budget crises in the US.

 

Click here for the full Financial Post article.

 

The lowest possible rate is how many define a good mortgage. But that’s like judging the “best car” by the one with the lowest monthly payment.

 

Anyone who’s had to cough up a mortgage penalty or deal with refinance limitations can vouch for one thing: Mortgage restrictions can easily outweigh small (eg, 0.10 to 0.15 percentage point) differences in interest rates.

 

It’s tough to predict your refinance needs three or four years out. Statistics show that well over half of Canadians with a mortgage renegotiate before their term is up. And the average five-year borrower changes their mortgage every three-and-a-half years.

 

That’s why it often pays to trade a slightly lower rate for more flexibility, unless you know you won’t change your mortgage during its term. A cheap rate can certainly save hundreds of dollars up front. Just be sure it doesn’t cost thousands after closing.

 

Click here for The Ultimate Mortgage Checklist courtesy of the Globe and Mail.

 

“The longer it (low interest rates) goes on, the more people can start to think this is normal and it’s not normal; it’s very, very far from normal.” – Julie Dickson, OSFI Superintendent, September 23rd, 2013 via MortgageBrokerNews.ca.

 

When people hear an authority – like the head of Canada’s banking regulator – make these statements, it compels many to lock in to a long-term rate.

 

At the very least, it gets a whole lot of people wondering, “What are normal interest rates?”

 

If you ask many economists, “normal” is an overnight rate that’s 2.00 percentage points higher than today. If you ask a lender, “normal” may be the 20-year average of 5-year posted rates (ie, 157 bps higher than today) or the 20-year average of prime rate (which is 207 bps higher than today).

 

Click here for more details from CanadianMortgageTrends.com.

 

“Double, double, toil and trouble.” Written over 400 years ago by the Bard, this phrase from Shakespeare’s infamously dark play, Macbeth, could just as easily describe Canada’s real estate market in recent years.

 

On one side, there are international economists – and their much publicized reports – declaring the market to be overvalued and due for a sudden, corrective crash. Then there are the local analysts who oscillate between doom-and-gloom predictions and the potential for a soft landing. Caught in the middle are prospective homeowners and real estate investors who are just trying to negotiate a good deal.

 

That’s where MoneySense can help. While we don’t believe anyone should rush into the real estate market, we do think there are still good deals to be found. To help identify those deals, we performed a ground-breaking analysis of the real estate market to find out which neighbourhoods are set to soar in value in five of Canada’s largest cities.

 

Click here for the best value neighbourhoods from MoneySense.

 

Buyers of new homes should do their homework and be wary of builders who promise too much, says the man overseeing Ontario’s regulator for home builders.

 

Tarion President and CEO Howard Bogach is touring the province to promote the corporation’s work and warn of illegal building practices. The Ontario government created Tarion Warranty Corp in 1976 to regulate the building of new homes. It licences builders of new homes and condominiums and guarantees warranties.

 

Registered builders must have the technical competence and enough financing to allow them to absorb any losses that could arise during a home’s construction.

 

Bogach said buyers should “make the phone call” to learn if the builder’s registered. Its website at www.tarion.com also has a directory of registered builders.

 

Click here to read more from the Trentonian.

 

Cars are a problem in personal finance, but they’ve been getting a free ride.

 

The surge in home sales in recent years and its impact on family finances has received non-stop attention in the past couple of years. But a similar jump in car sales has mostly been treated as a business story about rising fortunes in the country’s most important manufacturing sector.

 

Cars are a voracious wealth destroyer – they burn both gas and money. Behind houses, they’re a top contributor to today’s high personal debt levels and inadequate saving. Thinking of jumping into what is expected to be a record year of new car buying in Canada? Back up for just a moment and reconsider.

 

Of course, houses are a bigger financial strain than cars. The average house price in Canada was $385,906 in September, while new cars averaged $26,755 last year. But houses are at least an appreciating asset. If you buy today, you can reasonably expect to see your home post average annual price increases at the inflation rate over the next 10 to 15 years. Cars bought today will have marginal value a decade from now compared to the purchase price.

 

Click here for the full Globe and Mail article.

 

The CMP Canadian Mortgage Awards are back with a focus on charity and ready to honour this year’s leading industry players.

 

Online nominations opened earlier this month, giving nominees even more time to campaign before the event kicks off May 9th at the Liberty Grand in Toronto.

 

New this year, CMP has put together a how-to video on nominations to guide you through the process and ensure finalists are, once again, drawn from across Canada’s broker channel. That aid, along with much more on the event’s future and history are available on the CMA website. Click here to access the video.

 

And, once again, organizers are publishing the judging criteria for each award on the same web portal, inviting you to review that list before making your nominations. But above and beyond the nominations themselves, CMP is also identifying leading brokers in all award categories as deserving of a nomination and consideration by the judges – a collection of experts drawn from within and outside the industry. You can find the criteria for all 21 awards by clicking here.

 

Click here to make your nominations today!

 

Be sure to review this information early and encourage your clients, referrals sources, industry partners, etc to nominate you for your award(s) of choice! Being proactive during the nomination process is much more likely to result in you becoming an awards finalist!

 

3 Oct

Mortgage Fraud in Canada Has Increased

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Mortgage fraud in Canada has increased by a staggering 50% in recent years, according to Equifax.

 

While accounting for only 13% of attempted frauds in 2011, mortgage fraud was responsible for two-thirds, or $400 million, of the estimated dollar amount of financial fraud in Canada. According to John Russo, Vice President of Equifax, that number jumped to $600 million in 2012.

 

First party mortgage fraud – whereby an applicant misrepresents their financial circumstances by getting creative with a pay stub, job letter or notice of assessment – is surprisingly common these days. In 2012 it made up the majority of the $1.6 million-a-day in attempted mortgage fraud. And the Internet is an enabler. Questionable websites do everything from creating paystubs to “reworking” T4s and notices of assessment.

 

Last month I overheard a conversation where somebody openly admitted to forging his employment documents. He then arranged for a friend to act as his employer when the lender called to verify employment details.

 

Click here to read the full story from CanadianMortgageTrends.com.

 

19 Sep

Canada’s Condo Market

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

A recent report from the Conference Board of Canada predicts that Canada’s condo sector will not collapse. This has been a topic of much speculation in major Canadian cities like Toronto, where condo development is booming. Some economists have warned that overproduction will affect real estate prices and could pose a risk for the economy. 

 

However, the report from the Conference Board of Canada, completed for Genworth Canada, argued that population growth and employment gains will assist in keeping the condo market afloat.

 

Highlights:

  • Condo markets in Toronto and Montreal are cooling, but should avoid any major downturns as there is still a decent demand for condos amongst the Baby Boomer demographic. 
  • Vancouver’s market is already well into a slowdown and will benefit from population growth and the “rising share of condominium-loving empty-nesters aged 55 or more.”
  • Predicts a 0.5 per cent decline in Vancouver resale condo prices this year to $364, 593. Montreal’s average resale price is expected to drop 0.7 per cent to $265, 344 and Toronto is forecast to see its average price remain the same this year at $305,239.
19 Sep

OSFI has held off on further tweaks to underwriting rules…

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

OSFI has held off on further tweaks to underwriting rules, but amid speculation that it may soon spring into action, one representative has assured MortgageBrokerNews.ca the public – including brokers – will be allowed their say.

 

“If we decide to revise Guideline B-20, we will undertake public consultations,” said OSFI’s Annik Faucher. “No decisions have yet been reached.”

 

In May of this year, OSFI issued a report on the real estate market, wherein it expressed the importance of regulating interest rates.

 

“As noted by the outgoing Governor of the Bank of Canada, it is important that regulation and supervision be a strong line of defence to some of the consequences of low interest rates,” Superintendent Julie Dickson said in the May address. “Sustained low interest rates are a major area of focus for OSFI.”