13 Dec

Indusrty News

General

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It’s easy to get caught in the posted mortgage rate trap at the big banks.

 

No, you won’t have to pay the posted rate on your next mortgage. Pretty much nobody does that any more, according to mortgage broker Robert McLister. The real danger is that posted rates will be used to calculate the penalty if you ever have to break your mortgage, probably costing you thousands of extra dollars.

 

A mortgage penalty compensates a lender for the interest payments it loses out on when you break a mortgage contract. “That’s the intention,” said McLister, who is also editor of CanadianMortgageTrends.com. “But in many cases, it overcompensates. It’s punitive in many cases.”

 

As we head into another round of quarterly bank earnings reports, it’s worth thinking for a moment about how those wonderful profits and dividends for investors are generated. One way is by using posted instead of lower discounted rates when calculating how much to penalize a client breaking a mortgage.

22 Nov

Communication Tips

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Do you use the Autopilot Scripts we’ve created for you to help stay in touch with your database?
 
The newest script, which just went live today, is called: Are You Considering a Renovation? The template talks about our historically-low rates and the advantage of using home equity to help make home improvements this fall/winter.
 
If you do a “save as” with any of these scripts, you can also customize the information to coincide with a specific event. For instance, with the new renovation template, you can easily add in a line that asks them to contact you if they’d like to free up some home equity to help with the upcoming holiday season for gift-buying and entertaining as well.
 
A very popular script right now is the one promoting the current Free DLC Hockey Pool called: 2014 Hockey Pool! If you haven’t sent this out to your entire database yet, we highly encourage you to do so. Registration is open for the full NHL Regular Season – with weekly points and random draw prizes! This is an excellent way for you to remain top-of-mind with your database without talking directly about mortgages!
 
22 Nov

Head Office Updates

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Back by popular demand are one-day Dominion Universities for Mortgage Agents & Brokers this spring across the country!
 
Registration will open shortly. Stay tuned for a communication from DLC Head Office. In the meantime, mark the date in your calendar for the DLC University closest to you:
  • Victoria – February 11th
  • Vancouver – February 13th
  • London – March 18th
  • Ottawa – March 20th
  • Toronto – March 24th
  • Edmonton – May 13th
  • Calgary – May 15th
  • Halifax – June 4th
  • Montreal – TBD
Dominion Lending Centres E-Store gift cards are up for grabs for those who upload DLC branded Christmas tree pics to ourDominion Lending Centres Canada Facebook Page by January 1st! Examples are also available on our Facebook Page. Looking forward to seeing the creativity!
 
15 Nov

Communications Tips

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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….

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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

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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!