A love of people and community can be a great asset in the real estate business.
Donna Conrad, realtor and owner of RE/MAX Advantage in Kentville, said she’s been working in real estate in the Annapolis Valley for more than 28 years.
She has always enjoyed working with people. Conrad studied recreation and business in university but real estate was something that interested her. She started learning more about trends and marketing.
Conrad said she didn’t intend to work in real estate for as long as she has. It was something she planned to do temporarily before going back to university but she fell in love with it.
“I just really love the industry because it’s always changing,” Conrad said. “It’s exciting and it’s not really sales, it’s more communication and helping people.”
She said part of being a good realtor is knowing your community. Her background in recreation and love for marketing has provided her with opportunities to work with the community to help organize fundraising events, beneficial promotions and volunteer initiatives. She does this on her personal time and considers it fun, not work.
“You have to love community work to do it,” Conrad said. “You can’t pretend that you enjoy volunteering because it takes a lot of energy but I just find it’s a great diversion.”
Regardless of what you do, she said, it’s important to work hard at it and to be supportive of those around you. Conrad said you essentially have two choices when it comes to charitable work: help people who need it or pay more taxes to the government so it can do so.
For example, she started “The Stockings Were Hung”, an initiative to provide Christmas stockings to Annapolis Valley children in need who are in grades primary to 12.
RE/MAX Advantage has helped support breast cancer research through the Yard Sale for the Cure and supports the IWK Children’s Hospital. There is currently an initiative called RE/STOCK With RE/MAX to help bolster food banks in Ontario and Atlantic Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conrad, who is also a licensed real estate broker, said that although there were stagnant times and adjustments to be made, her business fared well during COVID-19. The pandemic has helped her realize that we all struggle in different ways and don’t always know what others are dealing with.
She said technology, including social media, has helped the real estate business overall. It has served to broaden the area that agents cover and the area where potential buyers look. It has also improved the quality of information and knowledge that can readily be shared with clients.
Originally from Berwick, Conrad said this is one area in the Valley that has become very active in terms of property transactions. She has continued working to promote the area throughout her career.
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
