A real estate brokerage in Ontario is changing the way people approach selling and buying. New Era Real Estate has ditched commission-based sales for one simple rate that saves people thousands of dollars. They are a full-service brokerage handling all aspects of selling and everything in-between.
“We provide full-service handling everything involved with listing and selling a home but instead of charging the regular 2.5%, we take care of everything for a simple fee of only $5,900,” explains John Martino, founder of New Era Real Estate. “Better yet nothing is paid until the property is sold and the deal closes.”
If you’re looking to buy or sell, New Era Real Estate makes the process simple by “taking the focus off commission and placing it solely on client satisfaction,” Martino says. “We provide people with the service they want but more importantly at the price they want.”
Instead of charging people the usual commission fees, New Era Real Estate makes the process simple with a flat fee that’s more than reasonable for most while also placing buyers in a more favourable position when it comes to reaching that dream home price.
“Prices have skyrocketed, and so have commissions even though the job, for the most part, has stayed the same, and we want to give people the service they want at a price that’s fair,” Martino says.
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For example, NewEra recently helped a family save $65,000 in commission fees.
“We worked with sellers that wanted to purchase a property that was slightly out of range. We listed and sold their house, saving them $30,000 in commission, giving them the boost they needed to buy the exact home they wanted,” Martino says. “We then were able to get rid of the cooperating commission since the buyer was unrepresented, saving them an additional $35,000 in commission – they were very happy.”
Moving away from the traditional way of purchasing or selling a home can be anxiety-provoking for some, but it’s quickly becoming the best way to save money while going through the real estate process.
In addition to commission fees, some homeowners may find themselves paying extra for photography and marketing. With a flat-fee brokerage option, all of those fees go out the window. New Era Real Estate does not charge any fees until a sale is complete, and clients aren’t locked into a contract allowing people to opt-out at any time.
“By saving our clients thousands, they gain the freedom to spend that hard-earned money on something more important, maybe their next house, kids’ education or a family trip,” Martino says. “The best part is providing clients with even more financial freedom.”
New Era Real Estate is an Ontario-based company with its flagship office in Toronto. You can find more details about New Era Real Estate on the company’s website.
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.
