When Alex Shein (pictured) co-founded Peak Mortgage, he and his partner sought to be location agnostic. Based in the Lower Mainland of B.C., they chose to open their primary office in South Burnaby, accessible in 20-30 minutes from Downtown Vancouver, Coquitlam and South Surrey alike. Shein built his partnerships accordingly, working with real estate agents from across the wider region, even as Metro Vancouver’s housing market became increasingly concentrated in downtown condos where so much new development was happening.
As the pandemic has shifted gears and moved market activity out to suburbs, Shein’s business has benefitted. He’s seen significant upticks in volume from across the lower mainland as he’s worked to deepen his relationship with existing referral partners and forge new ones with formerly downtown-exclusive real estate agents now ranging far and wide into the ‘burbs.
“There is a lot more activity in Coquitlam, Langley, and a lot of the suburbs. Our office being halfway between downtown and Langley means you can tap into any market you want, really,” Shein said. “But ultimately, it also comes down to your relationships with the people in the industry. Your accountants, lawyers, your real estate agents. By having an office here, it makes it a little bit easier for those referral partners to work with us.”
Even as many business operations have gone remote, having such a central point within that suburban market matrix has helped Shein and his team stay on top of a shifting market. Being closer to the territory of now extremely busy suburban real estate agents has allowed Shein to strengthen his relationships. At the same time, as downtown agents follow the money into the ‘burbs, Peak’s established presence in those markets makes forging a new relationship all the easier.
It’s those relationships, Shein said, that allow his company to compete in these hot markets. He maintains regular correspondence and offers regular gestures to the agents, lawyers, and notaries crucial to getting deals done. He and his team press hard to ensure rapid loan turnaround times to ensure those referral partners are happy.
Shein’s biggest selling point to those partners is the depth of financial conversations he and his team can have with clients. Peak sells itself as offering an advisory service, and in these highly competitive multi-offer markets a depth of knowledge and education is key.
Shein cited the example of one prospective client who was offering an Eastside home in Vancouver proper with a March 31 closing date. In a tight turnaround ahead of multiple offers, Shein was able to secure a subject-free situation for the borrower because of the in-depth discussion they had upfront. The client was happy, and the real estate agent was happy.
Shein stressed that arguably the most important thing to keep in mind, from a broker’s perspective, is as beneficial as these relationships can be to you, they should never be seen as extractive. The relationship with a notary or a real estate agent is a two-way street, and as markets shift under our feet it’s important to ensure that you’re supporting them as much as they’re supporting you. That comes in service levels and closing times, and it comes in handwritten notes and gift baskets.
That approach, a focus on new and old partners with less regard to location, is one that Shein believes will work in any real estate market that’s seen its traditional geography upended by COVID.
“Treat everybody as a true partner rather than a transaction,” Shein said. “Try to make their business easier and next time your files will be the ones they pick out, your deals are going to be looked at faster. In this type of market, more than just the best rate, the most important thing is leveraging the relationships you’ve created and supporting the partners that have been supporting you all this time.”
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.
