Robert Morrow

Immigration will continue to be the key driver in ensuring Ontario's housing market remains buoyant, a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. conference heard.

"This is going to be important," CMHC senior market analyst Jason Mercer told the conference, held recently at the Metro Toronto Conference Centre. "The key issue we are looking at is population growth," Mercer added. "All these new households are going to need a place to live."

Coupled with the high number of first-time homebuyers continuing to flood the market and downsizing baby boomers, all this activity will continue to fuel a "balanced market situation," he said.

Indeed, if you have an ethnic background in this business, you have an obvious advantage. For the rest of us, we must rely on good, solid service. Consumers from other cultures will often look to non-members of their own culture thinking we know the market better. Others stick with their culture due to language barriers and all around confidence issues.

Regardless, there is plenty of business for all nationalities and many will crossover. I have had tremendous success this year with Iraqi, Italian, Polish, Chinese, and Iranian buyers and sellers, some new immigrants, most 1st and 2nd generation Canadians. Their primary requirement? Honesty, understanding and acceptance of requirements demanded by their culture, and professionalism.

Okay, so they're telling us it's going to be harder to sell your home in 2009. Those of you who don't let others tell you what life is going to do to you have no doubt thought about some renovations you can do to your home that will make it stand out in the crowd when you sell.

This advice from Elizabeth Blair, a Licensed Mortgage Agent with Mortgage Edge in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

If you live in a freehold house, you should be spending an average of 1% of your home value annually, on maintenance, just to keep it in good repair and to prevent it from declining in value, according to "Home Buying for Dummies" by Eric Tyson and Ray Brown. And according to the Appraisal Institute of Canada's 2004 Home Renovation Survey, professional home improvements and renovations will bring the following return on your investment:

Homeowners can also visit the "Appraisal Institute of Canada" website, to try out their on-line tool which helps you understand what value you can anticipate to see from the various improvements that you make on your home. The name of this particular tool is called RENOVA and it is an excellent resource for homeowners. You may visit the site, by following this link below:

http://component.aicanada.ca/e/resourcecenter_renova.cfm

Remember that the referenced website link is only a guide, and you should always carefully consider that proper appraisal values can only be provided by a certified professional appraiser holding an AACI or CRA designation. It is also important to mention that an appraiser will also assess other factors, about the home, to complete accurate appraisal results, for example, the neighbourhood, recent real estate activity, lot, location, etc.

Elizabeth Blair services mortgage clients in Mississauga and all over the Greater Toronto area and can be reached directly by phone at (905) 510-5785, by email at eblair@mortgageedge.ca or you visit her website at www.missmortgage.ca

Robert J. Morrow is editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, an online real estate magazine serving Greater Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION sent to your email monthly. Click here to receive new Hamilton area listings in your email daily.

I was suprised to find out that many consumers haven't heard about the 84-page Metrolinx plan that commits to building three rapid transit lines in Hamilton with 25 years, two of them by 2023.

If you don't know much about it, here's the scoop:

One line will run east-west from McMaster University to Centtennial Parkway--what Hamilton has been calling the B-line. A north-south line is planned to run along James St. up the Mountain.

The east-west line is a top 15 priority among the 40 projects Metrolinx wants completed in the next 15 years.

"We could have it running the next eight years," says Jill Stephen, city manager of strategic planning. "We are going to press forward with our studies, our consultation and make sure that Metrolinx knows we are ready."

Other key projects include a rapid transit line from Halton to Pearson Airport and express rail service providing significantly faster and higher capacity service to commuters traveling along the GO Lakeshore line, connecting the downtowns of Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, Toronto, Pickering and Oshawa.

This is ASTOUNDING news for Hamilton and was actually announced back in October to little or no fan fare. Housing prices are going to go up along the route (and spread outward). Renovation projects in parts of town that are currently "off limits" to investors will suddenly become appealing.

This one project could be the catalyst to finally get more than just the rich and famous interested in downtown and the East. Once the project gets closer and mid-level investors are on the radar, things will happen...rapidly!

For more info, go to www.metrolinx.com

Robert J. Morrow is editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, an online real estate magazine serving Greater Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION sent to your email monthly. Click here to receive new Hamilton area listings in your email daily.

I had an interesting conversation with a peer the other day and he told me the story of a new technique to add to our arsenal as agents. Here's the scenario:

He'd worked hard to get the listing, probably back in August when things were still going well. He competed with two other agents but won out in the end by impressing them with his marketing plan. The price was a little high but he wanted the listing, even if just to get leads in the neighbourhood.

Six months and about $3,000 later, he's listening to the client complain that he needs to advertise more if he's going to sell their house. He explains to them how he can't afford to keep doing this, knowing full well what's going to happen when the listing expires in a couple of days.

Sure enough, despite hus efforts to get them to reduce the price so that anything he does might get some results, the listing expires and goes to the next victim who begins, naturally, to spend money.

He's out the $3,000 and added another failure to the roster. But the homeowner still has someone working on his behalf to sell his home.

What's wrong with this picture? It's a win/lose situation.

One agent in Hamilton has begun "firing" his clients!

"I've decided that it's been a one-way street too long," he says. "If I think the price is now too high, whether due to changing market conditions, or the homeowners arrogance...and they won't stabilize their price, then why should I keep going?"

Indeed, there are no rules saying we can't give up on a listing. When homes aren't selling, sellers get hard to work with (perhaps rightfully so, perhaps not). And we begin spending excessive amounts of time assuring them that everything's okay, even though we don't think so. Will someone eventually buy it? Maybe. In the meantime, you will spend a lot of time and more money keeping everyone happy.

"Sometimes, it's better to cut your losses, save your energy and money," and move on to a new client. Maybe next time you'll be the agent taking over the lackluster listing. Then you can get the glory for once."

It's a matter of focus. If you find you're spending too much time hand-holding a difficult listing, maybe it's time to just say "You're fired!"

Robert J. Morrow is editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, an online real estate magazine serving Greater Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION sent to your email monthly. Click here to receive new Hamilton area listings in your email daily.

I found this article that probably more than anything else I've read lately, promotes Hamilton as not only a great place to live, but also a great place to invest in your future.

If you're trying to convince someonw (including yourself) that there is a bright future for Hamilton, send them this link:

http://www.nationalpost.com/life/homes/story.html?id=953569

Robert J. Morrow is editor of www.HamiltonHomeReview.com, an online real estate magazine serving Greater Hamilton, Ontario. Click here for a FREE SUBSCRIPTION sent to your email monthly. Click here to receive new Hamilton area listings in your email daily.