Rob Laluk

So I finally got a constructive comment on one of my blogs. This is good, as I thought that my blogs weren't 'featured' or 'professional' and travelled through the list pretty quick, being in the 'all' category, and would probably be ignored or missed by most.

Today I went to an open house with another realtor. Probably wasn't the smartest thing, as it was Grey Cup Sunday here in Canada, and we had a grand total of one visitor. For those of you in the US, the Grey Cup is the Canadian Football championship, and probably didn't have a large effect on your commerce. The one good thing that came of it is that I was telling the realtor that we currently have our personal house listed, and he actually called our realtor tonight and set up a showing for one of his buyers. Maybe we'll get lucky.

But the client walked in (already pre-approved unfortunately) at that time, and asked why I would be foolish enough to list my home in this market and I took the time to explain my personal philosophy to them.

First of all, we're not in an all fired up hurry to unload our home. It's a great house, in a great neighborhood, with great people living up here. The only reason that we're moving is that we are just a tad bit too far out of town. With two teenagers playing sports, attending school, and going to friends homes, my wife and I feel like we live in our cars. We are both mortgage brokers and losing an extra hour a day due to the multiple trips into town and back is frustrating.

Secondly, as our prices come down, so do the others in this market. We are moving from a depressed market to a depressed market and are only looking to downsize by a certain spread. I am hoping to walk away from this house putting $100,000 in our pocket. We started out listed at $589,900 and were looking at homes in the $499,000 and down price range. We are currently listed at $519,000 and those same homes we are looking at are selling for $399,000 and down.

Our realtor is young and seems concerned that we won't be getting enough for our home, but I tried to explain to him that I don't care if we sell for 600 and buy for 500 we walk away with 100 in our pocket. If we sell for 200, and can find what we like for 100, we still have the 100 in our pocket, and save on Realtor fees and Property Transfer Tax. I know you don't like to hear this, but in this situation the only people losing out here are the Realtor and the Government.

I just hope that we sell in the buyer's market as I am actually more concerned about where we are moving and getting what we want, than I am about where we're moving from and getting rid of what we don't want. She liked this example as she was in the same boat (downsizing) and has been told by numerous sources that she doesn't want to do that in this market.

I find it actually kind of nice that we are non-motivated sellers in a buyers market.

I have come up with a new concept in marketing my services. Or at least it's new to me and everyone that I've told I'm doing it. And I want to share it.

I have kind of partnered with a local realtor to sit at his open houses and answer questions that prospective clients may have. Not only do I do that, but he has started advertising that I will be there.

He's a hard working realtor that hand delivers 100 invites to the neighborhood by hand the day or two before an open house. On the back side there is an advertisement with my information that goes something like: "Questions about the mortgage market? Concerned where rates are going? Want to know if you should lock in? Can you afford to buy right now? - There are many questions that you may have and Rob Laluk will be on site to answer all of them from 1-4 Sunday Nov 23rd."

Something like that.

I have gotten one call since starting, and we'll have to see where that leads. Hopefully this will turn out to be something effective. And in this time of uncertain finances and economy, I am pretty much providing a public service on a smaller scale.

I have come up with a new concept in marketing my services. Or at least it's new to me and everyone that I've told I'm doing it. And I want to share it.

I have kind of partnered with a local realtor to sit at his open houses and answer questions that prospective clients may have. Not only do I do that, but he has started advertising that I will be there.

He's a hard working realtor that hand delivers 100 invites to the neighborhood by hand the day or two before an open house. On the back side there is an advertisement with my information that goes something like: "Questions about the mortgage market? Concerned where rates are going? Want to know if you should lock in? Can you afford to buy right now? - There are many questions that you may have and Rob Laluk will be on site to answer all of them from 1-4 Sunday Nov 23rd."

Something like that.

I have gotten one call since starting, and we'll have to see where that leads. Hopefully this will turn out to be something effective. And in this time of uncertain finances and economy, I am pretty much providing a public service on a smaller scale.

Ever feel like those advertising dollars are going to waste? Are people prepared to purchase your product or to contact you to take the looking at homes after reading the first 6 pages of doom and gloom? How about listing your home for sale in a market where nothing is moving, prices are plummeting and you would have to be completely off-balance to do so?

I do understand that some of these statements are true in some parts of North America, but the media is painting with a pretty broad stroke when reporting on current market trends and financial situations. By the time a consumer gets through 6-8 pages of bad news, why would the look at the flyers in the middle, an advertisement for new appliances, or the real estate section.

Our local paper gets an estimated $12,000 a week from local realtors, and I would imagine that few people are looking at their ads with true ambition by the time they get to them. In chatting with a local realtor, there seems to be a movement towards pulling realtor ads from the local papers in an effort to foster more responsible reporting from the media.

I personally do not do a whole lot of advertising in the local newspaper, but have recently listed an ad for my home-buyer's seminar. After much thought, I am not sure that I don't regret this. I am not sure who will be looking for a home by the time they get to my ad.

I would appreciate any thoughts or comments on this concept, and would like to see if people think it would work in other markets, or if we are just stuck with the reporting we have, because the media is just too strong.

I have noticed that people who blog seem to be up to date on a lot of stuff. Since I am a mortgage broker, I figure it's time to get up to date on more stuff. So I have decided to start a blog.

For those of you who don't know me, I am a mortgage broker with an office in Coquitlam, but doing the majority of my business in Maple Ridge. These two communities are just outside of Vancouver, Canada.

I am obviously new to blogging, and I'm sure it will show for a while, but I'll catch on.

For my first post I wanted to do something for the local realtors. I noticed there are more than a few on this site, and hopefully they will take advantage of my effort to help build their business. I am not sure which local realtors are currently partnered with a mortgage broker, and which of those brokers would have passed this information on already, but here it is. I have personally already passed it on to just under 100 realtors in town, but there are always more that I am sure haven't received it.

Either way, this is a pretty easy way for me to enter the world of blogging, and hopefully some of you might find it a worth-while read.

The following is a summary of the significant statistics that were gathered during the researching of the "Annual State of the Residential Mortgage Market in Canada." This is an annual report released by CAAMP (Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals). Please remember this acronym in the future as it's quite a mouthful to type and I plan on doing it sparingly.

The full report is 42 pages, a bit voluminous for this arena, but if you contact me, I can get the report to you.

The summary is as follows:

ANNUAL STATE OF THE RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE MARKET IN CANADA

Significant Statistics

• During the past 15 years, residential mortgage credit has expanded at an average rate of 7.2 per cent per year, which is slightly faster than the 6.9 per cent growth rate for total household and business credit.

• More and more Canadians are going to mortgage brokers when shopping for mortgages. Forty per cent consulted a broker last year, up from 28 per cent, and 35 per cent of new mortgages were taken out through mortgage brokers.

• Average amount of equity in a home for Canadians is $136,000 for those with mortgages. For those with no mortgage the total equity increases to $280,000. For both groups combined, the average equity is $195,000.

• Sixty-six per cent of mortgages are fixed, but there has been a pronounced shift towards variable rate and adjustable rate mortgages. The share for variable and adjustable rate mortgages has essentially doubled to 40 per cent this year compared to 21 per cent for those who negotiated their mortgage a year or more ago. This shift suggests that consumers may be expecting interest rate reductions.

• Fixed rate mortgages are most popular amongst 18-34 year-olds; seventy-three per cent of this age group secured fixed mortgages. Older age groups are slightly more likely to choose variable rate mortgages. Combination mortgages are chosen by small minorities within each age group.

• The average mortgage interest rate was 5.41 per cent, a reduction from 5.56 per cent. Borrowers who have renewed or refinanced their mortgages during the past year have seen the average interest rate drop by 0.4 per cent compared to rates prior to renewal.

• The survey also sheds light on the extent of mortgage rate discounting in Canada. Borrowers who have taken five-year, fixed rate mortgages during the past year have an average mortgage interest rate of 5.59 per cent. Typical advertised rates averaged 7.18 per cent over the same period, indicating these borrowers negotiated discounts averaging 1.59 per cent below advertised rates.

Let me know if anyone finds this useful.