We all stand to benefit greatly from the myriad of new eco-friendly technologies being incorporated into buildings these days, and that includes homes and commercial properties. Solar energy utilization is first and foremost there of course, but there’s much more that’s either been introduced or is just around the corner.

Homes that feature these sorts of new technologies have their value significantly increased by them, and it’s a fact that an increasingly large number of prospective home buyers are explicitly looking for homes that lend themselves to their living with less of a footprint. As a realtor, all of this should be very interesting for you, as the best in the profession will always have their ears to the ground looking for and then understanding current trends that play into their client demographics.

Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system puts you into greater numbers of position to put that know-how to use in making clients aware that you truly are an expert in the real estate business. We like to do what we can to assist in that process, so let’s spend today getting to know one of the eco-technology home advancements a little better.

A Green Roof Overhead

A newly released survey by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities – the North American green roof and wall industry association – has found that Montreal and Quebec are among the top ten North American cities when it comes to green roof installations.

Toronto leads the way in the 2016 Annual Green Roof Industry Survey, while Montreal places sixth and Quebec City tenth. Vancouver rounds out the Canadian cities in the top ten at #9.

It’s somewhat to be expected that Toronto is tops in green roofs: In 2010, Hogtown passed a first-of-its-kind Green Roof Bylaw in North America that made it a requirement for new commercial, institutional and multi-family residential developments to cover between 20 and 60 % of their buildings with vegetation.

2016 saw close to 700,000 square feet of green roofing installed in Toronto, while Montreal, Vancouver and Quebec City each installed more than 100,000 sq. ft during that same period.

Cities like Montreal and Quebec City, however, lack firm bylaws requiring green roofs and as such it’s hard to encourage builders on a large scale. There’s really no incentives for the general population to install green roofs, so in most instances the homeowner decides to do it on their own. Some Quebec cities put requirements in place for LEED environmental certifications for new projects and that’s one effective way that cities ALL ACROSS Canada can promote the installation of green roofs. Done effectively, we could at least see a lot more green roofs on institutional buildings.

It’s believe that if formal economic and political incentives were put in place for green roofs, their numbers would multiply.

Smart Practicality

Rooftop farms are the best example of application of this type of technology where it’s really needed.Plants are irrigated with water from a dehumidification system, and the green rooftop reduces heat islands and improves and promotes bio-diversity.

This application can be both residential and commercial, and a home with a viable rooftop growing plot would be extremely attractive to any number of buyers. The thought of growing kale, Swiss chard, radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, green beans, yellow beans, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. etc. would be very appealing to many green-minded young 1st time home buyers.

We are definitely seeing only the tip of the iceberg with all of these new green home technologies, and it’s definitely exciting for anyone who works in the business of housing, real estate agents most definitely included.

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a guaranteed monthly quota of online-generate buyer and / or seller leads delivered to you exclusively and for your own privately-owned area of any city or town in Canada. It’s a bonafide dynamite way to get so much more out of all the effort you’ll be putting into client prospecting as a new realtor.

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Anyone who gets into the real estate business in Canada thinking it’s going to be an easy path to becoming independently wealthy is definitely going to be in for a rude awakening. Being successful in this business requires much in the way of your time, dedication, resiliency, and a true investment of yourself into serving your clients and taking on all the obstacles that will come your way as your forge your career.

Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system is a great way for newly licensed realtors to get more out of their prospecting efforts as they begin their career. These newbies won’t have been put through the wringer, as they say, like a veteran realtor. That veteran will have a made a name for themselves and won’t need to make the same extent of effort that the newbie will, but don’t think that accomplishment’s come easily.

They’ll likely have found their job to be very taxing, and in many cases they’ve likely had to find ways to prevent themselves from becoming ‘burnt out’ and maintaining the degree of focus and mental acumen that’s required in this business.

So how do they do that? Well, that’s a broad answer subject but one of the better ways to keep your mind and spirit rejuvenated is by trying mindfulness exercises like these 3. Try them out, learn how to do the most effectively, and do them regularly to make sure you don’t become too burned out yourself. That’s important, because this job is definitely going to demand more of you than you think.

You can do these anywhere, and at any time:

1. Rhythmic Breathing:

Many people forget the value of contemplative breathing as a means of reducing stress.

Find a place where you can sit alone for a short period. If you’re in your car, find an empty parking lot or something similarly remote

• Place your hands on your stomach and close your eyes
• Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, feeling your stomach expand
• Exhale slowly, again through your nose
• Focus on doing the entirety of this in a steady, consistent rhythm
• Repeat this exercise 15-20 times

2. Practice Mindful Walking:

Professionals of ALL sorts tend to walk with purpose, often multitasking as they head from one destination to another. A great way to reduce stress is to become mindful as you walk.

• Pay attention to each step as it hits the ground beneath you. Be thankful for the health and vitality of your body that allows it to undertake these most basic functions that we shouldn’t necessarily take for granted!
• Coordinate your breathing with your steps
• Listen, but don’t react, to the sounds around you. Remain focused on each step and each breath.

3. Try Guided Imagery:

Being in a more remote and picturesque locale is often a great way to reduce stress. But it may not be convenient for you to take time off to find such a spot. Again, find a place where you can be alone for a few minutes.

• Get comfortable and do some deep breathing.
• Imagine yourself walking through a rich forest or perhaps on a beach. Perhaps you have a favourite place that allows you to recreate a location in your mind’s eye
• Take yourself to that place, even if it’s only for a short period of time.

If you need more rational convincing of the effectiveness of these techniques, research has shown that mindfulness practice reduces stress while also serving to improve mental capacity and productivity. These exercises are a simple way to work mindfulness practices into your daily routine while asking very little of your time or available resources. One big thing though – just always remember to breathe!

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of online-generated, qualified buyer or / and seller leads delivered to you exclusively and for your similarly-exclusive protected region of any city or town in Canada. It will go a long way to giving you more opportunities to secure people as clients and grow your real estate business.

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Buying a house is a process, and often a very drawn-out one at that. As a realtor, you’re trusted by your clients to keep them on the straight and narrow and work to cater that process to their interests. This is, of course, in much the same way the selling realtor is doing the same for his clients selling the home. There’s a whole lot of positioning and deductive courses of action that come into play along the way. Realtors should be aware of the most common ways that their clients can put themselves at a disadvantage, and be proactive in nipping those problems in the bud.

Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system continues to be very popular with both new and established realtors who need to get more out of their prospecting efforts. Once a client is acquired, there’s much that goes into retaining that client – both in the present and for future dealings as well. Being in the know about these potential ‘stumbles’, if you will, can go a long way in establishing you as the expert and one who truly has their best interests in mind.

Here’s 6 disadvantageous client behaviours to be on the lookout for:

1. Too Much Emphasis on Aesthetics

Any real estate agent will be happy to show you as many houses as you want, but when buyers become overly caught up in how those houses look right now they are really limiting themselves and being detrimental to the overall big picture and long-term aim.

Many will dismiss houses that are dirty, outdated, or in need of small repairs. But renovation is really a thing, and a legit option much of the time. It’s all too common to have clients see some marks on a wall or a stain on the carpet and conclude that the home needs thousands of dollars of work.

Call it pessimism, call it whatever you like – but really do try to make these types of clients aware that it’s not helpful to dismiss what is otherwise a very ideal and accommodating home because of visual imperfections that can often be remedied quite inexpensively.

2. Tipping Their Hand

Most often homes are viewed with the listing realtor in attendance. That changes the dynamic of any discourses quite considerably, and clients do themselves no favours when being too up front with their feelings on a home. Voicing criticisms can actually be quite harmful.

People tend to be quite finicky and uniquely dispositioned, and when it comes to their home there’s also matters of pride. Don’t allow your clients to give the listing party anything that might make them see your buyers (and perhaps even you) in a negative light.

3. Waiting Too Long

Your clients have decided they want to buy a house? Don’t hesitate in getting your offer in. Taking too long to make an offer in a competitive real estate market drives buyer agents crazy, and it’s quite natural that it does.

Having too much time pass between a buyer viewing a home and making an offer can lead the seller to not take you as seriously as another party who expressed interest without delay and maintained communication. Do whatever you can to make sure you’re the realtor of that type of buyer, and not the first one.

4. Seeing $$$ Only

We’re not debating here that how much your clients are willing to offer for a house isn’t very important. But you shouldn’t allow your clients to focus on that exclusively, or even predominantly. It’s not necessarily the highest offer that the seller will accept. Sometimes it will be the best structured offer.

The best offers are a mix of timing, the right price, and reasonable contingencies (like possession dates for example). Decide on a price but then being too firm on contingencies can also put you at a disadvantage.

5. Ignoring Seller Wishes

Never forget to make your clients aware that they’re buying from another person who has to choose them as the buyer. Sellers become motivated for different reasons – maybe for some it’s all about the money, but for others it may be more about seeing their first home go to someone who will love it as much as they did.

Try to identify and understand these dynamics, and communicate them to your client accordingly before taking them into account as you communicate with the selling party.

6. Lowballing with Counter-Offers

Last but certainly not least. It’s very common for sellers to not accept original offers, but be willing to consider a counter offer. Clients that are smart about it and make reasonable counter offers are great, ones that aren’t NEED you to step in on their behalf. Even if they don’t recognize the need for it initially.

Poor counter offers will frustrate a seller at the best of times, and insult them at the worst. They’ll be harming themselves and putting themselves in a disadvantageous position. Don’t give them the opportunity to do that and they’ll be very, very thankful for your intervention down the line!

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated leads delivered to you – and only you – for any region of any city or town in Canada. The consensus definitely is that it’s a great way to expand the reach of your prospecting efforts, and a smart investment in the health of your real estate business.

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At nearly every turn over the past few years we’ve heard that Canadian home prices were about to fall off a cliff. The big crash hasn’t happened – yet – but it’s entirely correct to say it still might. It’s also equally fair to say it might well not, however. You see, that’s not how markets work. We should remember that differences of opinion about the future is one of the reasons why sellers are always present to accommodate buyers looking to purchase something they’re choosing to unload at that time.

Such is the nature of real estate just like any other market, and the only difference that gives it the magnitude it has being the fact that these purchases and sales are made for ever-increasing and already staggering prices in many parts of the country. Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system is an excellent way for realtors to start prospecting for clients more effectively and get in on slices of what is clearly a very valuable pie!

But enough about that for now. Leading economists and industry experts agree that the housing market crash if very far from a lone gone conclusion. Decisions on where the market will go next depend on a great many factors, but here’s 7 of them that allude to at least the possibility that things may not ‘crash’ much, if at all.

1. Interest rates

We’ve heard time and time again that the biggest threat cited for home prices is how much we pay for the money we borrow. A two percent increase from 8 to 10 percent wouldn’t be regarded too forebodingly in years previous. In the current market, however, a sudden rise in interest rates – even by 2 to 3 points – would effectively double the cost of interest payments, and essentially pop the bubble of what has been the Bank of Canada’s artificially low rates.

It is expected that interest rates will be left unchanged, but rising rates will gradually make mortgages more expensive. This is a negative of course, but it will serve to take heat out of the market, and a path that’s more moderate would allow the housing market to have a chance to adjust.

2. Inflation

However, if the big banks decide that they need to dispel a sudden burst of inflation, that could mean that rates might rise suddenly. So far, though, inflation has been quite tame. Houses became more affordable for 1st time in over 2 years, and while that’s a plus there’s a catch. Inflation has always risen and fell in a long cycle and we don’t have anything tipping us off to where the cycle is heading next.

While inflation could lead to higher rates, some homeowners may see Canadian property as a long-term inflation hedge.

3. Pent-Up Demand

It’s a fact that in many parts of Canada – and not just the GTA and GVA – housing demand remains strong following years of price rises and bidding wars. Government policy, including the well-documented new mortgage stress test regulations, may now be manifesting itself as a pent-up demand for housing. Large numbers of new immigrants definitely push this along, and the trend will serve to support prices if incomes begin to catch up.

Even if market conditions were to begin changing, it may mean that would-be house buyers that have been schooled in a market of ever-rising prices will now take time to adjust to this new reality, and that will in turn soften the landing for everyone thinking similarly.

4. Rate of construction

Home building in Canada’s hottest markets is steaming ahead full bore. Recently the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. revealed that housing starts slowed in March, but the important bigger-picture point to understand here is that the ability of construction companies to keep pace with demand could affect the value of existing homes. Any trend toward overbuilding could result in a fall in prices. Oppositely, if builders overreact to their falling-prices fears and produce too few, those prices could rise by quite a bit.

5. Investment properties

There’s no debating the fact that owning a condo in Vancouver or Toronto over the last decade has been a lucrative investment, and true even if you’ve never seen the need to rent it to pay the mortgage (assuming of course you have / needed one.)

Many condos in particular are owned by investors who have been taking advantage of double-digit speculative gains, but that Golden Goose may nearly be dead. The returns aren’t there like they used to be, and many people may decide to invest their money elsewhere. This would accelerate a housing market downturn.

6. Economic health

Prospective home buyers may be less inclined to stretch themselves if they think the economy is looking less than promising. The consensus seems to be that a pattern where short-term interest rates exceed long-term rates may be signalling our moving into a recession.

A moderate slowdown here could reduce the impact of inflation, and with it a need to raise interest rates. However, strong economic growth creates jobs and puts money in Canadians pockets, making them more qualified home buyers in many instances.

7. Local differences

Interest rates will have an effect on everyone, but whether the price of your house will rise or fall will also depend on where it is, and / or where you’re hoping to move to. Housing prices are regional, and homes in areas that are in demand as a result of a strong economy or proximity to services are more likely to hold their value.

Sign up with Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated homebuyer and home seller leads delivered to you exclusively for your protected region of any city or town in Canada. Getting the very most of out of your prospecting efforts and budgets has never been easier!

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