Price Declines Seen Across Nation By Real Estate Industry

Published April 23, 2019 by Real Estate Leads

It’s well understood that the housing market in Canada has cooled considerably over the last part of 2018 and through 2019 to date. The reasons for that have been discussed at length, and while Canadian real estate prices have turned negative, not all markets are suffering. The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) has released numbers showing the national price index declined for a second month in a row in March. We have to go back to September of 2009 to see the last time price declines were seen in Canada.

However, despite the national drop, underperforming markets are beginning to boom. This is mixed news for real estate agents in Canada, meaning more business to be had but lower commission returns on doing this business (at least in the majority of instances). Our online real estate lead generation system here at Real Estate Leads is an excellent way for realtors to generate more leads, and current market conditions like these make that as important as ever.

2nd Month of Annual Declines

Canadian real estate prices are coming in with annual declines for a second month. CREA indicates the benchmark price of a typical home was $617,200 in March, and that is up 0.83% from the previous month. This is an annual decline of 0.47% from last year, and these current prices are down 2.25% from the all-time high. April of 2017 saw it at its recent highest, a 19.31% percent jump from the month previous, but it fell considerably after that. The benchmark price was nearly half the value it was in April by the time December 2017 came around.

It has recovered little over the last year, and the annual pace of growth is showing the declines are getting bigger. The 0.47% decline in March is an increase from the month before. This is the 2nd month of negative annual growth, and the biggest one since the fall of 2009. While the decline is very small in the big picture, it could still be the start of a larger trend. Obviously it is advisable for the entire industry to be watching this number closely.

Ottawa, Montreal & Guelph Real Estate Make Largest Gains

The market’s leading price gains were for Ottawa, Montreal, and Guelph, Ontario. Ottawa’s typical home price grew to $405,500 in March, an increase of 7.64% from last year. This was the largest gain in the country. Guelph came next with a typical home now selling for an average of $537,700, up 7% from last year. Montreal came third with an average home price of $357,600, and increase of 6% from last year. While these markets made substantial gains, they are still significantly below the national index.

Largest Annual Price Drops

The most sizeable annual prices drops were in Vancouver, Barrie, Ontario and Calgary. Vancouver’s standard home dropped to $1,011,200 in March, down 7.65% from last year (and the most relevant median house price drop in Canada given the market dynamics and factors there). Barrie came next with the standard home falling to $460,600, down 6.06% from last year. Calgary rounded this trio out with prices falling to $409,400, down 4.95% from last year.

5 Canadian Real Estate Markets With New Highs

Negative national growth isn’t a detraction for all markets. 5 hit new all-time highs – Ottawa, Guelph, Montreal, Niagara, and Hamilton. Each of these cities established new highs for the price of a home in March. Again, these markets are all under the national average, and were ones that had been underperforming over the past 5 years.

Price Changes From Peak

The percent change from peak pricing seen with typical homes in Canada’s largest markets is something to consider here, and most notably that some smaller urban markets are very far from their peaks. Edmonton is where we see the biggest gap, where the price of a typical home costs $319,000 – a drop of 17.18% from its peak price. Regina is the same story, with a typical home falling to $264,100, dropping 16.51% from peak. A Barrie, ON home was median valued at $460,600, down 15.65% from last year.

Toronto and Vancouver real estate didn’t find themselves at the extreme ends of the peak, and fell somewhere in the middle instead. Toronto’s typical home is now valued at $779,100 in March, a reduction of 4.63% from the all-time peak. Vancouver fell to $1,011,200, down 9.24% from peak.

Canadian real estate markets are seeing negative growth, and there are only a few locales that are notable exceptions. Only half of markets grew above the pace of inflation, and the largest markets have been growing close to it. This is natural as demand in these cities tends to provide something of a buffer to extensive shifts. Overall the national decline is quite tiny at this point. So small in fact that a single month of more frenzied activity could push it back to more desirable conditions for the real estate industry.

Keep in mind the fact that the market is struggling to see gains. This is especially true after the significant drop in growth from the April 2017 peak.

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated buyer and / or seller leads that are delivered only to you and for your similarly-exclusive region of any city or town in Canada. These leads are bonafide opportunities for you to take a prospect and convert them into a client. Granted, much more has to occur in order for that to become a reality, but having the initial contact possibility generated for you is something that is extremely valuable for a realtor working in a competitive market.

Marketing Real Estate with Facebook Retargeting Ads

Published April 16, 2019 by Real Estate Leads

Even realtors who were especially cool to it for the longest time have had to come around and accept the importance of social media marketing in real estate. Facebook is front and center in this regard, and not because it’s superior to any of the other leading social media apps. Rather, it’s because Facebook has become the social media app of choice for older people. Yes, a good number of Mom and Dads out there have discovered how Facebook is great for keeping in touch with friends.

Now the relevance of this isn’t hard to understand – no disrespect to younger generations, but it’s people who are in their 30s and upwards who are more likely to be buying and selling real estate. If you’re on Facebook you’ve almost certainly seen real estate agents and / or real estate brokerages using paid ads that promote properties for sale or their real estate services.

As such, making good use of Facebook is something you may want to consider for your real estate business. Same can be said for our online real estate lead generation system here at Real Estate Leads. Long story short, whatever can create the short distance between A and B when it comes to you meeting with prospective clients is something you should pursue as enthusiastically as possible.

What is a Retargeting Campaign?

A retargeting campaign is the part of a digital marketing strategy that gives you a significant edge in re-engaging customers at specific parts of their journey throughout your site. How Facebook comes into it is that it provides a piece of code called a pixel that tracks how many times that specific visitor stops by you site.

To be brief, Facebook Pixel enables you to measure and optimize ads plus build audiences for your ad campaigns. Once you have it, you then use this pixel to know which group of people visited which page of your website and how they interacted with it once they’re there.

Who Will I Retarget with Facebook Retargeting Campaigns

There’s really no limitations here once the individual has visited your site, even just one time. Keep in mind that you won’t know the personal data of any person that you are retargeting, but you will be aware of the exact behavior of people on your site. Because of this you can retarget any visitor or group of visitors who come to your site.

Here are some examples of useable information you can obtain from Facebook Retargeting

Retargeting people who read through your blog, sending them more relevant content that is designed to further enhance their purchase interests

Retargeting people who visit a specific URL, providing them with a tailored message for the next step
Retargeting people who visit a page for a webinar with incentives to register for the webinar
Retargeting existing customers with new offers
Retargeting website visitors with lead ads to collect new subscribers

There’s also much more you can do with retargeting – it really is only limited by initial traffic received and what you imagine you can do with the information.

What is more defined is all the ways to implement Facebook retargeting. That’s why it’s best to get set up for these ads with your Facebook user account and you can see what kind of results you’ll get within a few days.

Retargeting Campaign to Set Up First

A good idea is to set up for an abandoned cart or form sequence as your first retargeting campaign. These will be instances where people took the time to start an action, but didn’t complete or submit it. The term for these actions is ‘hot audience’ because they’ve already signaled some degree of purchase intent.

Here is an example of how this works:

Abandoned Appointment / Inquiry

Let’s say someone began filling out a form for more detailed information on a home, or to request a meeting with you to discuss a property you have on the market. Facebook pixel would allow you to know who filled out that form. You respond by retargeting them with a communication, infographic, or special offer that gives them incentive to return and this time fill out the form completely and submit it.

It’s also helpful that you can do this automatically through Facebook using a type of ad called a dynamic ad with a product catalog. This combination allows Facebook to serve ads based on the exact behaviours of the customer while they were at your Real Estate website as linked to it by your paid Facebook ad.

Surprisingly Powerful Tool

We spoke with a real estate agent in Western Canada a while back and she reported that she made contact with a couple that became her clients via a Facebook Retargeting Ad within a few weeks of first trying them. Granted, she is sufficiently social media savvy and had been using her own sponsored ads for Facebook for some time, but it was her first go around with retargeting ads on Facebook.

There’s no debating they’re an excellent fit for real estate marketing, and in large part because of the nature of what’s involved with buying or selling a home. People may window shop at homes, but if a person has taken some level of interaction with your site it can usually mean there’s some definitive level of interest in making a real estate move.

Retargeting is a powerful technology that allows you to create virtual lists of people who have visited your site and serve them ads based on the behavior on your site. Facebook retargeting ads are highly recommended for realtors.

As is Real Estate Leads! Sign up for real estate leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated buyer and / or seller leads delivered exclusively to you and for your very own region of any city or town in Canada. Their your leads for your area, and only you receive them. It’s a dynamite way to supercharge your prospecting efforts and you’ll almost certainly come to seen it as money well spent for growing your real estate business.

Greater Number of Mortgage Applications Expected for 3rd Quarter of 2019

Published April 8, 2019 by Real Estate Leads

It’s well understood by those in the Real Estate industry that the housing market in Canada has been ‘Flat’ for quite some time now. Putting that in perspective for people who like to understand things more simply is to say that the average value of homes is neither increasing or decreasing for the most part. This of course has the effect of making fewer homeowners decide to put their homes on the market, as the majority of them will be aiming to sell their home for as tidy a profit as possible.

This trends has been countered by the fact that new housing development starts are up across the country this year, and in hot markets like Vancouver and Toronto there is a focus on having these starts be in building more affordable housing. That’s a very relative term, to be sure, but to make a long story short there are more new homes coming onto the market to counter the lack of existing homes found on it.

As realtors, that’s a bit of good news and something that should mean greater numbers of first-time homebuyers looking for expert guidance. Here at Real Estate Leads, our online real estate lead generation system is designed to fast-track you being put in touch with both home buyers and sellers, and as a realtor that ought to sound mighty good. But enough about that for now, let’s have a look at why the aforementioned information is pairing with a new forecast that should foster even an even more positive outlook for realtors in Canada.

Mortgage Applications Expected to Spike – Here’s Why

There are indications that there could be a spike in mortgage applications in the third quarter – provided a rate forecast comes to be sometime over the next few months. This is because the Canadian Real Estate Association’s economists are expecting interest rates to go down as the year progresses, and this in response to weaker economic conditions forcing the BoC (Bank of Canada) to hold steady with their rates.

It’s assumed that if 5-year bonds maintain their current level then there should be a shift seen in the 5-year qualifying mortgage rate. It hasn’t moved for almost a year now, and the premise that it might will mean some good news for would-be homebuyers. All of this of course needs to be tempered by the continuing realities of the new mortgage stress-test regulations introduced last year. There’s no getting around the fact that it’s harder than ever for first-time homebuyers to qualify for a mortgage in Canada.

Dip in Qualifying Mortgage Rates

The BoC forecasts that 5-year qualifying mortgage rates will fall from 5.34% in the 1st quarter of 2019, to 4.99% in the 2^nd quarter, and reaching a year-low of 4.84% in quarter 3. They go further then to say that rates are then expected to climb to 5.15% in the 4^th and final quarter of 2019 and early 2020 before reaching a plateau of 5.34% for the remainder of next year.

The next thing that needs to be considered is discount rates on qualifying mortgages. The BoC’s predictions there are as follows:

5-year average set for a drop to 3.44% in Q2 2019 (as compared to 3.60% in Q1

Drop to 3.30% in Q3 of 2019
Climb back to 3.44% in Q4 of 2019
Climb again to 3.64% in 1^st and 2^nd quarters of 2020
Climb again to 3.74% in 3^rd and 4^th quarters of 2020

Expectations for Rate Cuts

Some economists believe the Bank of Canada may in fact cut rates in 2019, as opposed to just maintaining their current level. Others believe oppositely that what we’ll see is a rate freeze. One area where there’s some consensus on this is that they will likely move towards a neutral interest rate, but only in the long term. The reason for this being that the corresponding hike in the level at which mortgage borrowers are stress-tested will result in that policy now being unsustainable so long as the current methodology is employed.

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of buyer and / or seller real estate clients leads online that are sent to you and you only for your similarly exclusive area of any city or town in Canada. With them you’ll have opportunities to be in touch with people who are genuinely considering making a real estate move sometime in the near future, and with that opportunity you have a chance to establish yourself as their realtor of-choice. It’s highly recommended, as evidenced by testimonials from realtors just like you.

Vancouver-Based Online Real Estate Investing Platform Promises to be Well Received

Published April 1, 2019 by Real Estate Leads

One of the inescapable realities of living in Canada’s most popular urban areas is that every aspect of life is intimidatingly expensive. When it comes to owning – and investing – in real estate, that expensiveness is at its apex point. Likely no one needs to be told that real estate is supremely expensive in Toronto and Vancouver, but it’s that reality that of course makes many people want to be able to invest in it.

As a realtor the bulk of your clients will be buying homes to live in them, while others will be buying them as revenue properties with the aim of renting them at rates the market will bear. In either scenario, however, it’s a fact that the people are making investments, and in most cases it’s an investment in both their immediate future AND their financial future.

Here at Real Estate Leads, the benefit of our online real estate lead generation service is that it puts you in touch with buyers and sellers who are legitimately considering making such a move, and as their realtor it’s your responsibility to tailor your efforts to meet their prerogatives.

The fact of the matter is if you’re a realtor working in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, or Montreal there’s going to be would-be buyers who are prevented from being prospective clients because of the market being unaffordable for them. That’s an inflexible reality and simply a part of market forces, but it’s unfortunate that it means fewer would-be clients.

Seems there may now be a little bit of an equalizer for people who’ve until now been resigned to being priced out of the market. There’s a new platform could make investing in Canada’s most expensive real estate market less daunting.

Introducing Fraction

Fraction is a Vancouver-based equity stake lending platform that promotes itself as a more secure option than traditional home equity lines of credit. Their premise is that by taking a 40% equity stake in a property, it can reduce a buyer’s mortgage payments by 35%. The home buyer still must secure mortgage financing for the remaining amount, but the drastically lower figure is much more workable in that regard.

Now of course, yes, this significantly diminishes the amount of equity they can build up in the property by making their monthly mortgage payments. However, it’s best to look at it this way; if you own a home and want to take some equity out of it, your existing option is you could sell, or get a HELOC or reverse mortgage. The 2^nd party-financier option may be better because you can sell up to 40% of the future value of your home to them.

Provided the market’s robust enough – and in Canada’s big urban centres it most certainly is – a client can still count on making a tidy profit on the original investment even while still reimbursing Fraction its 40 percent.

Investment Properties Too

It also promises to be a good choice for investing in additional real estate properties.

Those who want to invest in real estate in Vancouver, for example, would be able to buy securities from Fraction and have the value of those securities being debt-protected. It doesn’t take anyone with an advanced understanding of economics or investment savvy to see the potential advantages in that. “

The investment serves to be a mortgage charge on title, and by that they’re able to secure their stake in the property. That’ fine, but what about my part of it your client may ask. Well, it also means that their principal is more secure too.

Adding to First-Time Buyer Incentive

The 2019 Federal Budget arrived last week, and it includes a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation equity stake incentive for first-time buyers. However, that incentive is capped at 10%, and household income cannot exceed $120,000. Plus, the total cost of the home can’t be greater than four times that amount.

With a service like Fraction, the impediments put up within the first-time homebuyer incentives being introduced within the budget are not nearly as prohibitive when it comes to buying property. The investment is quite a bit safer because it’s not a down payment. It’s still a mortgage on title, so it’s way safer than the CMHC one, which will be more like a down payment itself most of the time.

An Example

Let’s put together an example of how this would work. Let’s say the owner of a home worth $1 million—not uncommon at all in Vancouver or Toronto — wants to take out $200,000. They’re able to sell 20% to Fraction, and when they sell the home 4 or so years later for something in the vicinity of $1.5m, that 20% is worth $300K. That’s paid at sale, and they’re still $200K up when all is said and done.

Appreciating at 5.5% per annum has been the norm for Canadian properties, and so if a property invested in with this model and service fails to increase by that much there’s a built-in interest rate of 3%. Of course, that rate will vary by region once Fraction spreads out a bit.

It’s easy to see how this is something that you as a realtor should be recommending to buyers who don’t want to be stretched too thin in the beginning but can see the near certainty of that property appreciating nicely in the not too distant future.

Sign up for Real Estate Leads here and receive a monthly quota of qualified, online-generated buyer and / or seller leads delivered to you exclusively and for you similarly-exclusively served region of any city or town in Canada. What this service does is put more opportunities in front of you, and when you’re an informed realtor it’s that much easier to become a reputable realtor based on an ever-growing track record of what you’ve been able to do for your clients.

Archives

All posts for the month April, 2019