Building your brand isn’t difficult, but it does take some time and effort. Just as the popular soup with a red label wasn’t known ’round the world overnight, neither will your brand. However, if you follow certain steps, you can be sure you’ll have a much more “known” brand by this time next year.

1. Decide what your brand is–whether it’s to work with low-income buyers, sell high-end beach homes or list golf condos, you know you have something that you enjoy and would like to make your specialty, if it isn’t already.

2. Name it in a memorable way to describe it (Luxury Home Specialist, Condo King, etc.). It doesn’t have to be smaltzy; just make it memorable and brand it with your specialty.

3. Put it EVERYWHERE–this means website, cards, brochures, phone messages, etc. You know how you can sing certain jingles (even those that annoy you)? Make your brand as burned-in as those (remember Co-stan-za?).

4. Concentrate on those listings and sales that cement your brand type–make your marketing and business efforts in that area. If you start listing $99,000 condos but build your brand as the luxury beach villa agent, it will only confuse people.

5. Let the world know when you’ve listed a property in your brand (PR, Media, Video)–Don’t be a talking head in a poorly-lit video or swept away by outdoor wind (you’ve seen the kind I mean–they scream unprofessional). Do something high-end (see our Get Your Spotlight program to get high-end, pleasing videos).

6. Get the expert status you deserve in your brand by offering advice, columns, Q & A for your local community

7. Put out something with your brand on it every week–even slow weeks require marketing. Make it fun and think of new things to do each week.

If you start with just these seven simple tips to building and solidifying your personal brand in real estate, in no time at all will you local community start to think of you as your brand and the “go to” person for your specialty!

Blog post provided by Activ8 Real Estate Business  

Thankfully it’s common today for vendors to allow an appraiser access even after the financing clause has been waived – but they don’t have to. There are bank employees and Mortgage Agents who either don’t understand what the appraisal is for or have become complacent with the process. They order appraisals days before the closing date and after the financing clause is already waived, and sometimes this complacency can come back to bite them and their clients.

Appraisals can reveal a problem with the overall marketability of a property, the location, the state of repair, not to mention that the appraiser may not support the purchase price. All of these things could potentially be problematic for the mortgage company. And yes we also encounter the odd jerk who refuses to allow an appraiser access to the property because he/she isn’t legally obligated to do so.

Deals can and have fallen apart at the appraisal stage, and people have gotten financially hurt as a result. Waiving the financing clause is serious, deal with an experienced Mortgage Professional.

Post provided by Robert Bizzoni
Mortgage Agent, Mortgage Intelligence
rbizzoni@rogers.com, 416-931-3893, http://www.MortgageBizz.ca

In today’s market this is important because of the changes that have occurred in mortgage lending practices since 2008. “B” lending has now become so common that personally I believe we should do away with the labels all together and simply provide our clients with the best rate and terms possible for their deal without the need for a label. I can summarize the changes in the mortgage market in this way….the relationship between pricing and risk has now been restored back to something that makes sense and is healthy for the marketplace in general.

Generally an “A” deal is when the borrower is buying marketable real estate, they have good clean credit, the down payment source is easily identifiable, and the applicants required income to carry the mortgage can be fully documented.

Anything short of “A” falls into a category that is less than “A”. The reason I say this is that there is a wide and vibrant universe of lending below the “A” grade of mortgage. The pricing and terms will depend on the circumstances of the overall deal. Note that an individual can be “A” on one deal and “B” on another so it’s deal specific not always person specific. Again, an experienced and skilled Mortgage Professional is needed here.

Those of us in the business including Realtors  have (hopefully) adjusted our approach and it’s kind of the way things used to be in the old days (yes I was around in the old days). However we still need to educate the borrowing public. The emphasis needs to be on affordability, and utility, not simply a nominal rate. Does the borrower perceive a benefit from buying the property or doing a mortgage refinance? If so, can the borrower afford the mortgage terms available to them? The nominal rate of interest is still part of the equation however it needs to be lower on the list of priorities.

It’s not easy for a borrower to understand that 5 years ago their bank considered them to be an “A” borrower for a mortgage, however today they won’t approve their mortgage even though nothing has changed to the borrower’s financial circumstances. We, the Professionals in the business need to be able to explain the shifting landscape in the mortgage universe to this client and continue to serve their needs. Their need is not the lowest mortgage rate that’s a want. Their need is the ability to access affordable mortgage funds to finance the acquisition of real estate, the development of real estate, or to refinance existing real estate.

Robert Bizzoni – Mortgage Agent
Mortgage Intelligence
rbizzoni@rogers.com
416-931-3893

When I tell people that I specializd in litigation relating to real estate agency and to real estate stigma, even Realtors ask me to explain what I mean by stigma.

Stigma is basically the effect that lingers after the cure. In real estate it can be something as simple as “how clean is clean?” This refers to a property that say had an oil spill. The buyer may have full access to the reports from the environmental experts but due to say a migrating underground water supply, they may feel that the oil may move back or that a neighbouring property, that was contaminated could have their contamination issues migrate. For grow operations (marijuana grow houses) the problem of stigma is predominately related to mould. House can be cleaned to fullest, problems fixed but mould can result even a year later. Same with a house that had a water problem. Stigma is either real or perceived. Sometimes public opinion or word-of-mouth can result in the highest loss in value. Once the community knows of a problem from a murder to a grow-op, the word is out. In most provinces and states, Realtors must disclose but some of the laws are vague and the buyer is not always protected. Good advice? Recommend a qualified home inspector, one who is reputable -check references and qualifications carefully and do they carry insurance coverage.

For buyers, they should be protected by a buyer agency representation and be a client, not just a customer. A buyer should know that a designated buyer rep works for them and their interests. For Realtors, two ways to protect yourself from future litigation should a stigma problem be found later. First, absolutely always type in the address of a house that you are listing or selling on Google, on Yahoo and other search engines. If it were notorious you may be surprised what you can find on a search. Next, always go back into your local board MLS system as far back as possible to search a subject property.

That last bit of advice should have been done by a Realtor recently. She listed a property and then the buyers found out just before closing that the house had once been insulated with UFFI. The buyers wanted a discount to close and the listing agent insisted she did not know. A simple MLS search would have found a previous listing on the same property where it was clearly stated that UFFI had been removed. She should have known as she should have done her research. Her lack of doing so, of relying on the Seller’s representation is now heading into the court system.

Stigma can be measured in many ways, but the most difficult is by direct comparison. For example, say that you bought a house and found out from a neighbour that it had been the scene of a horrific murder. Your buyers are angry, they want to sue the Seller, and the listing and selling agents. In most jurisdictions, you were denied the right to a material fact. In some places, like California disclosure of a murder must be reported for 3 years. In Canada, only Quebec has a murder disclosure law. How does one measure the loss – if any? In a textbook situation, we would find various murder sites, compare their
selling prices to similar and non-impacted houses in their area and then with enough data estimate a percentage loss to your house. The problem? Most murder sites are not readily disclosed and not all murders may have received excess media attention, which does negatively impact value. The other problem is one of time. Did the murder happen last year, ten years ago or in a small town, heck a 50 year murder still is well remembered. In most provinces, I have not found limitations on disclosure. In Ontario for example, once you had UFFI you are compelled to disclose that fact even though it may have been removed in 1981. Something is very wrong with that scenario. Unlimited disclosure harms the selling public who can be innocent of full knowledge of the history of their home and leads to more lawsuits involving Realtors. It is just wrong to not specify how long a former problem has to be disclosed. That one factor alone assists in
stigmatizing real property.

For a former grow operation we do find comparable sales. We track known grow ops and compare them to similar houses (without the grow op problem) and estimate a percentage loss. This works when the data is available, like it is in my home town of Toronto.

Many stigma problems though cannot be measured from the marketplace. A loss of parking which negates a value, a mould issue, a bad construction job, etc. Comparable data is not available so I have learned to use empirical modelling and formulas that make common sense.

Here is a true test for a real loss in value -can you get a mortgage with the problem known to the lender? If the advance is reduced, if the rate is higher or they say no, you have stigma. Next major test – can you get insurance? If no or highly rated you have a stigma problem.

Ghosts – that is another topic, difficult to outline in one posting but for reference to find out if ghosts are real go to your favourite search engine and type in “Ghosts Nyack” or use this link, http://atlasobscura.com/place/the-ghost-of-nyack. Are ghosts real? That is a definite “yes” according to the Supreme Court of the State of New York. Very interesting case and a good read for Realtors.

Why Does This Happen?

There are many reasons why this happens with such great frequency. Let me list a few reasons for you…

1. The person you are speaking with at your Financial Institution is not the decision maker and there is actually no final decision-maker in your branch. The front line is sales staff, they have aggressive sales objectives and are reluctant to say no or ask the hard questions which may ultimately reveal that you don’t qualify early in the process. They would rather maintain the possibility of “yes” for as long as possible to keep their pipeline full. When the actual decision- maker gets hold of your actual documents the deal is very often declined or altered.

2. Along the lines of point one, the sales staff in a branch or in a Call Center want to keep the possibility of your deal alive for as long as possible for fear that you don’t shop elsewhere and so they can claim to have a healthy pipeline of deals to their supervisors. These employees are placed under a tremendous amount of pressure to meet totals. Typically they even have weekly meeting objectives and pipeline objectives in addition to closed sales objectives. The pressure is so great that they are very reluctant to bring up real problems early on.

3. You want to hear a “yes” and they want to give you a “yes” however they are not in a position to do so. There is no early authoritative voice in the mix to critically look at your credit application and supporting documents and point out potential problems until much later in the process – when it’s too late.

4. The sales staff are not trained as mortgage underwriters, it isn’t really their job to assess the creditworthiness of a mortgage application. This is by design. Generally, financial institutions no longer give sales staff approval/decline authority for credit applications. They fear manipulation by sales staff. They also fear a deal being declined at the front end when it could have been approved.

5. The front line staff may not be skilled in asking the tougher questions or worse doesn’t want to ask those questions, the borrower wanting the deal approved paints a rosy but slightly embellished picture. I can’t count how many times a sole proprietor business owner has told me their gross sales figure when asked how much money they made. I know to dig deeper into the line of questioning however the employee at your financial institution may not. Of course it all comes out later.

There are many reasons why these “misunderstandings” occur when it comes to mortgages from your preferred financial institution. Of course dealing with an experienced Mortgage Professional solves the majority of these problems. We deal with multiple financial institutions and many times your own will be included in that group. When dealing with your typical residential mortgage there are no broker fees involved, we are paid directly by our lenders. Dealing with an experienced Professional, access to multiple lenders, great low rates, objective proper advice… why do it yourself? The next time you need a mortgage, do yourself a favour and call an experience Professional Mortgage Agent. I’m certain you’ll never get a mortgage any other way after that.

Robert Bizzoni – Mortgage Agent
Mortgage Intelligence
rbizzoni@rogers.com
416-931-3893

While a home may be inspected for many reasons most home inspections occur before a home is sold, to reveal any issues that might become problems for the buyer. A home seller may also choose to have a home inspection done prior to listing a property, in order to avoid any unpleasant surprises during negotiations.

A home inspection will typically include a walk-through tour of the house during which the condition of the property is closely scrutinized, any defects and deficiencies are noted, and recommendations for repair are made. During the home inspection the inspector will look for issues that could have significant impact from a health and safety perspective, or purely from a financial standpoint.

Home Inspection Process Explained

• A typical home inspection takes two to three hours, and during this time the house is examined from the ground up and from the outside in.
• A good home inspection should include observation, and when appropriate the operation, of the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electrical, and appliance systems, as well as observation of structural components: roof, foundation, basement, exterior and interior walls, chimney, doors, and windows.
• Findings should be provided in the form of a comprehensive inspection report, which includes an objective evaluation of the condition the home clearly outlining any existing defects and potential problems.

When performed by a certified Pillar To Post home inspector this inspection includes:

• A thorough visual inspection of the structure (inside and out, from foundation to roof).
• An examination of all major systems.
• An objective evaluation of the condition of a home.
• A printed report covering all findings and identifying potential concerns.
• A high quality binder that includes: your home inspection report, full color photos, a repair and remodel cost estimate guide, home maintenance information, a CD-ROM to help you with simple “how-to” projects around the home, and a package of valuable offers from our Home Alliance partners.

Why Do You Need A Home Inspection?

A home inspection is particularly important when purchasing a home.

Buying a house is likely one of the largest purchases a person will ever make but few buyers are experienced in building construction, and overlooking a serious issue could result in a costly problem down the road. As a result many buyers choose to have a property inspection conducted prior to closing the sale. The inspection can identify any issues so the buyer can discuss these with the seller during negotiations.

At Pillar To Post we encourage our clients to accompany us during the home inspection. This gives buyers a chance to ask questions, and to get detailed information about maintaining the home and its systems. For homeowners this allows them an opportunity to answer any questions the inspector may have. In either case, accompanying an inspector can help a client get the most from a home inspection.

Article generously provided by the lovely folks at Pillar to Post  www.pillartopost-northyork.com  416-749-7678