Canadian Funding Corp Reviews CMHC Sustainability Reports

As many of you have probably heard by now, this June was the best on record in terms of house sales as reported by The Toronto Real Estate Board.

The total number of houses sold rose by an amazing 27% in June while the average sale price rose 2%. Keep in mind that these statistics include all of the GTA from the Hamilton/Wentworth townline in the west to the Durham/Northumberland townline in the east and from Lake Ontario north into Lake Simcoe. Of course not all areas experienced the same amount of growth, however, Durham Region (on the most part) is in line with these increases. To see a 3 year comparable market evaluation for South Pickering, North Pickering, Ajax, Whitby, Oshawa and Courtice/Bowmanville click on Durham Region.

The other statistic to take notice of is the number of homes for sale this year as compared with last year. While sales have increased 27% this June, the number of new listings has decreased by 17% and the number of active listings has decreased by 30%. What does this mean for sellers and buyers? There is a lot less inventory to choose from and a lot more people who are looking to buy. This would explain the rise in the number of multiple offers we have been seeing over the past several weeks as well as the increase in prices.

Who knows where all of this will end up in the next several months. There is still some speculation in the economic circles that the “worst is yet to come” and yet others have changed their predictions to an earlier anticipated recovery.

http://getmovingwithkaren.blogspot.com/2009/07/june-housing-statistics-are-in.html

reviewed by Moishe ALexander, CFC  canadian funding corp CEO

By Brian Madigan LL.B.

Ordinarily, one would think that chattels are not included in an agreement of purchase and sale concerning real estate. And, most of the time they would be right.

However, this is not the case when we are talking about the sale of a business. Under the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act the term “real estate” is defined to include real property, leasehold and business whether with or without premises, fixtures, stock-in-trade, goods or chattels in connection with the operation of the business.

Bob operated a small electrical contracting company. After 25 years in the business, he felt that it was time to retire. In addition to the 10 trucks all clearly marked “Bob’s Electric”, he had recently purchased a minivan. Bob used this vehicle to get to work. He acquired it right at the end of the year so that he could maximize the depreciation. Bob listed the business and negotiated an excellent price.

You might imagine his surprise when it came to the day of closing and his lawyer had prepared a Transfer of the minivan for him to sign. Bob said it was not part of the deal. There was nothing about the minivan in the agreement of purchase and sale. This was true!

His lawyer reviewed the agreement and said that the definition of “real estate” when it concerned the sale of a business included chattels. Since the minivan had been acquired and used in connection with the business, no matter how remote this connection might be, the minivan was deemed to be part of the deal. The obligation rested upon Bob to clearly exclude it, if that was his intention. It did not have to be written into the agreement to become part of the deal. Silence meant the minivan was part of the deal.

So, on closing the purchaser received an assignment of the lease, the stock-in-trade, the fixtures, the 10 trucks, and to his surprise, Bob’s brand new minivan that he drove to work.

In addition, there is one more little problem here worth mentioning. Bob was attracted to the minivan because of the zero percent financing spread out over five years. You guessed it! The agreement of purchase and sale conveyed the title to the assets “free and clear of all encumbrances”. So, out of the funds due on closing, Bob had to pay off the loan on the minivan in order that the purchaser would get clear title.

This little glitch arises in many business transactions, but most of the time neither the buyer nor the seller are aware, and no one asks about the minivan that the owner uses to get to work. There was some good news however. Bob had been thinking about buying a Mercedes.

http://ontariorealestatesource.blogspot.com/2009/07/dont-sell-minivan-by-mistake.html

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, canadian funding corp CEO

Any time I step into a lawyer’s office, I feel guilty.

I do not know whether it has anything at all to do with my profession, or if it is the series of books that lawyers are so fond to prominently display behind their desks. Those old, conspicuous textbooks with ominous titles written in gold Gothic characters on yellowish or greenish hardbound covers, barely readable, much less understandable. I noticed that no matter whether the law office is located in Canada or in the United States, those textbooks look exactly alike. I still have to see a single lawyer actually reading one of them, however, so my personal theory is that those books are hollow inside and used to conceal who knows whatever arcane secret items or, perhaps, just unsavory culinary recipes. In real estate too we are fast approaching the time when our shelves are going to be filled with all sorts of books. Yellow, red and blue, with manuals covering all sorts of topics from Ethics in Real Estate to How to Write a Contract And Not Go To Jail. I have been tinkering with the idea of writing a manual myself – just a small pocketbook entitled “Top 10 Successful Strategies To Defuse Sellers Armed With Pitchforks”, which I figure would be an instant hit with many of us.

With the ever-advancing technology of our times fields of expertise that are crowd-oriented, such as the legal and real estate professions, are poised to experience dramatic changes in the forthcoming years. As it relates specifically to real estate, to be sure, technology has had already a great impact but innovation is not over yet and it is not confined merely to the use of sophisticated hardware. There is on the horizon a new conceptualization of professionalism, an absolutely novel way to haess individual resources for the common good of all. It is called ‘collective intelligence’, a techno-jargon concept that will revolutionize the way we – the professionals – think, act and interact among ourselves as well as with the communities we serve. Collective intelligence tinkers with the way cognition and information processing are structured and relayed to consumers, especially when they involve knowledge, expertise and leaing. It also delves into methods of gathering and sharing information and resources that bind different groups, or associations, or disciplines. Real estate is, of course, intertwined with banking, law, economics, marketing and urban sciences and collective intelligence links and bind together different networks or resources to coordinate a more efficient and comprehensive response to ever- sophisticated demands.

Real estate professionals are called more and more to field questions that go over and beyond the mere act of selling. In fact, it can be said that selling in real estate already represents the last stage when the professional is finally compensated. But before that there is an array of issues that must be confronted and answered, ranging from understanding regional economics such as, for instance, local job environments and trades to proficiency in specific areas such as cultural orientation and demographic diversity to acquaintance with well-defined facets of disciplines the likes of architectural styles, land-assembly and development, and contract law. This radicalization of the real estate business to come is in response to the evolution of choices of market participants. Although singular consumers do not have more power over market events than before, they certainly have improved their chances of getting what they want because they have a greater variety of choices. We are, in essence, entering an era where the professional leas and stores information gathered from a group or organization and is ready to deliver it to a consumer, or another group or organization, on demand for the purpose of enhancing choices through expertise.

Sharing information is of paramount importance in real estate, since there is not a ‘national’ market per se. Real estate is made of a compilation of local economies, each abiding to a set or sets of local inputs and variables. What is happening in Toronto does not directly affect what is happening in Vancouver. And yet, there is a common thread shared in the needs of individual expressions of market participants, no matter where they are located. The Realtor, as an integral part of his function and purpose, is going to be required to contribute to the building of a consensus decision-making process that involves meeting everyone’s needs and which is intended to promote and enhance the decision-making process of each individual consumer, whether a person, a group of persons or an organization.

http://realestatesold.blogspot.com/2009/07/tinkering-with-cognition.html

viewed by Moishe Alexander, CFC CEO