Realtors & Buyers’ Agreements

15 Apr 2011 1 Comment

by John Amardeil in In The Media, You Need to Know

This week, I read an article in the Toronto Star about the exclusive representation agreements that real estate agents try to get new home buyers to sign with them. Agents lock people looking for a new home into an exclusive relationship with them, so that they will have to pay commission to the agent whether or not that agent finds them their new home. Worse, agents are trying to get buyers to sign these agreements in sneaky ways – not explaining the paperwork they’re pushing in front of their clients, and not letting people get out of the deal when they realize with shock what they’ve agreed to.

I blogged about this issue back in November 2010, and it’s still a big issue today.

Luckily our current Commissioner of the Competition Bureau, Melanie Aitken, is here to help. Aitken is a hero for Canada’s consumers, as many articles have noted. Part of the reason this problems is happening is that Aitken opened up access to the MLS to low-commissioned firms and no-fee companies, to give consumers more choice and so that homeowners wouldn’t have to pay high commissions. Aitken eliminated the barrier to entry, made MLS available to everyone, and made it easier for homeowners to sell their own homes. But now the high-fee brokers are trying to keep control of the market. They want to convince you that you need a real estate agent to find your dream home. The Canadian Real Estate Association recently launched an ad campaign that uses humour and fairy tale imagery to keep you in their grip and keep that 6% in their pockets. Since you as a consumer may not want to pay that high commission, real estate agents are now actually coercing people into signing these exclusive relationship agreements. This is manipulative and the type of behaviour that Melanie Aitken is fighting so hard to eliminate.

Next up, Aitken is going after credit card companies, trying to stop them from charging such high interest rates, which are non-competitive, usurious rates. Big changes are coming soon to credit card rules in Canada. Aitken is single handedly spearheading all these initiatives, so big kudos to her, and remember: If you’re considering buying a resale home, beware! Real estate agents are not always acting in your best interests.

GTA Prosperity Slipping

08 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in In The Media Tags: , , , , ,

Image via the Toronto Star

The Toronto Star recently reported that the GTA’s prosperity is slipping, as “Toronto’s economic success remains hampered by low productivity and long commute times compared with cities around the world.” The GTA ranked 8 out of the 24 cities studied, slipping down from 4th place just last year.

Gridlock remains one of the GTA’s top concerns, as all of us commuters can easily attest. Toronto came last among all the cities: our average round-trip commute time is 80 minutes, “worse than Los Angeles (56 minutes), Tokyo (69 minutes) and London (74 minutes).” This time is an average taken from all commuters, both drivers and transit users. Toronto has more drivers than other cities, in part because our transit system doesn’t easily link up with places outside the downtown core.

So what does this mean if you live in the GTA, whether it’s in downtown Toronto, North York, Pickering, Burlington, Brampton or Mississauga? It means that while the appeal of moving out of Toronto proper is still strong because of housing prices and spacing issues, moving out of Toronto is only becoming less appealing if you work in the GTA.

Do you live close to your place of work? What’s your commute time like?

Finalists Named for 2010 CHBA National SAM Awards

17 Dec 2010 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in Activities, In The Media Tags: , , , , , , , ,

The Canadian Home Builders’ Association (CHBA) has announced the finalists for the 2010 CHBA National SAM Awards, which celebrate excellence in new homes and renovation design, innovative technology and construction techniques, outstanding presentation, and marketing activities across Canada. We’re excited that two of our clients had the honour and distinction of being nominated, and that we could help them achieve this level of excellence.

Empire Communities is up for the Green Home Award for their innovation in green home building, including the recent debut of their ECO2 program, which BAM designed and launched. This program is ground-breaking in its focus on homeowner empowerment and education, including seminars and a video helping new homeowners learn about all the benefits and features of their ECO2 homes. Every Empire home is now built to the specifications of the ECO2 program, meaning homes are ENERGY STAR-qualified and include many other energy-saving features, such as Cent-a-Meters to track energy consumption in real time, solar ready rough-ins and more. The homes can also be upgraded with Empire’s ECOnomical and ECOlogical packages. You can read our Case Study of the campaign here.

Brookfield Homes is nominated for best website for www.thevillageniagara.com, a site for its community The Village in Niagara-on-the-Lake. BAM was responsible for the creative, concept and production of this website and we’re pleased to see it earning distinction. The website is designed to be useful, easy to navigate and interactive, and includes exciting features on the homepage to draw visitors in, like a photo slideshow, links to social media sites, upcoming calendar events, special inventory deals and other incentives, recent blog posts, a virtual tour of the neighbourhood and model homes, the opportunity to sign up for community updates, and more. You can read our Case Study of the website here.

Brookfield was also nominated for the Grand SAM Award, an award presented to the new home builder who best combines excellence in both the building and marketing of new homes. Brookfield credited BAM with the creative, concept and production of the work for the marketing campaign they’re nominated for, their new community in Caledon East, Pathways. BAM helped Pathways stand out as an exceptional new community that would appeal to families. We divided the community into six unique neighbourhoods, and designed a map showing several pathways winding their way through the community – a path for all passions, from biking and jogging to a dog walkers’ trail and stroller loop. We did gorgeous renderings of the two parks that the community will feature, as well as a stunning streetscape rendering. We also developed other benefits for the community to offer, like Brookfield’s “Green” Saver program. You can read our Case Study of the community’s marketing campaign here.

Awards will be announced in late February, 2011. Good luck to Empire Communities and Brookfield Homes!

All Hail Rob Ford, Toronto’s 64th Mayor

27 Oct 2010 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in In The Media Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Toronto has elected Rob Ford with 47% of the popular vote, a sign that Torontonians are angry at overspending in city hall. Ford has campaigned on ripping out streetcars, cutting city council in half, allowing garbage collection to be bid on by private companies, and scrapping taxes on dogs, cars and home sales.

“The grassroots are going to speak out today. They are fed up with the wasteful spending and we’re going to stop the gravy train,” says Ford.

But it won’t be easy. Ford won’t be getting council support for everything. That $60 vehicle registration tax will be history, and overspending in city offices will likewise be getting the axe. His biggest strength will be contracting out things like garbage collection, street cleaning and other things that will certainly be doable.

“The people of Toronto are united around the call for change,” Ford said on the night of October 25th. Just don’t expect him to fulfill all his promises and certainly not with any great speed.

Ford also plans to hire 100 more front line police officers, including 30 just for schools; graffiti will be removed from public places; traffic signals “may” become synchronized; curbs will be colour coded so people know where it is safe to park; subways will be fast-tracked, pending provincial approval; more express buses will be added; the municipal land transfer tax will be gone by 2012; property taxes will be kept in line with inflation; and no more TTC strikes will be permitted on short notice.

Rob Ford describes himself as a “fiscal conservative and social liberal”, but the emphasis is really on fiscal conservatism in his goal to cut back on “back room deals.”

Will real estate buying become a social activity?

14 Oct 2010 Leave a comment

by John Amardeil in In The Media, Trends Tags: , , , , , , ,

Facebook LogoAccording to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, real estate buying and
other major purchases could become a social activity like never before.
“Designing products around people will be universal… will not just be
Facebook,” says Zuckerberg. The founder of the world’s largest social
network believes we’re entering a new era of internet-based social
activity wherein the “default is social” and things like shopping for
big ticket items will be centered around people as opposed to the actual
things and objects they’re purchasing.

In other words, buying a home just might become more of a party, where
you invite friends and family to go with you to check out possible homes
to buy. It won’t be as much about the home as about the interaction of
multiple people and the “event” of home buying. I believe it’s always
been about more than just buying a home – it’s buying into a social
atmosphere, a community, a dream for a new life.

Zuckerberg believes that every industry will be affected by this social
effect, including the automotive industry, the fashion industry, and the
real estate industry. He explains that when speaking face-to-face we use
our knowledge about the person to assign value to what they’re saying.
Thus real estate advice from a friend or family member has more value
than advice from a stranger on the street, even if they’re giving you
the same advice.

Social NetworkingThis of course raises some interesting questions:

How large a role will social media play in real estate? Will everyone be buying a home online? Or it will it be more for the social butterflies?

Is social advice you get from friends more important than outside facts,
photos and information about the house you’re buying?

How will a merger of social media and real estate manifest itself?

We can imagine for example that people in the future might browse a
virtual representation of their future home (which has yet to be built)
and invite their Facebook and Twitter friends to browse the virtual copy
of the home as well, using virtual avatars. Using something similar to
Google Street View, they could also explore the neighbourhood and learn
more about the place they might be living.

Exciting ideas for BAM to consider as we develop marketing strategies
and advertising campaigns that will appeal to the next generation of
online users!

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