By Warren McNeil

I recently sat in on a meeting with our office. The discussion was regarding new legislation that went into effect on June 23 that requires all realtors to gather more information about clients. This is mandatory legislation is a requirement put into effect by FINTRAC and CREA at the federal level. Here is a quote from our portal website at http://www.realtorlink.ca/content/fintrac/

"CREA recommends that REALTORS® advise clients of the FINTRAC requirements BEFORE any real estate documents are signed. This is to avoid members being involved in a buyer agency or listing agreement, only to discover the client later refuses to provide the identification information now required by law. A REALTOR® who continues to represent a client who refuses to provide identification information is in non-compliance of the law."

Who is FINTRAC:

"The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, or FINTRAC, is Canada’s financial intelligence unit, a specialized agency created to collect, analyze and disclose financial information and intelligence on suspected money laundering and terrorist activities financing . Created in July 2000, the Centre is an integral part of our country’s engagement in the global fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities."

http://www.fintrac-canafe.gc.ca/fintrac-canafe/1-eng.asp

How does this new legislation effect our clients?

We are now required by law to collect more information about clients during a real estate sales transaction. When a client purchases real estate, we have to keep a client information record and we need to take all steps to verify the client.

The type of information that needs to be collected is as follows:

1. Name
2. Address
3. Date of birth
4. occupation or principal business
5. The type of ID that will be used to verify the information (Photocopy not necessary. Just have to record the number. Licence number, birth certificate number)
See identification requirements for more information: http://www.realtorlink.ca/content/fintrac/identification_requirements.htm

We also need to include how the record was created. In-person, Not physically present, identified using a mandatary

Identification that FINTRAC will not be use is (Ontario only):

1. Heatlh cards not allowed
2. SIN cards are not allowed

Obviously this is designed to thwart money laundering and other illegal activities involving large amounts of money. As long as people understand what this legislation is all about then there won’t be any problems.  

Resources:

Unabridged version of the new legislation. Please read: http://www.realtorlink.ca/content/fintrac/

FINTRAC main website: http://www.fintrac-canafe.gc.ca

CREA main website: http://www.crea.ca

Thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

On June 30th the domain name www.mls.ca will be changed to www.realtor.ca.

One reason why this change is taking place is help the public understand that houses presented on the www.mls.ca website are being brought to the public by realtors. I think most people knew this already but I am sure that studies have shown the some people didn’t know that. This will definitely elminate the mystery. Hopefully the public will respond positively to this change.

Looks like there will be some really cool features such as virtual mapping similar to Google Earth. I guess Microsoft has a competing product called Microsoft Virtual Earth. Same thing.

I like typing www.mls.ca because it’s shorter. The domain will be redirecting for some time after the changeover. So we will still be able to type in www.mls.ca for a little while yet.

Thanks for reading!

By Warren McNeil

Q. What is a land lease?
A. When somebody owns a home and rents the land underneath it. 

A land lease community generally has sites that are rented by tenants who own the home on the site.  A land lease home is a permanent structure. 

For more information about land lease commumnities see, http://www.ltb.gov.on.ca/en/Key_Information/158000.html

Thanks for reading!

Re/Max Sales Representative Serving Kitchener, Waterloo and surround areas

By Warren McNeil

What’s my house worth?

If you are a home owner you might be wondering what your house is worth compared to other homes in your neighbourhood. Let’s say you lived in your house for 10 years. You might not have any idea what your home is worth if you were to sell it today.

I am not going to go into a sales pitch here. Our blog is not used for that purpose. The sole purpose of this blog is to educate, provide tips and provide general real estate information.

As a realtor, one goal is to meet new people. One way for us to do that is through free market evaluations. Everyone wants to know what their house is worth. Some want to know for information purposes while others might need one because they are thinking of selling. In either case, this information can be extremely valuable to a home owner.

So the question you may be asking yourself, what is a home market evaluation? Here is a breakdown of the steps a realtor will follow to do a market evaluation.

Step1:  Realtor gathers information about the property. Typically information such as area, house type, house style, # of beds, # of baths, age of house, upgrades, lot size. This list can go on and on.

Step 2: Realtor does a walkthrough of the house looking for things such as curb appeal, overall condition, special features such as hardwood, ceramics, en-suite, finished basement etc

Step 3: Realtor collects local market information specific to the area. Information such as recent sold, expired and actively listed properties. Also included in the analysis is average price, days on market, list to sale price percentage. If there are no other comparables then the realtor might need to look at different areas to compare to. Sometimes a house in one area might be worth less then houses in other areas.

Step 4: Realtor goes through these statistics and comes up with a price range that house could be worth.

Sometimes the price a realtor suggests might be lower or higher then what the homeowner had in mind. I never hear people complain when we say their house is worth more. Some people think their house is worth more but find out after the evaluation that the market is telling them otherwise. This can be frustrating but we always remind them that buyers ultimately set the price. Buyers will only pay what they want to pay for a house.

In summary, whether you are thinking of selling or just need to find out what you house is worth, consider consulting a realtor and ask them to do a free market evaluation.

Thanks for reading!

Kitchener Real Estate Board Statistics

Here are board statistics for the Kitchener-Waterloo real estate board. Please note that the information here is only based on residential real estate. If you would like a more detailed report, please contact Melanie or Warren.  

March 2008 – May 2008 (All Categories, All Areas)

All information deemed to be accurate and are based on monthly statistics of the Multiple Listing Service gathered by the Kitchener Waterloo Real Estate board.

Thanks for reading!