Is there an Investor in the House?

Today I was speaking to my friend, mentor and all around Real Estate good guy – Rhys Trenhaile from OntarioRCI.com in Windsor.  Not sure about you, but when think of the name Rhys, visions of a rock star or pro athlete come to mind. This guy is serious about Real Estate and serious about Windsor.  I mean – if you raced toasters, Rhys would race a 4 slicer stainless steel deluxe!

The most notable aspects about Rhys is his knowledge, commitment to education not only to himself also his clients.  This commitment glows through his OntarioRCI website.  This site is comprehensive – no joke.  From the moment you step you see that these guys are serious.  With the war paint on they are ready to combat the stigma investors have with regards to Windsor.

The majority of our business is in the GTA, that being said there is a growing requirement for investors to look at Windsor. From our vantage point there is an increasing volume of deals we are seeing in Southwestern Ontario.  The challenge has been the past few years, to overcome the dark cloud that the auto sector had at one time created in Windsor.

Have a look at just some of the information that Rhys and his team have compiled…

 

• $20.9-million MRO (stands for maintenance, repair, overhaul) service hangar nearing completion for Boeing 747

• Chrysler’s new 755,000-square-foot warehouse being constructed

• Windsor has been ranked among the most affordable cities in Canada in which to buy a house

• $1.6-billion Windsor-Essex Parkway  14,200+ jobs in construction (12,000 for the bridge and freeway, 2200 for the new rail tunnel).

• Average home price is up 4.16% (as of Dec 31 2010). Sales are up approximately 10%, new home builds are up 58%

• R&D, medical (the new medical school is demographically worth 5000 to 15000 jobs)

• $400 million casino expansion, tourism, call centres etc logistics (another 550 jobs expected)

• Leading Canada’s green technologies charge, another 700 jobs with 6,000 manufacturing jobs

• the 5th highest family incomes in Canada, and the highest net disposable incomes.

• ….AND the best rated drinking water in Ontario!

Jobless rate for June was 9.2 per cent. That figure is down 1.4 percentage points compared to May when Windsor’s unemployment rate sat at 10.6 per cent, then the nation’s highest.

Peterborough, with a 10 per cent unemployment rate, now holds the unenviable title.

Other Ontario unemployment rates include Oshawa, 9.7; St. Catherines-Niagara and Barrie, 8.8; Toronto 8.4; Brantford, 8.2; Sudbury, 7.9; London, 8.7; Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo, 6.9; Kingston, 6.8; Thunder Bay, 6.7; Guelph, 6.3; Ottawa, 5.8; and Hamilton, 5.9.

If you take the time to read the OntarioRCI Blog you will see not only does he look like a contestant on the Bachelor, he also has compiled some hard to argue stats about growth in Windsor.

Helping families is what we do, Private Lenders are what make our business work.  As we are committed, we surround ourselves with committed people, Rhys is one without question.

Darren Plumb

Foreclosure Escape Artist

ever see this sign -> We Finance Anyone

When your in need of home financing it is fairly common to see ads like the subject reads. In fact much of the business that we do, comes from referral sources as a result of advertising just like this. I regularly look for ads just like this on the internet to see what is behind it.

Not in all, but in the vast majority of cases we see Real Estate Agents, looking for a listing, Mortgage Brokers and predatory investors wanting to purchase your home at 70 cents on the dollar. Being a licensed Real Estate agent and Mortgage Agent, truly there are some folks that just cannot be helped. The best thing would be for them to sell their home and get out from under the debt and start over. In discussing business with colleagues I very much enjoy the looks of shock on their faces when I tell of the ones that I “turned away”, not the ones that “got away”. It is about what is best for the client, even if that means offering free advice and making nothing.

I am always amazed and amused at the amount of people that we can help out that others have turned away. We take for granted that we offer a niche product with up to 90% loan to value financing regardless of beacon score or credit history. The other component that we see is credit restoration. This generally does not take any sort of precedence in the private lending world. Whereby this creates a downward cycle for many families, as each year renew their private mortgage and pay fees to a point where there is no equity left in their home to finance.

Our goal is to always have our clients come out the other side of our terms and walk into a traditional “A” lender. We feel our clients are as entitled to prime rate mortgages as the next person.

Darren Plumb

Foreclosure Escape Artist

New Video – “Bank Forcing you Out?”

Untitled Project.

Don’t let the Bank RUIN your Credit

Don’t let the Bank RUIN your Credit. Do not feel trapped by your lender, you have options to avoid Power of Sale. Options that can preserve equity, reduce or eliminate debt

Record October Job Loss – Does this increase Mortgage Defaults?

Focusing solely on saving families from power of sale and foreclosure, you can imagine my alarm when seeing the unemployment stats for October. The unemployment rate in Canada rose to a record 7.3%.  This equates to 54,000 lost jobs. Comprised primarlly of the manfacuturing sector losing 48,000. Natural resources picked up 12,000. All totalled at 54,000, this almost wiped out the 61,000 job gain posted in September.

We work with many clients as a result of this type of news. Lending guidelines have been tightening over the past couple of years.  Refinances being available up to a max of 85% loan to value combined with lenders conservative appraisals sometimes leads to hot water for famlies.  Job loss, loss of income can in some cases lead to missed payments, which makes working with a traditional mortgage lender not possible.  We see many cases where our clients have equity and are unable to access it.

Everyone hears that Banks are not into owning homes. True as that may be, banks are also sometimes unwilling to work with clients. We make it possible for clients to avoid, power of sale, pay off debt and stay in their home.  In many cases these is an emotional stigma attached losiing your home to Power of Sale.  The shame of telling your clients the reason you are selling being one of the most significant. One of the bigger hurdles we see is this can open a revolving door.  As clients access private lenders there is no degree of credit restoration completed, which can lead to a long term problem.

Darren Plumb

Foreclosure Escape Artist

Sub Prime Defined

“There is NO Sub Prime Mortgages in Canada!”. I hear this all the time, have you? ……. It always has made me think, how could there be so little information about Sub Prime Lending in Canada…….

This led me to the internet to do a bit of research…

What is Sub Prime exactly?

I knew what it meant, so wondered what it meant to everyone else. It is confusing, one would think that Sub Prime refers to an interest rate below prime rate, this is good-right?! Actually the reverse is true, the word Sub Prime refers to the Credit-Worthiness of the borrower.

Sub Prime mortgages are best described as meeting the following criteria:

• A borrower with bad credit history
• An interest rate that is significantly higher than prime rate lending.

This is due to the privacy issues. Stats are difficult to come by, it is said that Canada has 30,000 Sub Prime Mortgages on the file. This number represents about 7% of all mortgage transactions in Canada.

With the exit of formal Sub Prime lenders , a hole has been left in the Canadian market. A hole that has caused many Canadian families to fall into Power of Sale. Above this hole reads“Orphaned Mortgage“. A newly coined term refers to one of the aforementioned Sub Prime mortgages when coming due and is not able to be placed with another lender, thus “Orphaned”.

Who are these folks? My experience has been that they are not “Credit Junkies” they are hard working families who have become victims of the economy due to job loss or sickness and have gotten behind. Due to a drop in beacon score they are unable to renew with an “A” lender. Once back on track with work and health they are prevented from refinancing due to a few black marks.

How do you handle these families?

Some turn them over to a predatory investor, with a “WE BUY HOUSES” ad on the side of their truck & an ad on Kijiji. They will tell your client that they are helping them stop their Power of Sale. Yeah, they are helping them alright, helping them out of their home as they are looking to grab a great home deal. There are private funds. Some privates have come on very strong over the past few years. From professionals to people with cash, dabbling, like the wild west, unregulated, I have heard rates up to 40% and lender fees as high as 10%! Like a tightening noose these lenders claw precious Equity from your client and then do it again 12 months later. Who does that help?

Foreclosure Escape Artist is one of the few companies focused on Stopping Power of Sales in Canada

Mortgage Statistics and Foreclosure rates are published widely in the US as they are used as a barometer in determining economic health. In Canada these numbers are almost impossible to come by. In Alberta and British Columbia there are 2 private companies that collect data on Foreclosures.

How BIG is the Problem in Ontario? In Ontario with the Power of Sale Process this removes the issue from the courts and shields the scope of the problem.