Monday 24 November 2014

Game Time – You Hold the Key to This Dream for Your Clients



It is game time again! Take a look at these four images. What is the common denominator?


You hold the key to helping your clients realize this dream!

When you are the best you can be – offering the best service, quickly – your clients remember. GeoWarehouse helps you provide high-quality service, at a quick pace! Do your due diligence, all in one place. For more information please contact GeoWarehouse today be calling 1-866-237-5937.

Monday 17 November 2014

Training: How to Get the Most Out of the GeoWarehouse Store

We love training, not just because it helps you do more, but also because, in the case of the ever-evolving application that is GeoWarehouse, it is important to keep attuned to different things you can do in GeoWarehouse and how.


As a GeoWarehouse customer, you have the capabilities included in the main application, but you also have exclusive access to the GeoWarehouse Store. The GeoWarehouse Store is where you can perform premium searches to dig digger into deals and learn more information about your client, a property or even to obtain information via a 3rd party partner.


Here are the most common reports/searches that real estate sales professionals request/obtain when using the GeoWarehouse Store:
  • Condo Status Certificate – requesting this online makes obtaining it faster, easier and more affordable.
  • Parcel Register* – verify as of the date of search who is the homeowner is and check financial encumbrances.
  • Instrument Images – drill down deeper into charge, mortgage, lien, discharged and other instruments registered on the title search.
  • Surveys and Plans – if available, you can obtain these online.
  • MPAC Property Assessment Reports


If one of the above are available, sometimes you will see icons to request them right after you perform a property search – however many of the above have to be purchased directly through the GeoWarehouse Store.
This training video “Getting Started in the GeoWarehouse Store” will provide you with an overview of how to navigate the GeoWarehouse Store and what can be purchased there. If you watch the tutorial you can then reference other training videos that focus on the specific searches, documents, images and reports.

Training at your fingertips:


You can also register for:

Stay up to date and let GeoWarehouse help you get all of the information you need. Call us today 1-866-237-5937.

*An official product of the Ontario government pursuant to provincial land registration statutes.

Monday 10 November 2014

The Real Estate Hiccups

As a real estate sales professional, your services present incredible value to the clients you serve. Representing a client in a real estate transaction is a process that involves due diligence and precision. When unexpected occurrences happen on deals, you may experience what some refer to as a hiccup, meaning you can recover, while others may refer to the deal having exploded - meaning there is no way to recover the deal. Either way you look at it, even a hiccup in a deal can lead to great expense – both monetarily and time wise.

The sooner that you can identify potential issues, the more that you can mitigate time and expense wasted.

Sometimes when representing a client, unexpected information can come up, like tax a lien for example. Check out this example:
  • Perhaps you have taken on a new listing and the seller doesn’t even realize that CRA has registered a lien on their home in connection with an unpaid tax debt.
  • This leads you to do some further investigation so you request a Parcel Register* to see if in fact your client does have a lien registered. The Parcel Register* confirms that yes, only a week prior to the client engaging you to sell their home, CRA did register a lien on the home.
  • You report back to your client and they are in a complete state of shock. They had no idea that a lien was registered or the amount that they owed to CRA, or who at CRA to contact, so they ask you for help.
  • You then go on to use the Instrument Number associated to the lien in the Parcel Register*, and request the instrument image.
  • The instrument image saves you and your client precious time because it provides all the details your client needs to get to the bottom of the issue of the unexpected lien. This information includes the direct contact information for who at CRA registered the lien.
  • You are able to relay that information back to your client and they contact CRA.
  • CRA agrees to lift the lien on the condition that a lump sum payment is made towards the tax debt.

We can go on and on with stories like this that we hear from real estate sales professionals all the time. What are some of the buzz words in these examples: requested a Parcel Register*, obtained an instrument image, requested a condo status certificate, etc… As a real estate sales professional you are only as good at your job as the tools you have at your disposal. In this day and age you can’t just take someone’s word for something anymore and it is critical to perform checks and balances to ensure that there are no potential hiccups or explosions waiting to bring your deal down.

For more about Parcel Registers* or Condo Status Certificates please visit www.geowarehouse.ca today.

*An official product of the Ontario government pursuant to provincial land registration statutes.

Monday 3 November 2014

Parcel Register* - Does it Really Even Matter?

What do you think a Parcel Register* is? Many will say they don’t know, while others may say that a Parcel Register* is a title search, which it actually is not. A Parcel Register* is a part of a title search. The Parcel Register* is a record containing a property description and a list of instruments registered against the property within the Land Registration System of Ontario as of the date of the property search. Here is what a Parcel Register* looks like: http://ow.ly/DKbLb.
What can you learn from a Parcel Register*:
  • Who is on title to the home – the legal homeowners
  • The type of home ownership
  • The legal description and PIN (Property Identification Number)
  • A history of transfers, charges (mortgages), liens, etc. which includes: the date that the instrument was registered, the instrument number, the date of the registration, the dollar amount if there is one, the registrant’s name, etc…
What can this tell you?
  • You can identify if there are other people on title to a property that were not disclosed to you.
  • You can identify if there are challenges with equity or surprise information that your client may not have been aware of.
  • You can obtain the required numbers to dig deeper if you need to.
So what happens next? If new information is uncovered when reviewing a Parcel Register* you can now report this information back to them and inquire further into any discrepancies. Say for example you or your client wishes to investigate something that appears in the history on the Parcel Register* further, you can take the Instrument Number – this will enable you to pull the instrument image.
The instrument image provides even further detail on a particular registration on the Parcel Register* – like the contact information for the parties who registered the instrument. Some very common examples of instrument images that many real estate sales professionals will look at include: liens, mortgages, transfers and condo declarations.
Parcel Registers* are an important search tool that different professionals leverage throughout a real estate transaction. Because they are current, up-to-the-date of the search, they give you a very accurate snap-shot on the ownership and financial positioning of a particular property. Especially where new listings are concerned, you can greatly mitigate surprises on deals where you represent a seller. A good clean Parcel Register* is actually a sell feature that you can leverage when negotiating a deal with a real estate sales professional who is representing a perspective buyer.
Parcel Register*, doe it really even matter? We think so! For more information about how you can obtain a Parcel Register* please call 1-866-237-5937.
*An official product of the Ontario government pursuant to provincial land registration statutes.