Canadian Interest Rates - Seize the Day, Maximize Your Efficiency While Rates are at All-Time Lows

The Bank of Canada has done it again and for the second time this year, cut the nation’s interest rate. Widely publicized, you likely know that Canada’s lending rate is now 0.5%!

This has been in reaction to an underperforming Canadian economy – but interestingly, not so much in the Canadian housing market. In August of 2015, the Teranet-National Bank House Price Index http://www.housepriceindex.ca/default.aspx reported an increase of 1.2% from the previous month, a 7 consecutive monthly increase.

So, the housing market appears to be bustling and interest rates are at all-time lows – is it time to seize the day? 2 ways to maximize your profitability is strong marketing and maximum efficiency in your internal workflow.

Here are our tips for how to see a strong finish to 2015:

Marketing your listings

Be everywhere! Posting your listings on the MLS isn’t enough anymore. Ensure that you register with mobile apps for real estate that are marketing tools, like ViMO, Zoocasa, etc. Make sure that your listings are showing there. The more exposure you get to your listing, the better.

Marketing the brand that is you – what makes you different?

Leverage social media and mobile apps for real estate to market yourself. Outside of being able to share helpful information with prospects nurturing leads that may not be ready to buy or sell, you can establish yourself as a thought leader and a go-to source for real estate information and questions. You also increase your accessibility and connectivity to clients, prospects, partners and colleagues. Talk about what makes you different. What tools you use, what you do that makes you different from other real estate sales professionals and the best choice! You can demonstrate this by what you share.

Use the best tools to get the fastest most accurate results

The best way to maximize results in a hot market is to maximize efficiency. The more you can do in less time, the more profitable you will be. Let’s talk technology again. When taking on a new client there is immediate research that needs to be performed both related to the client and the property. Tools like GeoWarehouse provide a central place to research a property or borrower and obtain a host of other searches and documents. This platform enables you to go to single place to validate all the information you need to determine if you can move forward with your client.

Get rid of the paper – embrace electronic document signing

Remember we talked efficiency? Thanks to recent changes to the Electronic Commerce Act this past summer, you can now sign real estate documents with your clients electronically. A minor investment in a tablet and a mobile app for real estate like ViMO sets the stage for you to make your transactions paperless – whether in a face to face meeting with a client or if you are transmitting documents back and forth.

We hope that these tips help you to seize the day while interest rates are at all-time lows. For more information about the tools mentioned in this blog please visit:

Teranet-National Bank House Price Index http://www.housepriceindex.ca/default.aspx

ViMO (mobile app for real estate) http://myvimo.ca/

GeoWarehouse (web based tool) http://www.geowarehouse.ca/