RAHB’s Latest Updates

The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 1,271 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in February 2021. Sales were up 54 per cent since last month and up 14.9 per cent since February of last year. New listings were up 61.9 per cent since January 2021 and up 12.2 per cent as of last February. The average price for residential properties was $848,719 which was up 7.7 per cent from last month and up 29.5 per cent from February 2020. The number of active listings available at the end of the month was 44.1 per cent lower than the previous period in 2020.

*The news release will be posted to www.rahb.ca/market-stats/ on Tuesday, March 2.*

Follow the links below for:​

• Residential Market Activity for RAHB Area 
• All RAHB Residential Market Activity and HPI Report (17 pages)
• RAHB Residential Market at a Glance
• Weekly Trends During COVID-19
• Social Media Stats Kit  
• Stats Map for Entire RAHB Area
• Market Highlights 
• RAHB Commercial Activity
• Residential + Commercial Activity for RAHB Market Areas
• Historical Chart

Burlington

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Burlington
• Burlington Market Activity and HPI Report (72 pages)
• Burlington Area Map

Halidmand

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Haldimand
• Haldimand Market Activity and HPI Report (58 pages)
• Haldimand Area Map

Hamilton

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Hamilton
• Hamilton Market Activity and HPI Report (197 pages)
• Hamilton Area Map

Niagara North

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Niagara North
• Niagara North Market Activity and HPI Report (31 pages)
• Niagara North Area Map

RAHB has been working with CoreLogic and ITSO in an effort to improve the search ability of listings in the London and St. Thomas area. While this maintenance is being completed, CoreLogic has advised that any of your current saved searches and/or auto emails in these areas should be updated to add any of the new Municipality and Neighbourhood detail to your search criteria. This maintenance started on Tuesday, March 2, 2021.

While this maintenance is occurring, CoreLogic has advised the best method to update your current searches is to utilize the “Map Search” option. The Map Search is based on location; and not the Region, Municipality or Neighbourhood codes; therefore, using the Map Search will ensure all listings within the area you have defined will be captured.

While the Map based search is the preferred method, another alternative would be to add the new Municipalities or Neighbourhood codes to your existing search criteria. Should you choose this option it is important that you keep all of your existing search criteria the same, ONLY adding the available new Municipalities or Neighbourhood codes to your search criteria if necessary.

To view the London and St. Thomas map area please click here.

If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at 905.667.4650 or e-mail support@rahb.ca.

It’s not too late to invest in yourself and your professional development for 2021. By the end of March, All-Access Pass holders will have access to recordings of past webinars. The recordings library will house webinars from February 1 to December 31, 2021. Webinar recordings will be on-demand and will be available until March 31, 2022.
We understand that as REALTORS® you live busy lives and making time to attend the live webinars is not always an option. So now, you’ll be able to access the recordings library whenever and wherever you want. So why don’t you invest $100 in yourself?

More information regarding this recordings library will be released soon.

Remember, the All-Access pass is only $100 + HST. By the end of 2021, we anticipate there will be more than 40 webinar recordings to watch.

To view our upcoming courses and see what you could be saving, please click the button below.

Professional Development Courses & Schedule

How do I buy a 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass?

To purchase your 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass please log in to my.rahb.ca and click on the RAHB Education and Account Services icon. You must complete your purchase BEFORE you register for any courses. Once your 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass is purchased, you can start registering for courses at no charge!

Terms & Conditions
The 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass costs $100 plus applicable taxes.  Passes are valid for courses that have a value of $45 or less and are held before December 31, 2021. Passes are issued to a specific person – not a brokerage and as such are non-transferable. Office Administrators or Administrative Assistants who wish to take advantage of the All-Access Pass must be registered with RAHB.  

If you have any questions, please contact Angela at angelam@rahb.ca

Congratulations to Rochelle Edwards from S. Todd Real Estate Ltd. who won our draw for their 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass!

The Member Needs Survey was circulated to all RAHB members during the last two weeks of 2020. The purpose of the survey was to understand what challenges the RAHB membership saw for 2021 and beyond.

Approximately 11 per cent of the RAHB membership responded to the survey. Respondents represented a cross-section of all demographics including member age, membership types, years as a licensed REALTOR® and geographic location of business. The data collected was a great resource for RAHB leadership as they participated in a strategic plan refresh in January 2021.

Thank you to all participants for their time. Congratulations to member Roman Radojewski from Royal LePage State Realty who was the winner of the $100 VISA gift card.

A summary of the top three indicators follow:

• When considering the challenges facing the Real Estate Sector, members indicated that the Economy/ Government Policies scored the greatest, followed by MLS®/ Inventory Challenges, and then Professionalism.
• Members indicated that Challenges Facing RAHB Over the Next Three Years were predominantly the MLS®/ Inventory Challenges, followed by Professionalism, and then the Economy/ Government Policies
• In regard to Challenges Facing them Professionally, RAHB members scored in very tight proximity, Personal/ Finance Challenges, Economy/ Government Policies, and MLS®/ Inventory Challenges.
• Members clearly indicated of all the challenges that they were facing, nearly 2/3 of members wanted RAHB to Undertake Addressing the MLS® Challenges and Professionalism. Technology followed at a more distant third.

The results of this survey clarified and validated what members need most from RAHB, and has provided valuable data to support current and future commitments to addressing these needs, through continued efforts in advocacy, education and collaboration.

Thank you for your responses!

RAHB MLS® staff have become aware of several recent listings that were reported sold immediately upon being activated in the MLS® system. This is not permitted, as it is a violation of RAHB Rules and Regulations.

Section 2 – MLS® Listings

2.14 No MLS® Listing shall appear on the Association’s MLS® System that is not immediately available for inspections, showings and, subject to the provisions of Subsection 2.15, the registration of Offers.

Violations of this rule may result in fines or a professional standards complaint being levied against the REALTOR® or the brokerage.

If you have any questions, please contact support@rahb.ca.

RAHB has recently been made aware of two scams that have impacted both members and their clients.

One member reported that a client received an e-mail to send the buyer an e-transfer for a broken hot water heater or else they would no longer be purchasing the house. This client contacted the REALTOR® directly and was able to figure out it was a scam. Please remind your clients that all transactions and communications should be done through their REALTOR® and if they are not sure, they should contact a REALTOR® to confirm. If you or your clients experience any similar situations, please report it to the Anti-Fraud department of your local police unit.

Members have also been receiving suspicious text messages with inquires on specific listings. These text messages include a link that could be a possible scam or virus. Please be vigilant when clicking on items like this and if you are ever unsure, please do not link on the link. To see a screenshot of the text, please see the picture below.

Fraudulent activity seems to be increasing due to the pandemic and the way real estate has shifted to using more online platforms. Please continue to be vigilant and remind your clients to do the same. For resources and where to report issues, please see below:

Hamilton Police – https://hamiltonpolice.on.ca/prevention/frauds-and-scams

Halton Police – https://www.haltonpolice.ca/en/staying-safe/frauds-and-scams.aspx#

Ontario – https://www.ontario.ca/page/report-scam-or-fraud

We extend a warm welcome to RAHB’s newest members who joined our association between December 1, 2020 and January 31, 2021!

Steven Davidson
CBRE Ltd.

Mike Bragg
Tamara Curtis
Century 21 Dreams Inc.

Stephanie Malcolm
Century 21 Insight Group

Austin Sciascetti
Coldwell Banker Community Professionals

Marcy Best
Christopher Braun
Agostino Calandrino
EXP Realty of Canada Inc.

Scott James Caverley
Janine Dobson
Deian Kutev
Fengate Real Estate Ltd.

Chiara Campli
Alyssa Desantis
Homelife Macro Realty

Felecia Hazelton
Wendy Romero Avalos
Homelife Professionals Realty

Mohammad M. Ali
Arif Mahmood Arif
Dorota Kosiba
Zarif Nava
Nick Singh
Marie Tsai
IPRO Realty Ltd.

Lisa Blunt
Judy Marsales Real Estate Ltd.

Muhammad Ahsan
Sloane Geofroy
Kristin Lamarre
Julia Pellegrino
Roger Sherwood
Nippinder Singh
Lia Thompson
Keller Williams Complete Realty

Heather Alfano
Cheryl Bender
Leena Sankar
Josh Winter
Keller Williams Edge Realty

Stephen Peres
M Commercial Realty Inc.

Raymond Josephian
Modern Solution Realty Inc.

Sabby Craciunescu-Bains
Amanda Grundy
Louay Kadri
Sirah Knight
Landon Palacka
Esther  Selvaratnam
Ruth White
Purplebricks

Derek Aitken
Adam Alkalaani
Robert Collier
Kayla Curran
Doug Ford
Evan Machado
Amir Mukhtar
Jason Murdy
Phillip O’Connor
Dwayne Patrie
Mila Poirier
Jacquie Schettler
Alexandra Trolio
Victoria Zhukovich
RE/MAX Escarpment Realty

Andrea Moniz
Caitie Ruthven
Darren Quinn
RE/MAX Escarpment Golfi Realty

Marsoor Ahmed
Andrew Demers
Ish Dhand
Vishal Gupta
Kaitlyn Goodfellow
Kaylin Nicoloff
Arvind Patel
Simona Sarkoziova
RE/MAX Real Estate Centre Inc.

Miguel Angel Fernandes Morales
Real Estate Advisors Inc.

Sandra Gemin
Realty Network: 100 Inc.

Syed Abbas
Alanna Bannister
Rachel Edmonds
Jeanna Hough
Tasleem Hudani
Victor Li
Jim Nassar
Mana Saranj
Right At Home Realty

Katelyn Crawford
Royal LePage Burloak Real Estate Services

Leslie Trounce
Royal LePage NRC Realty Inc.

David Eisfeld
Indra Krikstaponis
Christine Mitchell
Royal LePage Real Estate Services

Ivana Rezo
Royal LePage Signature Realty

Mark Gibb
Sasha Radic
Kaushal Shah
Tara Todorovic
Royal LePage State Realty

Mechal Lavender
StreetCity Realty

Dean Fisher
Jungman Kim
Cecilia Lee
Weiss Realty Ltd.

Renzo Amorin Cumpa
Emmalay Rattana
Zoocasa Realty Inc.

Nilton Correa
Evelyn Santizo
Praveen Thekkat
Danielle Wood
Fangwen Zhoz
Zolo Realty

• Log-in to the member portal using your Matrix user name and password https://mdweb.mmsi2.com/rahb/
• From the toolbar select “Member” (Highlighted in green) then “My Account”
• Under the third tab select “Date Range History”
• Under beginning date enter 01/01/2020 and for ending date 12/31/2020
• Select “Update”
  Then click the “Print” button

If you are having any issues or have questions, please contact Karin at karinc@rahb.ca.

Members who buy their 2021 Professional Development All-Access Passes by February 19 at 4:30 p.m. will be entered into a draw to receive a credit for the cost of the pass! (Don’t worry if you’ve already bought yours, you’ll be entered into the draw as well!) Passes are $100 plus applicable taxes and are valid for RAHB courses that run until December 31, 2021.

You only need to take two or three courses to get your money’s worth and you can register for as many of the eligible courses as you want until December 31 of this year – all for only $100!

The 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass is also a great gift for anyone on your staff including your Office Administrator or Administrative Assistant.

How do I buy a 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass?

To purchase your 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass please log in to my.rahb.ca and click on the RAHB Education and Account Services icon. You must complete your purchase BEFORE you register for any courses. Once your 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass is purchased, you can start registering for courses at no charge!

Terms & Conditions
The 2021 Professional Development All-Access Pass costs $100 plus applicable taxes.  Passes are valid for courses that have a value of $45 or less and are held before December 31, 2021. Passes are issued to a specific person – not a brokerage and as such are non-transferable. Office Administrators or Administrative Assistants who wish to take advantage of the All-Access Pass must be registered with RAHB.  

To view our upcoming courses and see what you could be saving, please click the button below.

Professional Development Courses & Schedule

The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 825 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in January 2021. Sales were down 9.6 per cent over last month but up 6.9 per cent over January of last year. New listings were up 47.3 per cent over December 2020 and down 16.2 per cent over last January. The average price for residential properties was $787,840, which was up 7.9 per cent from last month and up 27.6 per cent from January 2020. The number of active listings available at the end of the month was 53.2 per cent lower than the previous year.

*The news release will be posted to www.rahb.ca/market-stats/ on Tuesday, February 2.*

Follow the links below for:​

• Residential Market Activity for RAHB Area 
• All RAHB Residential Market Activity and HPI Report (13 pages)
• RAHB Residential Market at a Glance
• Social Media Stats Kit  
• Stats Map for Entire RAHB Area
• Market Highlights 
• RAHB Commercial Activity
• Residential + Commercial Activity for RAHB Market Areas
• Historical Chart

Burlington

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Burlington
• Burlington Market Activity and HPI Report (60 pages)
• Burlington Area Map

Halidmand

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Haldimand
• Haldimand Market Activity and HPI Report (48 pages)
• Haldimand Area Map

Hamilton

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Hamilton
• Hamilton Market Activity and HPI Report (166 pages)
• Hamilton Area Map

Niagara North

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Table for Niagara North
• Niagara North Market Activity and HPI Report (25 pages)
• Niagara North Area Map

Have you ever asked asked the question “Where do buyers come from?”

On February 2 2021 a new field in Matrix will help answer that question! RAHB implemented an optional postal code field in Matrix to monitor Buyer Path projections, as seen in the picture below.

By adding this field, the data collected gives REALTORS^® the ability to visualize where buyers are coming from based on filters such as price, date range, location and property type. This field was added in May 2018 for the Kamloops and District Real Estate Association (KADREA) and their information can be seen in the image below.

CREA is now offering their own Buyer Path application for all Associations to utilize across Canada which will be ready for implementation in the first quarter of 2021. CREA’s Buyer Path application provides vital information for RAHB REALTORS^® and external stakeholders.

Example: You are listing an apartment condominium at $500,000, you can visit the Buyer Path application and determine exactly where Buyers have originated for that type of property over the past 6 months. You can  then target your digital marketing to that specific area.

CREA has advised it will require at minimum 9 – 12 months of postal code data for the application to be beneficial for users.

With regards to privacy, it is important to let your buyers know  that a postal code is simply a mailing route and does not pinpoint a Buyers origin address.

Although the field is will start out as being optional, RAHB hopes to make the field mandatory over time in order to provide the most accurate data possible.

For further information about the Buyer Path Application, please read the following REM article https://www.realestatemagazine.ca/how-small-real-estate-boards-can-be-leaders/

If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at support@rahb.ca.

The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 14,863 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in 2020. This is 8.4 per cent more sales than in 2019. The average price of a residential property in 2020 was $690,002. This is up 16.8 per cent from 2019. The average price in 2010 was $310,258 which represents a 125.4 per cent increase. New residential listings were down 7.6 per cent compared to 2019.

*The news release will be posted to www.rahb.ca/market-stats/ on Tuesday, January 26.*

Follow the links below for more 2020 year-end statistics:

• Residential Real Estate Market Activity Comparison Table for the Communities within the RAHB Market Area – 2020
• RAHB Residential Market At A Glance – Property Type Comparison – 2020
• Market Activity Map of RAHB Communities – 2020
• RAHB Commercial Market Activity Table – 2020
• RAHB Total Market Activity Table – 2020
• RAHB Residential Market Activity Graphs
• RAHB Commercial Market Activity Graphs
• RAHB Total Market Activity Graphs
• Social Media Stats Pack – 2020
• Residential Stats Highlights – 2020
• 1955 – 2020 Property Sales History Chart

Have you posted your video or photo yet to celebrate RAHB’s 100th Anniversary?
We still encourage members to celebrate RAHB’s 100th anniversary until January 31 on social media. You can raise a glass, blow out some birthday candles or even sing a round of Happy Birthday – get creative! We look forward to seeing how you honour this milestone.

If you are camera shy, RAHB has also created a graphic to share on social media (seen above). Please take part in congratulating RAHB on its 100th anniversary. Please click here to download the graphic.

To get the celebration started, please copy and paste the caption below. You can add this to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn or any other social media you see fit!

“Congratulations to #RAHB on it’s 100th Anniversary and here’s to 100 more! #100YearsofRAHB #HBDRAHB #RAHB100”

Don’t forget to hashtag!

If you have any questions, please e-mail Lauren at laureno@rahb.ca.

On Thursday, January 21, all Brokers of Record/Managers would have received an e-mail from RAHB regarding RAHB’s new partnership with BrokerBay. Please ensure you have received this recent communication as RAHB’s partnership with BrokerBay starts next week. If you have any questions about the e-mail, please e-mail info@rahb.ca.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, RAHB Members have adapted and transitioned to using electronic forms. RAHB’s printed Residential Property Information Forms dated 01/2020 and RAHB’s Commercial Property Information Forms dated 05/2018 will continue to be accepted for use until January 31, 2021, as well as sold in the RAHB Realty Shoppe until this date or sold out. After January 31, those forms will not be on sale nor will they be accepted. The most current Property Information forms dated October 2020 are only available electronically via WEBForms®.

The OREA Form 200 Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Sale is available by logging in to the OREA website, and will be available on WEBForms® shortly.

The WEBForms® icon is available via the RAHB Dashboard, as shown below. Members can access WEBForms® by logging into the SSO dashboard via http://my.rahb.ca, and logging in with their user ID and Password.

Once in WEBForms® , click the “Forms” icon on the left side of the screen, and then select the file for REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington.

Once here, click on either the Commercial Data Input Form or the Residential Data Input Form, as shown below.

If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at support@rahb.ca.

Since the passing of Bill 145, Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2020 (TRESA) on October 1, 2020, REALTORS® in Ontario have had the opportunity to incorporate, and can earn an income through a Personal Real Estate Corporation (PREC). With the new rules and regulations in place, some REALTORS® may find they can benefit from a PREC. 

• For those members who have formed a PREC, it should be noted that RAHB invoices will continue to be issued to the member in their registrant name, as listed with RECO
• A PREC is exempt from registration under REBBA and is permitted to receive remuneration from a brokerage if the PREC meets all the required criteria and satisfies all the conditions set out in the legislation
• There are advantages and disadvantages to the creation and use of a PREC. Members are encouraged to consult their financial and other experts on whether a PREC is the right choice for them
• A PREC is not a professional corporation as considered under the Business Corporations Act. It is also important to speak to the broker of record to inquire whether the brokerage is willing to enter an agreement with the PREC.  Brokerages are not obligated to do so
• You cannot advertise using the name of your PREC to the public

Further information can be found at “A Guide to Personal Real Estate Corporations for Ontario REALTORS®”