There have been some recent changes to the sign by-laws in Oakville.
The *NEW* Oakville Sign By-Law pertaining to real estate directional signs came into effect on January 1, 2019.
The Sign By-Law permits the placement of up to five (5) real estate signs between 9 .a.m and 9 p.m. If an officer finds that there are more than five (5) open house signs directing traffic to a specific home, then all signs would be retrieved. On occasion, the sign owners may become aware of the retrieval if they personally see the officer retrieve the signs, and will try discuss the situation on-site. If the officer does not come into contact with the sign owner on that day, then the process is undertaken to contact the sign owner. This is done the next business day after the sign pick up, where the officer will provide an explanation about the enforcement that has taken place as well as the pick-up process.
The pick-up process is as follows: appointments can be made with the Town of Oakville on Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. The cost to retrieve the signs is set at $59 per sign, as set out in the Rates and Fees Schedule, under the section of Retrieval of Unauthorized Items and Signs. An appointment to retrieve the signs along with the associated payment must be made within seven (7) days of the sign retrieval date. If an appointment and payment is not made during this time, then the sign owner is blacklisted and is not permitted to advertise in the Town of Oakville until all signs are picked up and all associated fees and/or fines are paid. If signs are found on the road after the 8th day, the sign owner would be subject to additional escalating fines associated with contravening the Sign By-Law.
To avoid fees, here are some easy “best practices” when posting Open House signage in the Town of Oakville:
REALTORS® are allowed up to FIVE (5) signs per Open House.
Signage can only be displayed between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on the day of your Open House.
Signage must not block main traffic arteries or be distracting to drivers on the road.
For Sale signs must be on private property ONLY and must be removed FOURTEEN (14) days after the sale of a property.
On Wednesday, March 6, the Bank of Canada announced that it will hold its key interest rate steady at 1.75 percent. The corresponding prime rate at all five of Canada’s big banks is currently sitting at 3.95 percent.
At an event hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, March 7 at the Sheraton Hotel in Hamilton, Lynne Patterson, Deputy Governor of the Bank of Canada, provided additional reasoning on the key interest rate hold.
Recent data suggest that the slowdown in the global economy has been more pronounced and widespread than the Bank had forecast in its January Monetary Policy Report.
As a result, Canada will see a weaker first half than was projected by the bank in January. In particular, the following factors were more unsteady than expected:
Exports and business investment within the energy sector
Consumer spending
The housing market
The central bank is projecting total CPI inflation to remain slightly under their target of 2 per cent throughout the entirety of 2019.
To view Lynne Patterson’s full speech from the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce event, please click the below button:
Dear Member of the REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington,
On March 7, 2019 the Board of Directors of RAHB accepted with regret the resignation of Nikola Bucalo as a Director of the Association. We thank Nik for his years of service to RAHB and its members – as a Director, Committee Chair and most recently as President-Elect. We wish him continued success and all the best for him and his family.
In accordance with RAHB Bylaw 3.03, the Board of Directors has appointed Donna Bacher to fill the existing Director vacancy on the Board until December 31, 2019.
In accordance with RAHB Bylaw 10.01, on March 25, 2019, the Board of Directors will be appointing or electing one of the Directors to fill the vacant President-Elect position.
The Board of Directors of RAHB continues to work on behalf of the Association in order to “Empower REALTORS® to Succeed”.
Bob Van de Vrande, B.Comm., M.B.A., B.Ed.
2019 RAHB President
REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington
Hamilton, ON (March 1, 2019) – The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 735 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in February, 2019. This is a 4 per cent drop from February last year; however, a 24 per cent increase over January 2019. The average price was up from February 2018 by 1.9 per cent to $557,135.
The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) has released revised 2018 year-end market data and reports. Double listings were discovered within the 2017 data, resulting in the sales and listings figures being higher than what actually took place during that time period. Double listings declined after August 2017 due to the RAHB-ORTIS data sharing agreement.
In the revised data, RAHB reports 11,584 all-property sales through the Association’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in 2018, 13.7 per cent fewer sales than in 2017. Click here to read the entire release.
Follow the links for the revised 2018 year-end stats reports:
Hamilton, ON (February 4, 2019) – The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 593 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in January, 2019. This is a 3.6 per cent drop from the same month last year. The average price was up by 4.7 per cent to $550,058.
The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 11,882 all-property sales through the Association’s Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in 2018, 17.5 per cent fewer sales than in 2017. Click here to read the entire report.
Follow the links below for more 2018 year-end stats:
Hamilton, ON (January 2, 2019) – The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 534 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in December, 2018.
As previously reported, the City of Hamilton Rental Licensing Pilot Project Plan for wards 1 and 8 was to go before the Planning Committee on September 17. We have been informed that this has been delayed until November 5.
We will continue to keep you informed and updated on this issue.
For more information on the Hamilton rental licensing issue, please click the below button.
At the City Council meeting on Wednesday, December 19, 2018 the Hamilton City Council directed City staff to draft a plan for a potential rental licensing pilot project in Wards 1 & 8. This includes education for landlords and tenants, considerations of financial offsets and a review for all affordable housing and potential displacement issues.
We thank the City of Hamilton Council for listening to our concerns.
The report will go to the Planning Committee for review and additional delegations in 2019.
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, the City of Hamilton Planning Committee met to evaluate the rental licensing pilot project proposal. For information on the pilot project proposal, please visit https://blog.rahb.ca/?p=23462. The recommendation/motion for the pilot project insinuated that the pilot project would be voted on at the Planning Committee, then go to Hamilton Council on December 19 for final vote, and then be implemented within the first quarter of 2019.
We are happy to inform members that the decision on a rental licensing pilot project in Wards 1 and 8 was postponed until at least the next Hamilton Planning Committee meeting to take place in 2019.
During the meeting there were 17 delegates – 15 spoke in opposition of rental licensing and two (McMaster Student’s Union and ACORN) spoke in favour. The incoming RAHB Government Relations Chair, Margaret Reid, spoke to the issue reiterating RAHB’s concerns with the pilot project as proposed. RAHB also co-authored a letter with the Hamilton and District Apartment Association, that was sent to Hamilton City Council and media on December 10 highlighting the issues with rental licensing. The letter can be found at https://www.rahb.ca/RentalLicensingLetter_10Dec2018.pdf.
After the delegations and much discussion by the Planning Committee, it was decided that amendments would be made to the proposal. Hamilton City Staff are to develop a comprehensive plan for the potential rental licensing pilot project, that includes:
concrete metrics for success
education for both tenants and landlords
an analysis of staffing levels
an analysis of the financial offsets for such a project, and
a review of the affordable housing and potential displacement issues of such a project.
This draft plan will need to go to another Planning Committee meeting, where delegates will again be able to speak. We will be sure to keep members informed of any developments.
We thank Margaret Reid for speaking on behalf of RAHB, as well as other RAHB members, such as Paul Martindale and Donna Bacher, for voicing their concerns in an effort to postpone a decision on rental licensing. We also thank Bob Van de Vrande, Nic von Bredow, Lou Piriano, Andrew Robertson and other RAHB members who attended the meeting to support our efforts.
We will continue to work with our partners at the HDAA, Hamilton Councillors, Hamilton City Staff and other important stakeholders to ensure we are a part of the discussion and that our members are fully informed.
The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 862 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in November, 2018.
A Broker of Record / Manager Meeting was held on November 8, 2018 at the RAHB Offces. Below is a synopsis of what was discussed at the meeting:
VOW Status
As a result of the Supreme Court of Canada decision, REALTORS® will be required to publish sold data but it must be behind a password protected website. In conjunction with RAHB’s legal counsel a VOW contract has been prepared and MLS® policies have been drafted. Any RAHB member requesting access to the sold data will be required to sign the VOW contract with RAHB in order to receive the data feed. There may also be a fee, which is still to be determined. As instructed by the Board of Directors, the MLS® Policies will be reviewed by the MLS® Committee, and once they are finalized a final review will take place of the MLS® Policies in conjunction with the final contract by legal counsel. Completion is anticipated by the end of the first quarter of 2019, or sooner.
Concerns were expressed as to why the VOW contract/MLS® policies will not be in place sooner. RAHB’s IT staff are prepared to start working now on the data feed with any brokerage, however the feed cannot go live until the VOW contract and MLS® policies are in place.
Update on CREA REALTOR.ca
Following receipt of the announcement from CREA regarding sold prices being included on REALTOR.ca, the President and CEO of RAHB, along with the CEOs and Presidents of the London and St. Thomas Association of REALTORS® and the Ottawa Real Estate Board, attended a meeting with CREA to discuss concerns. There are provinces in Canada where sold data is already published and available. However, in Ontario you cannot publish sold prices on a standard website – sold data can only be displayed within a password protect area. CREA has since acknowledged that they did move too quickly with their announcement and have since forwarded a communiqué indicating that more work is required before the sold data can be displayed on REALTOR.ca.
Data Sharing
RAHB continues to work with TREB to establish a fair and equitable data sharing agreement for all members to have access to the gap listing data, which are listings taken by TREB members within RAHB’s area, and not put on RAHB’s MLS® System. RAHB has also prepared and proposed an IntraMatrix data sharing contract to the Collective Group, who are not using Connect. Although both initiatives are not certain, we will continue to push forward to find ways to bring closure to these items so our members have access to more data.
Zillow Conference in Toronto
Zillow has been approaching brokerages in Canada and recently held a meeting in Toronto to discuss the services they are currently offering. Any RAHB brokerage can be set up with Zillow provided they sign the necessary RAHB contract to receive a RETS feed of their listings.
GEOWarehouse®
Discussion took place regarding the number of search requests RAHB members are allowed each year. Currently this is 1,000 per member, per year.
City of Hamilton Signage By-laws
The City of Hamilton is currently on a campaign to clamp down on the misuse of REALTOR® for sale, open house and directional signs that are not in compliance with the City’s bylaw. Some of our own RAHB members are the root cause for this ongoing issue, and if the misuse continues the City has advised RAHB they may not allow any open house signs at any time. It was also noted that Hamilton and Burlington have different sign bylaws. It was recommended that the Government Relations Committee consider reopening the discussions with the City and the use of real estate signage. The Government Relations Committee will examine establishing a sign by-law task force for this issue.
Earlier this week, RAHB President Jack Loft, CEO George O’Neill, Government Relations (GR) Chair Nic von Bredow, GR Vice-Chair Margaret Reid, and GR Staff Liaison Wendy Stewart attended the Ontario REALTOR® Party Conference in Toronto.
The delegates enjoyed talks/presentations from:
Nik Nanos, who spoke on a snapshot of the numbers for Ontario and Canadian Politics
David McNaughton, Ambassador of Canada to the United States
Three Doug Ford insiders: Melissa Lantsman (Hill & Knowlton), Michael Coates (Rubicon Strategies) and Mike Diamond (Upstream Strategies).
Queen’s Park Media Panel: Marieke Walsh (iPolitics), Robert Benzie (Toronto Star) and Alan Carter (Global News)
A political pundits panel: Warren Kinsella (Daisy Consulting Group), Kathleen Monk (Earnscliffe Strategy Group) and Char Rogers (Chestview Strategy)
The Honourable Doug Ford, Premier and Leader of the PC Party
Andrea Horwath, Leader of the NDP
John Fraser, Interim Leader of the Liberal Party
Mike Schreiner, Leader of the Green Party of Ontario
A panel of new MPPs: Stan Cho (Willowdale), Bhutila Karpoche (Parkdale- High Park) and Stephen Lecce (King-Vaughan)
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Canada’s 22nd Prime Minister
The conference also included meetings with MPPs to talk about the issues:
Real Estate and Business Brokers Act, 2002 (REBBA) Reform for:
Enforcement
Better consumer protection
Cutting real estate red tape
Tax Fairness for real estate professionals because:
The current system is unfair to REALTORS®
There is a need to cut additional red tape
There will be minimal revenue implications
It strengthens consumer protection
Delegates from RAHB met with:
– Paul Miller, MPP for Hamilton East – Stoney Creek
– Effie Triantafilopoulos, MPP for Oakville North – Burlington
