On June 22, Hamilton Councillor A. Johnson filed a notice of motion regarding a Municipal Land Transfer Tax (MLTT). The motion, if passed on July 8, would instruct City staff to investigate the pros and cons of asking the Province for special taxation powers.
Come out to City Hall on July 8 at 9:30 a.m. to show your opposition to this tax.
According to the report Potential Economic Implications of the Municipal Land Transfer Tax in the Selected Ontario Municipalities conducted by Altus Group Economic Consulting, the economic impacts of an MLTT in Hamilton alone are predicted as follows:
The 2015 Canadian Commercial Conference will be held in Winnipeg from September 30 to October 2.
This conference will offer
topics such as emerging trends in REITS, the changing face of office space, how to benefit from global opportunities and more
courses including Commercial Real Estate Negotiations and Leasing for Retail Landlords and Commercial Tenants
Keynote speakers Christopher Leinberger (land use strategist, President of Locus and professor at George Washington University) on Changing Dynamics, New Perspectives in the U.S. and Canada, and Glen Hodgson (Senior Vice President and Chief Economist of the Conference Board of Canada) on Commercial Real Estate in Canada, an Economic Outlook
A live “haves and wants” session
Networking with commercial REALTORS® from across Canada.
This conference is open to all REALTORS®. More information and registration through www.events.crea.ca.
Did you know… the Shoppe sells DISCOUNTED attraction tickets for personal use and client gifts:
Please call ahead to confirm availability. Purchase in person – FINAL SALE /no refunds or exchanges.
Customer Appreciation Draw
Drop by the Realty Shoppe and enter today! RAHB members who make a purchase, in person, before July 30, can enter their business card to win two Canada’s Wonderland Adult tickets (good for any one day of the 2015 season).
New items in the Shoppe
Offer Summary Document (OREA Form 801)
For use with Agreement of Purchase and Sale
New form for brokerages to use to comply with the requirements of Bill 55
Pad of 25
$1.05 /pad*
Feature Sheet Stand
Clear acrylic with two business card pockets
Display your 8 ½ x 11 feature sheets prominently
$9.20 ea.*
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* All applicable taxes are extra. Prices subject to change.
Monday – Friday, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
T.: 905.529.5979 F.: 905.529.7109 E.: realtyshoppe@rahb.ca
It was standing room only at the General Membership Meeting at the Burlington Holiday Inn on June 24, where members approved Bylaw changes to separate the MLS® Rules and Regulations and Bylaw. Members in attendance in person and by proxy voted 86 per cent in favour of the change. This effectively cleared the way for RAHB to continue moving forward with the Regional MLS® System.
RAHB was the last of the eight participating associations to ensure its Rules and Regulations and Bylaw are separate documents, which is a requirement for participation in the regional system.
Other highlights of the meeting
503 members attended and 126 proxies were registered for the meeting – the largest attendance in memory
RAHB made use of secure voting devices (or “clickers” as they were called at the meeting) to record members’ votes. The clickers replaced the traditional red and green voting cards
Members in attendance were encouraged to tweet their questions or comments on Twitter
RAHB Past President Dan Gies, Chair of the Ontario Regional Technology & Information Services (ORTIS) Board of Directors, gave an update on ORTIS and the Regional MLS® System
Bob van de Vrande (Apex Results Realty Inc.) presented a motion requiring greater transparency about professional standards, discipline and arbitration
violations and fines. (Information was provided to all members prior to the meeting and will also be included in upcoming annual reports.)
Lynne Riddell (Keller Williams Edge Realty) won the draw for 2016 RAHB dues
Following the meeting, Michael Lane of ShowingTime demonstrated features of the appointment scheduling program which will be integrated into Matrix. (For more information about ShowingTime, watch the video at https://player.vimeo.com/video/117216129.)
Spring into Style with Home Staging
September 21, 2015, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Free
Designation Courses
Accredited Buyer Representative (ABR)
Wednesday and Thursday, August 26 and 27, 2015
9 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day $299 + HST
Note: New for RAHB! We will be offering courses required for and leading to the ABR designation. This first course is a core course for the ABR designation. For more information about the ABR, go to http://rebac.net/abr/FAQs
Ethics and Business Practice
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, October 27, 28 and 29, 2015
9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. each day $595 + HST
Note: Take this course as a standalone course or apply it toward an REIC designation program such as Fellow of the Real Estate Institute (FRI). For more information about the FRI and other REIC designations, go to http://www.reic.ca/DESIGNATIONS.
Professional Development Days – All new courses!
October 6 – 8, 2015
Courses offered during Professional Development Days are FREE for RAHB members who register prior to September 4;
courses are $25 + HST each after September 4. Note: members who register but do not attend will have a $15 + HST “no show”
fee applied to their RAHB account for each course they register for but do not attend.
October 6, 2015 50 Top Sales Tips – Michael Appleton, 10 a.m. – Noon The Four Pillars of Income in Real Estate – Michael Appleton,
1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Wednesday, October 7, 2015 GeoWarehouse: New Product Update – Theresa Corin,
10 a.m. – Noon Social Media Sales Funny – Rebecca Mountain, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
Thursday, October 8, 2015 When Things Go Wrong – Mark Weisleder, 10 a.m. – Noon Estate Planning – Ed Ounpuu, 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
RAHB will be discontinuing Topsheets and Dailies as of September 24, 2015. This will (approximately) coincide with the cutover to Matrix.
All of the information in the Topsheets and Dailies will be searchable in Matrix. Members who currently access Topsheets and Dailies will be able to set up their own Hotsheets and Market Watches in Matrix and customize the information they wish to see.
Information about how to set up your own Hotsheet and Market Watch will be available well in advance of the cutover to Matrix.
After a brief delay due to development delays, a new date has been set for RAHB and the rest of the STARRS group to access Matrix, the platform for the new Regional MLS® System.
There will be a “parallel” period when Fusion and Matrix will run side-by-side – this will begin near the end of August (final date to be released soon). During the parallel period, you will be able to get information in Matrix and set up some of your personal preferences, but you will not be able to broker load or edit in Matrix; those functions will still be done in Fusion.
Final cutover to Matrix – when access to Fusion is cut off – will be Tuesday, September 29. At this point, all listing functions will be done in Matrix.
Cutover to the Regional MLS® System is taking place in two stages: the Cambridge, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo associations will access Matrix July 27 for the beginning of their parallel period. They will have their final cutover on August 25, right around the time when RAHB, the other members of the STARRS group and the Oakville-Milton association enter their parallel period.
This two-stage access should work to our advantage, as most of the inevitable bugs should be worked out by the beginning of the second stage parallel period.
You will be receiving more information about Matrix, the Regional MLS® System and what you can do to prepare for cutover – watch for issues of The Switch coming to your email inbox.
(June 3, 2015 – Hamilton, Ontario) The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported a record 1,810 property sales processed through the RAHB Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) system in May. This represents a 9.4 per cent increase in sales compared to May of last year, and smashes the record of 1,699 all property sales set last month.
There were 2,587 properties listed in May, an increase of 4.5 per cent compared to the same month the year prior. End-of-month listing inventory was 8.9 per cent lower than last May.
“For the second month in a row, sales in the Hamilton-Burlington area broke an all-time record,” said RAHB CEO Ross Godsoe. “To say that we’ve had a busy spring market would be an understatement. Low inventory and relatively low prices have led to properties in the old city of Hamilton to sell, on average, at or above asking.”
Seasonally adjusted* sales of residential properties were 11.1 per cent higher than the same month of the previous year, with the average sale price up 10 per cent for the month. Seasonally adjusted numbers of new listings were 5.7 per cent higher than the same month the year prior.
Seasonally adjusted data for residential properties for the month of May, 2015:
Actual overall residential sales of 1,752 units were 9.5 per cent higher than the previous year at the same time and also a new record for residential sales. Residential freehold sales were 11.6 per cent higher than last May while sales in the condominium market saw an increase of just 1.2 per cent.
“Listing and sale numbers continue to grow,” added Godsoe. “However, inventory is still very low, with just two months supply of listings. The Hamilton-Burlington market has favoured sellers for a while now, and remains one of the tightest markets in Canada.”
The average price of freehold properties showed an increase of 9.5 per cent compared to the same month the previous year; the average sale price in the condominium market also increased by 9.5 per cent when compared to the same period.
The average sale price is based on the total dollar volume of all properties sold in the RAHB market area. Average sale price information can be useful in establishing long term trends, but should not be used as an indicator that specific properties have increased or decreased in value.
The average days on market decreased from 34 to 32 days in the freehold market and from 36 to 31 days in the condominium market when compared to the same month the previous year.
Year to date, sales are 9.7 per cent higher compared to the same quarter last year; listings are 5.6 per cent higher than last year and the average sale price is 8.5 per cent higher for the period.
Every community in RAHB’s market area has its own localized residential market. Please refer to the accompanying chart for residential market activity in select areas in RAHB’s jurisdiction.
*Seasonal adjustment removes normal seasonal variations, enabling analysis of monthly changes and fundamental trends in the data.
Established in 1921, the REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) represents more than 2,700 real estate brokers and sales representatives from Hamilton, Burlington and outlying areas. Members of the association may use the REALTOR® trademark, which identifies them as real estate professionals who subscribe to a strict code of ethics. The association operates the local Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) and provides ongoing professional education courses for its members. In addition, RAHB is an active participant in the Home Ownership Affordability Partnership (HOAP) and holds an annual auction in support of local charities. Advertisements of local MLS® property listings and information about the services provided by a REALTOR® can be found at www.REALTOR.ca. More information about RAHB is available at www.rahb.ca.
Last month the Association sent out a side-by-side comparison of our current MLS® Rules and Regulations and the draft Regional MLS® Rules. The communication wasn’t clear that the rules were still just a draft, and as a result there have been some concerns raised by members about these rules.
In the weeks since, your Board of Directors has been busy gathering feedback and information to ensure that all concerns are addressed before the final regional MLS® Rules are adopted. This has included:
Seeking input from the membership as a whole
Review by the MLS® Committee
Review by OREA’s legal counsel
Review by CREA’s competition counsel
Special Board meeting to discuss the Regional project
Sending correspondence to the Ontario Regional Technology & Information Services (ORTIS) advising that RAHB has concerns regarding certain provisions within the draft Rules before they are finalized, as well as for clarification on the process for providing input
Appointing a task force of RAHB members to review the Rules and draft recommendations to the Board of Directors
In addition to these measures, I met with the Presidents of the other seven associations on May 25 and the concerns raised by RAHB were common to all. I have no doubt that by the time the Regional MLS® Rules are adopted they will be better than the Rules we currently have in place.
On June 24, we are holding a General Membership Meeting to amend the RAHB Bylaw to separate the MLS® Rules. This serves to continue RAHB’s move towards good governance practices, and also serves to clear our final commitment to joining the Regional MLS® system. I need to be clear that this separation is a contractual requirement for our participation, and if we fail to amend the Bylaw, the other seven associations will continue without RAHB.
What this means is:
RAHB would remain on Fusion
We would lose our existing relationship with the STARRS group (Niagara, Brantford and Simcoe)
Your Board of Directors is committed to moving forward with the Regional project and we need your support to continue.
There have been rumours that members will see their fees increase when we move to the new MLS® system, however, thanks to the purchasing power of 7000+ REALTORS® your dollar will go farther! We’re happy to say that there is no fee increase projected despite a number of additional services being built in to the new system.
Integration of Teranet will provide seamless field population
ShowingTime, an integrated scheduling system, will connect appointments directly to the MLS® listings, and via its mobile app
Integrated statistics capabilities
Full accessibility on all devices and platforms
The Regional MLS® system and Matrix are being created to meet the needs of REALTORS® in southern Ontario. The regional system will offer you access to MLS® data from seven other real estate associations and more, as others come on board.
Matrix will give you fast access to the information you need, on any device, to better serve your clients.
Matrix will integrate programs and information you already use so it’s all at your fingertips.
The Regional MLS® System and Matrix are the future of real estate and your Board of Directors is committed to being part of that future.
I said earlier that theBoard needs your support in order to continue to be part of the Regional MLS® system. Here’s how you can help:
Come out to the General Membership Meeting on June 24 and ratify the Bylaw changes that will remove the current MLS® Rules and Regulations from the RAHB Bylaw. This is a contractual requirement for our continued participation in the Regional MLS® System; it is also good governance and something we would be asking you to do anyway.
Please do not assume that the Regional MLS® System is a done deal. It is not. If members do not approve the Bylaw changes at this meeting, RAHB will not be part of the regional system. It is important that if you are looking forward to the regional system, you be at that meeting and cast your vote to allow RAHB to continue moving forward.
Please feel free to contact CEO Ross Godsoe or myself if you have questions or concerns about the Regional MLS® System and Matrix.
I look forward to seeing you at the meeting on June 24!
Meeting Details:
Burlington Holiday Inn, 3063 South Service Road
9:30 a.m. – Registration 10 a.m. – Meeting
ShowingTime presentation following the meeting
If you cannot make it to the meeting, you can give your proxy vote to someone who will be attending. The form will be sent on June 12 with the official Notice of Meeting.
