Mortgage 101 – “Advice for consumers will pay us dividends down the road” | October 2022 Part 1

In this episode of Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins and Todd Veinotte, as heard on CityNews 95.7 and CityNews 101.1, the guys talk about how inflation continues to be a hot topic, what the Halifax real estate market is looking like, how the real estate and mortgage industry are doing in the current climate, and how Clinton believes “advice for consumers will pay us dividends down the road.”

Mortgage 101 with Clinton Wilkins & Todd Veinotte: “Advice for consumers will pay us dividends down the road”

Don’t feel like watching the video? Check out the transcript below.

Transcript:

We’re excited for October’s show!

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:00:08] All right. It’s Mortgage 101, Your Guide to Homeownership. And we are thrilled to be on the air on the weekend here in Halifax and, of course, our nation’s capital, Ottawa. It’s always fun.

We got the bright lights going here and people should know, by the way, when you’re listening out there in Radio Land, that we’re recording here in your digs here and this is all on the Web as well after the fact, it’s all recorded.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:20:28] Yes. We’re going to be on the world wide web.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:21:26] And you’ll have video snippets as well. So people should know. Let people know how they can find this on the Web as well if they want to.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:27:08] Okay. Well, we’re on Facebook and Instagram and all the socials, but I think checking us out on our website is the easiest place. And then you can go to all our social media. So if you visit us at TeamClinton.ca/Radio links to everything.
We have hundreds of blog posts and we actually put out video, so you can see what we look like. You can see us saying these words right now live. I know when normally when it’s radio, it’s like that 1D, when you can only hear?

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:51:18] I don’t know. Which one do you mean?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:52:23] I don’t know. But like we’re definitely like at least two 2D Now because you’ll see the video and the audio.

Todd Veinotte: [00:00:58:06] Yes.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:00:59:02] And you know, maybe some of you don’t even want to hear our voice and you can just read what we have to say.

Todd Veinotte: [00:01:04:03] Exactly. So let’s kind of tee up. We’ve got a guest coming up today, correct?

We have an action-packed show coming up!

Clinton Wilkins: [00:01:08:29] Yes, we do. We do have a guess, which maybe some of our listeners will be intrigued to hear. I know obviously, I’m intrigued to hear. We have the president of the corporation that my business is under. And he’s going to be giving some insights about what’s going on across this country.

You know, obviously in a leadership level, you see kind of what’s going on in every market across the country. I have a little bit of a, I have the blinders on to what’s going on in Halifax. I have a little bit of insight on what’s going on in Ottawa. Obviously, like we’re on the radio there. But, you know, my business is, you know, in Halifax and really around Atlantic Canada. I live here and I work here and that’s really where I have the most of my, like, knowledge and data. So it’ll be interesting to see what really what’s going on across this country.

I can say from what I have heard, I’m actually just freshly back from Vancouver. The Mortgage Professional Canada National Conference was in Vancouver this year. So I got to spend, you know, a glorious five days on the West Coast enjoying very nice weather, but also talking to mortgage professionals and lenders and business partners from across this country and just getting the insights on what’s going on, you know, in their market.

And it certainly, I think, we said it before, there’s a storm coming in real estate and I think there’s a storm coming in mortgage lending. And, you know, I think in some ways we’re already in the storm.

Inflation continues to be a hot topic

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:30:10] Okay. So I want to kind of revisit that storm that you’re talking about. But we just want to tee up the rest of the segment. So that’s the next segment. We’ve got our guest. And then in the third segment, we’re going to talk about the Bank of Canada and interest rates, and inflation.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:02:43:03] Obviously it’s a very, very hot topic.

Todd Veinotte: [00:02:45:02] Right on my talk show, it’s inflation every single day. We take calls and people are calling in. There was a survey done by Narrative Research: 90% of people who responded to the survey are very concerned about inflation. I mean, that is a massive number, right? 90%.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:01:09] Yeah. We talk to clients every day and obviously that is on the forefront of everyone’s mind. There was actually some inflation data that came out today, Todd, and today we’re more midweek. We’re recording this in advance.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:14:22] Yeah.

We’re all feeling the impacts of inflation

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:15:14] It came out saying that inflation in Canada is down. We’re now down to about 6.9%. We’re nowhere near the target. So, you know, for anyone who’s excited about it being a little bit less, I mean, it is good news. It’s going in the right direction. But things are still very, very tough. And I think the one big concern is really around food and really food insecurity. You know, I drive a diesel SUV.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:39:12] Wow. $2.50 a litre.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:40:25] You know, I’ve never, ever seen it.

Todd Veinotte: [00:03:42:26] Good thing you can afford it.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:03:44:14] Well, I can, but you know what, Todd? Not everyone can. And, you know, I really am cognisant of that. We have we’ve talked with consumers every single day and we’re talking with very educated consumers, Todd, that you think that people that make above average income will not be impacted by something like inflation. But guess what? They are feeling it just like everybody else.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:06:22] Well, we’re going to talk about inflation after, so let’s not get too far into that. And we’re going to close the segment out talking about…

Coming up: controversial conversations around first time home buyers

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:11:19] We’re really going to talk about first time home buyers. Like, is it a right time to do a transaction? You know, I think we’ll certainly share what my insights are. And you know what? It might be controversial.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:22:10] Okay. Well, that’s what it’s all about. Controversy. We love controversy on the radio.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:25:17] I mean, you know, hopefully people will stay tuned in throughout our entire hour together.

Todd Veinotte: [00:04:31:09] Stick around, everybody. We’ve got all kinds of things to talk about. So let’s in this first, let’s talk a little bit about the market here in Halifax. And we were chatting before we were recording and you were mentioning that it’s a little soft right now?

What’s the Halifax real estate market looking like?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:04:44:05] Yeah, I think things were starting to soften maybe back in July. Todd, I’ll be 100% honest with you. Obviously, we’re in the thick of things. You know, things are very busy in July and August and going into September, you know, it was even softer. And I think in October it’s softer yet again.

What’s interesting, though, things are really pacing up in November. So I don’t know if it maybe was a little bit of a blip for two or three months where, you know, people inflation was really hitting people. People were getting concerned. There was a lot going on in the media. Let’s be honest, every single day.

You know, it’s a talk about inflation and what’s going on with rates and everything. And I don’t know if people really hit the pause button for a moment. And it was a pause on purchases. It was a pause on refinances, you know, but there are certain mortgage transactions you just can’t avoid.

Todd Veinotte: [00:05:30:17] Yeah, that’s right.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:05:31:00] You know, if you’re buying a house, you really need to get a mortgage. And if your mortgage is coming up for renewal, you really need to renew it. So, you know, I think things are starting to normalize. I think it is going to be quiet. I heard with some lenders in Vancouver from our conference, many lenders are down 20, 30 and even 40% from where it was last year. I’m not surprised.

We were really working at a breakneck speed. It was almost too much, Todd. You know, we were turning customers away and we’re never in that business where we ever want to tell a customer, no, we always want to have capacity. But, you know, it really was challenging. I’ll be 100% honest with you. I think some people, their mental health struggled just with how busy it was all the time. So, you know, I’m okay for it to go back to maybe a 2019 level.

How is the real estate and mortgage industry handling the current climate?

Todd Veinotte: [00:06:19:13] Yeah.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:06:19:29] Some people think that the sky is falling. Some people think that we’re going to be in a very tough situation here in this industry. And I think that it will for some people.

Todd Veinotte: [00:06:30:20] You say some people. Who are some people?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:06:32:05] I think, I’m just going to say the real estate industry as a whole. I think some people who work within the industry, I’m not just talking about mortgage lending, I’m talking about everyone who works with in the industry. I think people that were very transactional, Todd, they were the one and done. They’re going to have a hard time.

For us, we really think that we’re in the service business. I think that we’re in the advice business, and I think right now advice is needed more than ever. And, you know, we’re always scared about things like technology or there’s a bank branch on every corner. You know what? The higher the rates are, the more people need advice. And I think that’s what’s really kind of hit home to me. I’m having a lot of conversations with customers and I’ll call it pro bono work. I’m going to use my air quotes here.

“Advice for consumers will pay us dividends down the road”

But giving advice on rates. What should you do if you’re in an adjustable rate mortgage? We’ll touch base. We’ll touch on that later in our show. But we’re having a lot of these really good conversations that might not turn into a transaction today. But I think having that level of advice for consumers will pay us dividends down the road. And I think the way that we’re doing business now is going to shift, and I think that it’s going to be a shift to more of that advice piece. And I think the advice is going to be more important.

Todd Veinotte: [00:07:46:27] And let’s keep it in perspective. Although things are softening, it’s coming off a massive spike that we’ve never seen before. Right? We have to keep that in perspective.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:07:54:14] I think 2020, 2021, into 2022. It’s been really such a large increase that we weren’t really having capacity to even handle. So going back to a 2019 level volume, I think if the market becomes more balanced, I think that will be very healthy for consumers.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:14:17] Yeah, and this will tie in, of course, dovetail nicely into our segment about first time home buyers, which is great news for first time home buyers, not great news, but it’s better news.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:22:08] I think there are some positive pieces here that first time home buyers can can take away and we’ll certainly dive into that at the end of the show.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:28:20] Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, so we look forward to people sticking around. So we’ve got a guest coming up after the commercial break. And again, just to review so people stick around the rest of the show. The third segment, we’re going to talk about,

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:40:05] The Bank of Canada.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:41:18] And inflation, which is massive. And then we’re going to wrap up the show with first time home buyers.

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:46:05] I’m looking forward to it.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:47:05] Yeah, and you say there’s going to be some controversy with what you’re going to say?

Clinton Wilkins: [00:08:49:26] Yeah, I think maybe at the end of the show there could be some controversy. So tune in and send us a tweet and to let us know what you think.

Todd Veinotte: [00:08:55:01] Yeah, absolutely.

If you have any questions, get in touch with us at Clinton Wilkins Mortgage Team! You can call us at (902) 482-2770 or contact us here.

Podcast: