Mortgage 101 – Anyone Can Own A Home

Blair Patterson joins your Mortgage 101 hosts once again to continue the conversation of pride in homeownership for Pride Month in Halifax! The three of them emphasize the need for support and resources to help members of the queer community fulfill their dream of homeownership.

Todd Veinotte
Welcome back to Mortgage 101, your guide to homeownership with Clinton Wilkins and myself, Todd Veinotte, and Clinton, you’ve got to be your fine employee sitting beside you.

Clinton Wilkins
We do Blair Patterson, thanks so much for coming. Blair, you know, really July is all about pride in homeownership. I know we kind of touched on it a little bit. In our last segment for the listeners that weren’t listening, you know, here we are again. You know, and I think that we’re going to talk more about, you know, really what does safety and security mean? And why homeownership is so important. Specifically in the queer community, I do think that the percentage of homeownership is less, I think, for a variety of reasons we can talk about that.

Todd Veinotte
To Blair, what’s that like to be able to work with somebody, and to watch them fulfill their dream? And I’ve asked Clinton these questions a lot of times, so it’s nice to have somebody else sitting in your seat, that hot seat, doing that role. But what’s it like to have people, who you meet, and you have the initial interview with them, you go through their information, and you allow them to fulfill that dream of homeownership? What’s that feel like for the first few times you did that? It must be exciting.

Blair Patterson
It is like such a thrill of my why essentially, everyone deserves a dream of homeownership here in Canada. So it doesn’t matter your credit background, you know, your starting point, your gender, your anything like that. It’s just fulfilling to get people into homeownership.

Homeownership in the queer community

Todd Veinotte
Do you think that for some people in the queer community, it’s even more challenging?

Blair Patterson
I think it can be because I do a lot of queer events like queer hockey, volleyball, stuff like that. When I tell people, I’m a mortgage broker, you know, once the response was, “oh, I’m going to be a renter for life.” And homeownership is a very important part of the Canadian dream and it’s important for everyone.

Todd Veinotte
So you feel that there’s a disproportionate amount of people who are in the queer community that feel as though the best they’ll do is renting?

Blair Patterson
Yes, for sure. You know, you want to feel a part of that community.

Todd Veinotte
Why do you think that is? What are some of the fundamental sociological reasons why you think that is?

Blair Patterson
I think employment can be more difficult or you know, socio economic background, education can be more difficult to access sometimes. It’s a big piece of the puzzle that you need to fulfill.

Todd Veinotte
When you had an opportunity to work for somebody like Clinton, who is an absolute icon in the city, and not to pump his tires too much, but he absolutely is, what was that like? What’s it like to be able to have somebody like Clinton take you under his wing, and say, “I’m going to show you the ropes here. I’m going to tell you, I’m going to give you this opportunity,” what was that like for you?

Blair Patterson
Incredible opportunity. Clinton has built in a huge brand, and everyone knows the name, everyone knows the face. And everyone knows you get the best advice from you when you contact Clinton.

Clinton Wilkins
I think the best advice for mortgage regardless, is from a mortgage broker. I think that’s where it doesn’t matter what your background is. I kind of take the challenge that a lot of queer people think that they’re going to be renters forever. I think homeownership really, yes, employment is important. I think credit is important. Obviously, assets are important. That’s why we talk about these things over and over again. But sometimes it just takes a plan. I think a plan is so important. You know, I think with homeownership right now, we talked about the numbers, the average house price is $500,000. And yes, a lot of our applications have an income with $100,000 plus. That means, probably in many cases, we need borrowers to make this work. I think maybe some people want to go and do it on their own. Maybe they’re not in a relationship, maybe that’s part of the challenge. I think just to echo what Blair said, I think in the queer community, there’s kind of two ends of the spectrum. There’s people who are working entry level jobs because they haven’t had access to education or employment opportunities, or there is the other end of the spectrum, where it’s the professionals, like the doctors and lawyers and things like this. I think in both, you know, two ends of the spectrum, there’s challenges. I think part of the thing around building community and being safe and secure, is owning a home. And that certainly isn’t for everyone, I get it. But you know, I think we need to break down as many barriers. And sometimes it just starts with having a conversation.

Homeownership challenges in the LGBTQ+ community.

Todd Veinotte
Let me ask you guy’s a question and this might be a little off topic, but I think it’s of interest. We talked about earlier in the show how we are generally quite progressive, and we’re moving in the right direction, and we’ve broken down a lot of barriers, but how many people, and not exact numbers but kind of speculate, are there people out there now living a life, a hidden secret life who are gay, and are not still comfortable with being out of the closet?

Clinton Wilkins
I think that’s still true.

Blair Patterson
It’s definitely possible and likely.

Clinton Wilkins
I think that maybe it’s less now than it was even from when I started 20 years ago, in this industry, we’re moving in the right direction. But we need to remember that everybody’s journey is different to and I think us as people who are granting credit, and making homeownership happen every day, we need to be very cognizant of people’s situations. And that’s rate from their relationship, to their credit to their assets, whatever. And I think that for us, we need to be unbiased to their situation, which we are, I’ve lived it I’ve been through, you know, relationship breakdowns. I’ve been through financial hardship, like, I know what it’s like, I don’t want to be there again. But you know, I think that we need to do everything that we can to still be accepting and educate and hold clients hands. Again, it comes to a plan. It doesn’t matter what type of situation you’re in, it really comes to a plan.

Todd Veinotte
Blair, in the military did you know anybody in that situation or circumstance that came on?

Blair Patterson
Yes, I’m sure there were people that were, you know, living more secret life hopefully, that is changing. But that was definitely happening.

Clinton Wilkins
Which is tough. I mean, it’s 2024 and we just think it’s just really easy to be gay and be out. But it’s not necessarily easy for everybody and everybody’s situation, you know, it doesn’t matter who you are, is different. I’m certainly cognizant of that and I think everyone in our office is. We have a very inclusive environment and just because I’m gay, and Blair’s gay, doesn’t mean that, we’re just very segmented. We have everybody in and I’ve certainly, you know, in the last 19 years, I’ve had some people that have not been not so happy with me and send some hate mail. I mean, I’ve been on the national news. So, you know, I’ve been exposed to a lot of different people. But, you know, I don’t identify myself as you know, one thing I’m not trying to pigeonhole myself, I think, by in large, I really identify myself as a good person.

Todd Veinotte
In particular, in business, you’re all business, you’re a business person.

Clinton Wilkins
And I think I’m a kick ass mortgage broker!

Todd Veinotte
And you don’t view it through the lens of “a gay man who’s built an incredible business,” you’re viewed as “I’m a I’m a kick ass businessman.”

Clinton Wilkins
Exactly, my sexual orientation is not impacting me doing a mortgage. Mortgages don’t have any sexual orientation. Do you know what I mean, it’s really business. Luckily, the clients here and people in Halifax have supported me, we have around 20,000 clients, and from every different walk of life. It’s really a pleasure to be able to do business with people and really support people’s dreams. And I just hope that we can continue to do that.

Todd Veinotte
Okay, let me ask you guys another question. It’s a little off topic, but I guess it’s about pride, I suppose to a point, is it a bit of a dichotomy? Is it a little challenging in this day and age to be mortgage brokers and people love getting homes, and all of that, and it’s a wonderful thing, people living in beautiful homes. Yet, we talked about this homeless crisis and the housing crisis that is around us and that’s such a dichotomy and a contradiction. What’s that like? Blair? Sometimes to work in an industry where you’re seeing dreams come true, and making a nice living doing it as you should? Yet you see all of these other things going on, right around us? Is that sometimes a challenge for you?

Blair Patterson
You are seeing the wealth gap in Canada increasing. Ultimately, if you are working hard, if you are making that plan, you shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting that dream of home ownership and it really is for everyone.

Todd Veinotte
Is it for everyone?

Blair Patterson
I believe it can be you, you know, make a plan, follow through and really just believe in yourself, work hard and the Canadian dream can be for everyone.

Housing affordability in various areas of Nova Scotia

Clinton Wilkins
I’ve seen people 10-15 years ago that are just buying a home today. I made a plan for them to say okay, this is gonna work for you in three years. You have to do this, this and this. 15 years later, they’re buying their first home and I see people in retirement that are buying their first home, Todd, so it doesn’t matter if you’re queer, heteronormative, whatever, everybody’s situation is different. But I think it really comes down to that plan, and that it still comes down to the income assets and credit that is non judgmental, everybody’s going to be in the same situation.

Todd Veinotte
In many ways. It’s the great equalizer, right?

Clinton Wilkins
It really is.

Todd Veinotte
Yeah. Which is, I guess, cool in a way that when all is said and done, those three things are going to be the deciding factor. No bank is going to say in this day and age, oh, you’re gay. We don’t want your money or your business. Trust me.

Clinton Wilkins
They want the money. They want to return to those shareholders honey, let me tell you! The one thing I want to talk about, and we talked with our producer Connor, before we started the show, where is the hip place to live? If you’re not living in the north end, not living in the Hydrostone. I mean, those were probably historically a good place to begin and live here in Halifax. Blair, where do you think like, where do you think people should be looking? What’s affordable? What’s safe? Where’s their community?

Blair Patterson
Yeah, Bridgewater just had their first Pride. So very close to Halifax and I think that would be a great starting point for someone, Truro as well, a bit of a drive but very queer friendly community and a great starting point, and we’ll fill of course, everyone loves Wolfville and the valley and very friendly and good community down there.

Clinton Wilkins
I’m from the valley myself. I grew up deep, deep, deep in the valley. For me, I don’t know if that’s a place that I’d want to live, myself right now. Full time. I think it’s a great place to visit. For me, it’s tough just because my life’s in Halifax.

Todd Veinotte
What about Yarmouth and places like that? Can you get deals down there?

Clinton Wilkins
I think the real estate prices in Yarmouth are very depressed compared to the rest of the province. I mean, the further you get away from Halifax, I think in some ways, the cheaper it’s going to be. But where are the best communities? I think Blair had a couple of them on the head, I think New Glasgow has an interesting queer community there as well and the house prices in New Glasgow, you need to take a look, they are very, very affordable. I think some of them maybe need some renovations, but you can buy some houses in that $200,000 range that are pretty decent.

Clinton Wilkins
I think all of that, like Pictou County area, has lots of interesting things. And again, not far from Halifax. The way that people have worked has really changed since 2020. So many people work at home. I think the housing needs have changed as well. So I think people need to broaden their scope – broaden it off of the peninsula. I live on the peninsula, I live in work, but that’s not for everybody, I do get that. I think when we’re looking at talking about getting someone into a home, we need to also remember that affordability is so important. It’s not just what we can get a client approved for. It’s like, what can they afford for the long run? Again, we need to think really, about pride and homeownership right now is about security, community and affordability. I think all these things are very, very important.

Thanks for coming, Blair. I really appreciate it. I get to see you every second day but it’s nice for you to join us here on Mortgage 101 and for our listeners to hear your perspective as well.

Todd Veinotte
And we got some work to do in the next little bit. I’ll get some things that I want to talk about credit.

Clinton Wilkins
We’re definitely gonna talk about credit and credit monitoring. So stay tuned.

Todd Veinotte
Alright, stick around mortgage 101 your guide to homeownership. We’ll be back