Mortgage 101 – Beyond the Bank

Dan Ahlstrand and Clinton Wilkins discuss the value of mortgage brokers, emphasizing their ability to offer a wide range of lenders and products, unlike banks with guest Adrian Schulz.

Dan Ahlstrand
All right, welcome back to this very special edition of Mortgage 101. In the studio, as always, are Mr. Clinton Wilkins, and joining us for the last little bit, the president of Centum Financial Group, and we’re very pleased to welcome an im all the way from Winnipeg, as I understand it. And that’s Adrian Schultz.

Clinton Wilkins
This is Adrian’s first trip to Halifax.

Dan Ahlstrand
Adrian, I guess that the overarching question is, you fellas do something that maybe people don’t know exactly what it is that you do. When we think of getting a mortgage, and we think about going into making that step, or taking that step into home ownership, we go to the bank, right? We immediately think, or I’m just gonna go to my bank, right?

Adrian Schulz
Yesterday, we went to Clinton’s Dartmouth office, and one of his brokers shared a story with me. He came from decades at a Chartered Bank, and he said he has a very unique opportunity now as a broker, where in the past, he had one product, one solution, to offer his borrowers, his clients, and a lot of times he had to say no, because that borrower didn’t fit the mold of the bank or of a credit union. And the benefit that brokers have is that they have a plethora of options of lenders and products that they are able to offer their clients. And once you do your application with a broker, that broker can assess the file and go, Where do I best place this file for the benefit of the client, but also for the long-term health of the client. It’s a very different approach to debt planning and to home buying that a broker can help a borrower take.

Clinton Wilkins
And I think there’s a big misconception that we don’t deal with banks, but the bulk of the transactions that we do every day, I’m just going to say it right now, is with Scotiabank, TD and Bank of Montreal. They’re some of our best partners. Yes, we deal with 40 different lenders, and a lot of these lenders, you would not know their names or trust companies. Some of them are chartered banks, but they’re not part of the big five. But what we’re dealing with, Scotiabank, for example, literally every single day. And I think that’s a misconception that consumers have when they go to a mortgage broker. Well, I’m not gonna be able to get a bank mortgage. Well, we deal with them every single day, and we would not be in business if we didn’t have these partners, right?

Dan Ahlstrand
Adrian, we this has been the overarching question that we’ve been asking for the less than this entire hour here, is 2026 we know that there’s all kinds of financial pressures out there for people, and an affordability crisis, and all of the other things that we talk about here on this program, and I would imagine across the country almost daily. Why would you suggest that 2026 is the right time for somebody to come visit one of your brokers and get into the real estate market?

Adrian Schulz
Well, first of all, I think that nationally, home prices are stabilizing. Of course, some of the major markets, like Vancouver and Toronto, have seen some. I call it stabilization in pricing. I know others will obviously say a reduction in pricing. But you mentioned I’m from Winnipeg. Our company is actually Vancouver-based, and we have brokers all across the country, coast to coast, but the prairies are very much like Halifax. We’re actually experiencing fairly stable markets, decent supply or sufficient supply. Whenever we see that there’s a shortage of supply, it’s a specific type of shortage, right? It’s that first-time home buyer home that’s difficult, like for us,

Clinton Wilkins
It’s a sub 600,000, like that is the hottest real estate that is super, super active, sometimes multiple offers on that sub 600,000, but the ones that we’re seeing that are sitting are like, 700,000, 800,000.

Adrian Schulz
Plus, yeah, but we are so we’re in prairies, and here they’re stable and and I think there’s over optimism that things will improve. Supply issues are being slowly addressed by the government. I mean, there it’s the top priority right now, and municipal governments as well are taking the necessary actions across the country to address the supply issues. The challenge is also still rental housing, right? Because you’ve got a lot of upward pressure and rents because, again, of supply issues.

Clinton Wilkins
I think one of the big things, and we experienced this in 2020, the demand was just so, so high here, and we haven’t been able to keep up with supply. But now there’s more supply, and there certainly is still the demand. I think a lot of people are still on the sidelines, though. I think some consumers are sitting on the fence, one because they think the price is going to go down. Or two, they think the interest rates are going to continue to soften. One thing that we said in one of the previous segments was that the best time to buy is yesterday. What are your predictions for 2026? I can tell you, in our business, we were up about 40% this year, which is pretty amazing for a business that’s been around for 20 years. I don’t expect to be up 40% next year, but what are the trends, and what are you hearing from across the country?

Adrian Schulz
Well, first of all, this is a record year for the center mortgage network across the country. So it’s been our biggest year to date and our nearly 25-year history. I expect that positive trend to continue, because things are just getting better again. But I want to speak a moment about just consumer anxiety, right? Those people who are on the fence, should I be buying? I think a great first step, and there’s no cost to this step, is actually speaking to a mortgage broker, a mortgage professional and and having your own personal situation assessed to see what is possible. And we have a lot more possibilities than just going straight to a bank. And like Clinton said at the end, you’re probably still going to end up with a bank mortgage, but it will be specific to your needs and to your situation. So if you’re anxious about buying a home and you don’t know what to do next, start with a mortgage broker.

Clinton Wilkins
Everybody’s situation is different. We look at people’s income, we look at their assets, and we look at their credit, and every single file is different. It’s almost like a snowflake. We’re going into winter and the holiday season, every file is like a snowflake and we want to put together the best plan to make sure that we’re putting the consumer in the best possible product for their needs.

Dan Ahlstrand
And education is so important, right? Because I can think of people sitting in a restaurant or maybe at an establishment that you’re going to go visit later on Argyle Street and enjoy some of Halifax’s hospitality on the back of a cocktail napkin, trying to figure out, okay, this is how much I think I make. This is what I think I need to do. This is what I think I need to do. But there are a bunch of different things that factor into that.

Adrian Schulz
Real estate is local, and I would say buying a home and getting a mortgage should be personal, and that means working with an individual rather than just an online calculator. I think there’s a lot of value in having a face-to-face conversation or a scheduled call to go over your unique situation. There are things that people like Clinton and his team and mortgage brokers professionals as a whole can do that no random internet tool will ever be able to do.

Clinton Wilkins
It’s the same thing with people at the branch level. This is why I have a job, and I think this is why our volume is up 40% this year. As Dan, massive turnover in retail banking. It is a very tough place. It’s not a place that I would want to be. We are in it for the long run. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I’ll be doing it probably for another 20 years. You can have a relationship with someone, and it’s not just about the basis points. It’s not just about getting the lowest rate, because our giving advice is more valuable and helps consumers to pay down their mortgage debt faster. It’s not just that rate. We’re really in that advice business.

Dan Ahlstrand
We’re gonna package this show all up and put it on our website, as we do with all mortgage 101s. Clinton’s got the live stream here on his site, and you’ll be able to find more information on it from him on his site. Thank you both, gentlemen, that’s going to do it for this live edition of Mortgage 101.