Mortgage 101 – Halifax, The Evolving Mortgage Landscape

Clinton and Todd explore the evolving landscape of homeownership, offering insights and expertise! Join us this episode of Mortgage 101, as we dive into discussions ranging from Halifax’s growing reputation, to the nuances of mortgage lending.

Halifax’s growth and credibility as a world-class city

Todd Veinotte
All right, welcome back to Mortgage 101 your guide to homeownership with myself Todd Veinotte and Clinton Wilkins. I’m a huge Stevie Ray Vaughan fan, SRV! You? Not too much Clinton? Maybe you are I don’t know.

Clinton Wilkins
No, I’m gonna give that one a no.

Todd Veinotte
Why? What’s wrong?

Clinton Wilkins
Well, we can’t love everything.

Todd Veinotte
Well, I know but it’s so tasty and so classy and you’re a classy guy. I thought that you would like that.

Clinton Wilkins
But maybe I’m not a classy guy in terms of like music taste, I don’t know.

Todd Veinotte
Well I don’t know. Okay, fair enough.

Clinton Wilkins
On that note, we have the JUNOS coming here. You know, we are just like a few days away. 10 days away from the JUNOS. So that’s very exciting, big for Halifax. You know, we have lots of people coming here to our city, which I’m very proud of. And I think the last time the JUNOS were on here, 2006/2008 something like that? And it was just a huge, huge celebration. So I’m excited.

Todd Veinotte
Where do you think we often want to describe Halifax as? Maybe as a world class city? Certainly is one of the one of the major cities? And it is one of the major cities in Canada. But where you travel a lot, what type of cred do you think Halifax has around the country?

Clinton Wilkins
I think there’s a lot of street cred if you ask me. Yeah, you know, it’s one of the oldest cities. So we have that. And that’s awesome. And I think there’s a lot of good things going on in Halifax, if you were to ask me, you know, 5 years, 10 years ago, I probably would have been like *meh meh* you know, maybe, you know, Halifax is just like small town. But we’ve had such an amount of growth in the last couple of years. It’s very inspiring; especially as someone who’s self employed, and someone who works in the real estate industry, mortgage industry. It’s very exciting for me to be involved here. You know, I’m glad that we have this platform of Mortgage 101 to be able to give advice and to have consumers and have amazing guests on our show. You know, if I was in Toronto, or Montreal or Vancouver, I wouldn’t have that opportunity. Do you know what I mean? I’m not saying I’m the biggest fish of all biggest fish but you know, we are a smaller pond. And it is, I think easier, in some ways, to make more of an impact. And I’m glad we’re part of the conversation, Todd.

Todd Veinotte
Indeed, and obviously, a lot of people want to live here and a lot of people moved here during the pandemic, but that kind of pilgrimage out to this area has slowed, has it not for people from Ontario and those places?

Clinton Wilkins
I think it certainly has slowed. You know, it’s interesting, because I almost feel like we’re on the verge of an uptick. Again, I think as soon as rates start softening, and we said this before that, I think there’s going to be more activity. I think, right now New Brunswick is kind of that last untapped area of housing just being, you know, really undervalued, and people are kind of moving from all over the country. But we still have that in Nova Scotia, there’s so many areas across this province that are still very, very affordable, and people still have access to services. A lot of good things going on here. And you know, I’m proud to be, you know, born and raised. And I’m proud that you know, I was able to set up shop and put my shingle outside and have a business and employ people in the province as well.

Todd Veinotte
Yeah. And obviously, when it comes to a growing city, to be in business, like like you are, it’s great. Because you know like I understand when people are in smaller communities, there’s only so many buyers out there. But I think Halifax is kind of that sweet spot for businesses like yours, right? Where there’s enough new people coming in. And there’s enough of that type of thing where you’re not seeing the same people over and over and over!

Mortgage industry growth and client relationships

Clinton Wilkins
For sure. And, you know, I think there’s still so much room for growth, specifically in our industry, and I’m a mortgage broker. There’s still a low penetration of mortgages being originated by mortgage brokers. Yes, we still are doing more, but there’s still opportunity. If I move the needle even like 1%, it’d be having such a big impact on our business. And that’s where it’s you know, it’s interesting.

Todd Veinotte
Why are banks still, and I suppose why is a big question, but what are some of the reasons why people still predominantly will deal with their bank? Is it tradition in many cases? it’s got to be right? I’ve always done it. Mum and Dad always had whatever account; that’s where I go; that’s where my branch is in Spryfield or whatever, there’s a lot of that right?

Clinton Wilkins
I think it is tradition and I think that we are born and raised to be taught like “don’t wrong the bank, the bank is going to have your back.” I think the culture has shifted, and I think more and more over the last few years, specifically, because there’s been a lot of turnover at these retail branches. You know you don’t have the relationship with John Doe/Jane Doe at that branch who is really able to tend to your needs. And that’s given more opportunity I think to us as mortgage originators, to build a better relationship with our clients. I’ve been doing this for 19 years, I mean, I think we have 17,000 clients. I’ve seen a lot of people. And with such a huge amount of repeat customers, like 60% of what we do every day is repeat, we’re also bringing new customers in. And I think that’s interesting. Like, we’re able to help a lot of new people, and I’m having these conversations every day. And people’s needs have shifted as well. People need more advice today than they needed a year ago, or two years ago. The conversation a couple of years ago was more about rate. Like what can we get you approved for? How fast can we make this happen? It was more about you know, sometimes first to the gate. And now I think it’s more – the conversation has shifted to – do you want to transact with me? I’m going to do the best that I can for you. All the rates are high, Todd, that’s reality. Yeah. It’s, can we find a product that’s going to be right for you? And how can we really best suit kind of this next term and situation for your needs?

Todd Veinotte
Yeah, and you’ve always claimed that you can, you can find solutions for just about anybody. It’s just that they may not like the solutions, they may not be able to do the work that’s going to get them to the solutions to get that mortgage. But, you can sit down with somebody and you can say, maybe not today, but at this period of time, if you do this, this, this, this and this, we can get you in a mortgage. You stand by that right?

Clinton Wilkins
I certainly do. Every Canadian can get a mortgage. And I think this kind of goes back to our previous guest, Sandi Burns, she spoke to, sometimes people are just so desperate to get approved with a prime lender. Well, sometimes that doesn’t work. Sometimes you need to have a shorter term plan, in the sense of, maybe we need to do an alternative lender for a year or two, maybe we need to do a private lender and then go to alt lender and then go to a prime lender. It’s all about making a plan. And that’s why I think mortgage brokers are so interesting and why it’s so important to seek the advice. Because not all lenders are the same. Some banks do such a great job at franchising their customers. You know, they have a mortgage, they have a bank account, they have a credit card, they have a line of credit, they just like really wrap their arms around them. And you either love that bank, or you hate that bank. But I think that culture has shifted. Consumers have a little toe in the water everywhere. And that’s where, you know, I think we can really be involved in where we have so many relationships with all kinds of different lenders and banks, and, you know, trust companies and all these things; everybody’s situation is different, where we can really put together that best solution for them.

Todd Veinotte
Do you think fundamentally, mortgage lending is a part of your business, and there might be some innovation in the next decade that we don’t see yet, looking out?

Clinton Wilkins
You know, and everyone always says, like, you know what, like, with AI and all this stuff, it’s like, we won’t have a job anymore. In the Canadian mortgage market, there’s so many nuances, where it’s credit, income, properties. It’s not as automatable as maybe it is in the US where everything’s, you know, maybe more streamlined. So, you know, are there concerns? I’m not concerned personally, but I think we can leverage things like AI in the future. It’s like reading bank statements, you know, verifying income documents. I’d love to be able to say, hey, I’ll take these T4s, and verify something with CRA to be like, are these legit? You know, doing some of this prevention, auditing, you know, reading of the documents. I’m looking forward to technology in the future. I think anything we can dream up is probably going to be possible. It’s just, you know, is someone going to invest the time and money to be able to get us there? I think banks like the bank that Sandi works at, you know, they’re certainly developing things in the background to be able to read these documents more efficiently. It takes so much human capital to originate just one mortgage, you’d be shocked as a consumer, how many people are involved along the process, just to make that happen. From the time you call, or do an online application to the time at funds. You’d be shocked with how many people actually touch that application.

Todd Veinotte
Indeed, alright, so there’s obviously so much to get to in the mortgage world. Where is a great place for people to start to get a hold of you?

Clinton Wilkins
I think check us out online at Teamclinton.ca/radio. We have lots of great content on our website. Hundreds of blog posts, there’s a page with our rates, there’s a mortgage calculator. You know, online application, and you can visit us on all our social media accounts. You can see what Todd and I look like, in reality in the real world, I guess. And if you didn’t catch all our show, you know we really encourage you to listen back to it anytime.

Todd Veinotte
Indeed always great Clinton Wilkins and thank you so much my good friend!

Clinton Wilkins
Thanks for having me Todd!

Todd Veinotte
You got it, that’s Clinton Wilkins, I’m Todd Veinotte, Mortgage 101, your guide to homeownership, thanks for listening!