Property Biz Magazine - Interview with Teranet President, Value Added Commercial Solutions, Lawrence Franco

 

Wondering what’s up at Teranet? This article "Major growth insight for Toronto-based Teranet" will give you some great insight. In the article, Teranet President, Value Added Commercial Solutions, Lawrence Franco discusses some of the latest and greatest innovations at Teranet Enterprises Inc.

What is Fair Market Value in Today’s Economy/Market Space?

Especially for brokers or agents who work in major city centres, it can be really hard to assess what the market value of a property is merely by what a client tells you. In Toronto for example, some areas have seen exponential growth in property value (Willowdale for example), while types of properties and other areas have been black-listed by some lenders because the types of properties or neighbourhoods have led to an instability in value.

The question is then, what is fair market value in today’s market space and how does one assess fair market value? Let’s go back to the definition of market value: according to the International Valuation Standards, market value is “the estimated amount for which a property should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm's-length transaction after proper marketing wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently, and without compulsion.” This is very similar to how anyone in the industry would define market value.

This is one reason why determining the fair market value of an applicant’s property can be so challenging. Here are some tips on how you can validate the fair market value of a client’s property prior to getting an appraisal.

1.      Conduct a thorough interview. At the interview ask questions such as when the applicant bought the house and what they paid for it – if it was recently purchased and there is a massive increase in value, ask more questions. What work have they done to the house? Why do they think the value of the property has increased exponentially?

2.      Ask your client for their MPAC Assessment. This will enable you to see the value according to the Municipal Property and Assessment Corporation.

3.      Run your own automated valuation. If you have access to an application like Purview For Mortgage Brokers, you can run an automated valuation of the property to generate an estimated value.

4.      Review sales comparables in the area. You don’t need an appraiser or a real estate sales professional to do this. There is technology available to mortgage agents and brokers that enables you to look at comparable sales in a particular neighbourhood.

Property value matters a lot because it can mean the difference between having a deal and losing a deal. If technology in your office is lacking, speak to your broker about considering the different tools available to validate property value. Knowledge is power and with the right knowledge you can be more efficient and close more business.

For more information about how you can validate the value of a property please visit www.purview.ca/brokers or call 1-855-787-8439.

How and Why to Verify Property Ownership Information When Working on a Deal

Mortgage brokers and agents take many measures when working on deals to ensure that the information provided by the applicant is correct. They do this to ensure that their deal is solid and to protect their lenders. While brokers and agents have to validate things like income, credit and down payment in order to get their client financing, they don’t really have to verify other information like who the legal homeowner of the property is. This is often left it up to the lawyer on closing to perform any searches to validate legal ownership.

The question is then, should the agent or broker take the steps to validate who the legal homeowner of a property is? In the event that a property is being refinanced, absolutely.

There are many benefits to ensuring that a property is in fact in the applicant’s name, that they are the legal owner and that there is no one else on title.

Firstly, this goes a long way in preventing mortgage fraud. You can also reduce the number of deals that have problems on closing - saving you time and money. Additionally, you can strengthen relationships with lenders by catching deals that have issues before they get to the lender, thus increasing your closure rates.

It is clear that verifying property ownership information when working on a deal is pertinent – so how do you do it?

Well there are many different ways that you can go about accessing home ownership information – some tools provide value added extras while others do not. This is even true within Teranet. Teranet offers a host of different real estate mapping tools – and some offer different features than others depending on the industry being served.

Purview for Mortgage Brokers is an application that mortgage brokers and agents can use to validate home ownership information. We brought up extras because in this instance the application is designed specifically for mortgage agents and brokers – which means it offers additional features.

Using this application you can validate homeowner information, view registered mortgages on title, validate property value, look at sales comparables and the sales history on the property in question and more…

There are so many reasons to validate home ownership information when working on a deal and so many ways to do it – the question is, if you’re not validating homeownership information, why not?

For more information about how you can validate home ownership information please visit www.purview.ca/brokers or call 1-855-787-8439.

Introduction to Purview For Mortgage Brokers – Cutting Edge Real Estate Software

Purview For Mortgage Brokers is an online solution designed for mortgage brokers and agents. If you are a mortgage broker or agent, Purview For Mortgage Brokers enables you to validate information about your customers and the properties they own.

You can validate information like who the legal homeowner of a property is, what mortgages are registered against the home, the sales history on the property, estimated property value, comparable sales in the area value and more!

Watch this quick video to find out what Purview For Mortgage Broker can do for you or learn more at www.purview.ca/brokers.

 

Scheduled Maintenance for Purview

Please be advised that Purview will be unavailable on Friday July 11th at 8:00pm EST until Saturday July 12th at 1:00am EST for scheduled maintenance.  Please ensure you run any critical Purview reports in advance of this maintenance shut down. 

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Lenders Use Social Media to Check the Backgrounds of Brokers and Applicants

Technology and social media have literally changed everything. It has changed the way we communicate, connect and share.

So many industries now turn to technology and social media when trying to learn or investigate something. Potential employers will research applicants on Google and social media sites like Facebook to get a sense of their character. Law enforcement leverages social media when investigating criminals. So why wouldn’t the financial community take advantage of technology and social media when investigating applicants?

While a potential employer may be interested in seeing what personal or potentially damaging information an applicant may have published online, a lender may leverage social media in completely different ways. Social media can even be used to uncover mortgage fraud – which is very common in today’s market space.

How can lenders use social media when underwriting an application, primarily where income and employment is concerned? An applicant may state on their application that they are employed but then state on their LinkedIn profile for example that they are the president of the company, or self-employed, or sub-contracted or perhaps they are no longer working at all.

While LinkedIn can uncover incorrect disclosure as it relates to employment, a simple Google or Facebook search can uncover things like marital status, the true nature of the relationship of applicants and more…

Just like social media can be leveraged by lenders when underwriting mortgage applications, lenders can also leverage social media when investigating brokers.

Lenders now leverage Google and social media to look up new broker applicants. They may be looking to validate years in business, reviews and other information. The age of technology means that agents have to be mindful of their online appearances.

As it relates to lenders leveraging technology to validate the information provided by your clients, you can too. You can look into both information about your client and the property they want to purchase or refinance. Doing this will mean that you can address any issues since you will catch faulty information before your application gets to the lender.

For more information about how to leverage technology to validate your client’s information please visit www.purview.ca/brokers or call 1-855-787-3439.