Mortgage brokers in Canada are undercutting the nation’s banks, with some offering to buy down the rate offered and take a hit from the commission as a result, in order to gain customers, according to a recent report from the Financial Post.

Brokers are being forced to make financial sacrifices in order to keep pace with the major banks and obtain a larger portion of the market. This strategy has become even more pressing with the news that another major Canadian bank may turn its business in-house, the news source stated.

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Is there some such a thing as a pre-approved short sale? - a short sale whereby the seller calls the bank and the bank agrees to a short sale price and terms in no time flat?

In short, the answer is no and maybe. Often times, pre-approved means that the bank now rules the roost. The bank can dictate terms (including commission), and can also request that the terms and conditions for marketing the property (including the number of open houses required). In this instance, the terms have been approved, but the buyer has not yet been approved. Th

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A record number of investors and second-home buyers flooded the Southern California real estate market in December, though not enough to give sales in the region a bump over the same month a year earlier. With the investor dominance, low-cost homes reigned. That helped push the region’s median home price back down to its lowest level in 12 months, according to San Diego real estate firm DataQuick. Sales fell 1.4% from the same month a year earlier, with a total of 19,247 homes bought throughout the six-county region. Sales fell the most in San Bernardino, down 7.2% from the same month a year prior. The region’s median home price — the point at which half of the homes in the region sell for more and half for less — fell 6.9% to $270,000.   Read full post…

Many financial experts have recently predicted Canada’s housing market would slowdown in 2012, but some economists say stable home prices and limited change is the best case scenario.

According to a CBC News report, CIBC economist Avery Shenfeld believes Canada’s real estate market will be lucky to experience modest gains this year, as homes are overvalued by as much as 15 percent. However, despite overvalued real estate prices, Shenfeld doesn’t foresee a market correction anytime soon.

“What I hope to see is that house prices don’t rise this year,” said Shenfeld, as reported by the source.

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Q: I’ve been given a lease to sign that says the landlord can increase the security deposit during the term of the lease. I thought the whole point of a lease is to prevent this sort of thing. Is this legal?

A: It’s understandable that you’d be confused after encountering a clause like the one you describe. When we think of leases, we expect that the key terms, such as the rent and the length of the lease, will be set and unalterable . That’s the main advantage of a lease over a month-to-month rental agreement the tenant knows he can stay for the lease term and that he won’t get a rent increase.

But just as a landlord and tenant may decide later to end the lease early, so too can they provide for an early ending right in the lease itself.

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