Pimento suggests brokers offer using a reverse mortgage when building an exit strategy out of a high-interest alternative mortgage. Offering a lower interest, long-term strategy will not only benefit the homeowner, but adds an additional commission stream for the broker. Clients can use funds from a reverse mortgage to pay exit penalties from an alternative mortgage, and free themselves from a high-interest loan.

A Canadian taxpayer who is reassessed through this audit can face substantial tax penalties on top of interest, not to mention the professional and legal fees required to respond and object to the audit. There is also a possibility of prosecution for tax fraud or tax evasion. This article will break down the typical issues that could come up in a tax audit of undeclared real estate property or unreported real estate transactions.

The total number of homes currently listed for sale on the MLS system in Metro Vancouver is 11,424. That's 23.7 per cent down from the 14,968 homes that were listed for sale in June 2019, but up 15.1% per cent from the 9,927 listed properties in May 2020.

For all property types, the sales-to-active listings ratio for June 2020 was 21.4 per cent. By property type, the ratio is 19.9 per cent for detached homes, 25.2 per cent for townhomes, and 21.3 per cent for apartments. Real estate insiders tend to describe the market as a “buyers’ market” when the sales-to-active-listings ratio is less than 12 per cent, and a “sellers’ market” when that ratio is above about 20 per cent for several months in a row.

Sales of detached homes in June reached 866, up 16.1 per cent from the 746 detached sales recorded in June 2019. The benchmark price for a detached home was $1,464,200, up 3.6 per cent from June 2019, and up 0.5 per cent from May 2020.