In the slowly evolving world of real estate, many REALTOR® members are now using email, text messaging and telephone calls to help speed up negotiations and email to exchange documents with their clients and with other REALTOR® members. Electronic signatures, while not yet universally accepted, are becoming more common for real estate contracts.

A “wet” signature is a signature written in ink. These are the in-person signatures that are commonly used to indicate that a person agrees to the contents of a document.

A "digitized," wet signature is a graphic representation of a wet ink signature. A person signing a document using a stylus on a tablet is creating a digitized signature. A digitized signature can also be created by simply faxing a document with a wet signature.

An "electronic" signature is one where the user’s identity is confirmed by a service provider and a password protected signature representation is applied to an electronic document....

On July 1st, 2014, the Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) will require real estate industry members (REALTOR® members and non-REALTOR® members) who establish a AGENT-CLIENT relationship with a buyer who is trading (or intends to trade) in residential real estate (buying or renting) to enter into a written service agreement with that buyer-client.

Alberta becomes one of first provinces to require written service agreement with EVERY client-buyer. Ontario has had this requirement for several years, however, there is a difference. It's only where a agent-client relationship created requires the document. In fact, in Ontario, if a buyer refuses to sign a written service agreement with "their" agent, then that agent is duty bound to the seller (and not the buyer). In contrast, for years in Alberta if an agent acted like they were representing a buyer, then they were deemed to have formed a agent-client relationship through the actions alone. In Alberta, it was only through a written...

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says it will no longer offer mortgage insurance for homes that cost $1 million or more, starting July 31, even if the buyer has made a deposit of 20 per cent or more.

“CMHC helps Canadians meet their housing needs and contributes to the stability of the housing market and finance system,” said Steven Mennill, senior vice-president of insurance, said in a statement. “The changes announced as part of the review ensure that CMHC’s products and services are aligned with these objectives.”

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This blog post has been a few months in the making.

I was invited to a maketing seminar for a real estate coach this past spring and was wondering how he was going to attack this "hot" topic. I shouldn't have been too surprised that he stated that real estate agents should do the same things that he, and many trainers/coaches, have been espousing for the last decade: "Charge what we have always charged but add more fluff to your package to give the impression of more value. Use your clients' homes to post on social media (Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.) to create more business for yourself." They never really say to post it to actually try to sell the damn house, it is always just to "get your name out there." Okay, maybe I'm paraphrasing "just a bit" there. Consumers use social media to be entertained and distracted (especially Facebook), not to search for goods or services and especially not a home or the services of a REALTOR®.

It IS a new world of real estate...