This story appeared in the Fall issue of Our House Magazine for Dominion Lending Centres.

Considering adopting a child? Here are some things to keep in mind as you welcome a new family member into your home.

November is Adoption Awareness Month in Canada. For Brianna Brash-Nyberg, the public relations coordinator for Adoptive Families Association of B.C., it’s a time to get the word out about the adoption process, but also a reminder of her own adoption story.

Ever since Brash-Nyberg could remember, she’d always intended to adopt a child. So several years ago, she and her then husband set out to become adoptive parents.

The young couple was far from established. Her husband was still in university and the couple was living in student rental housing. Completing the application process, Brash-Nyberg assumed it would be a couple of years before they got the call. Instead, it came just two weeks later. A baby had just been born and the birth mother picked the couple’s profile. They were told to come by the hospital the next day to meet their new family member.

They were living in a one-bedroom apartment and they didn’t have a single thing for their new daughter. They bought the wrong baby formula and the wrong car seat three times. But none of it mattered when they were taken to the hospital nursery.

“She was just lying there in the bed with her hands folded on her chest and this really calm expression on her face,” Brash-Nyberg says of meeting her first child, who is now eight. “I went and picked her up and started talking to her. It was so surreal. This whole person exists and is now part of your family and a day ago I didn’t even know she was coming.”

The second adoption was just as surprising. The couple was looking to adopt a teenager, but the matches didn’t work out. Then they got a call about a baby due in a couple weeks and the adoption was urgent. The couple once again found themselves parents to a newborn. In this case, the walk-in closet in their apartment would be their new child’s bedroom until they could get a larger place.

One of the common misconceptions among prospective parents is that you have to be well off or a homeowner to adopt, Brash-Nyberg says. “A lot of people think you have to have a lot more in terms of financial resources than you do,” she says.

Each province has its own rules regarding adoption. The first step is to get in touch with an adoption agency. There are a number of resources available, including the Adoption Council of Canada, a national organization that connects and supports domestic, private and international adoptees and families. In B.C., for example, there are three streams of adoption: international, foster care and through a private agency. Adoption through a private agency can cost between $10,000 and $30,000; an international adoption can cost between $20,000 and $70,000.

Brash-Nyberg notes that anyone adopting through the government will need to go through an adoption education program; in B.C. it takes 13 weeks. The adopting family is assigned a social worker. Meeting with the family, he or she will ask probing questions around how the adopting parents were raised and how they want to parent. They then conduct an examination of the home. “It’s a very intimate process. You have to be willing to talk about pretty much everything,” Brash-Nyberg says.

There are some things you can to do to get your home ready for a new arrival. Depending on their ages and sexes, a certain number of kids can share a room up to a certain age, and not everything has to be set up prior to approval of the adoption. Other basic requirements include fire alarms on every floor, fire extinguishers, and medicine and alcohol locked away in a cabinet. With infants, the stairs need railings, and a proper baby gate needs to be installed.

Across Canada, there are some 30,000 children waiting for adoption. As Brash-Nyberg looks back on her journey and decision to adopt, she admits the family dynamic can be “complicated;” the joy she experienced is founded on loss, grief and trauma. “It’s also a huge sense of responsibility. You’re raising someone else’s kids,” she said.
The pictures of her to two growing children at her desk, however, are all the confirmation she needs that she made the right choices. “It’s easily the most profound and joy-filled experience of my life,” she says.

For more information about adoptions in Canada, go to www.adoption.ca.

Courtesy of Jeremy Deutsch, Lead Writer – Dominion Lending Centres

his story appeared in the Fall issue of Our House Magazine.

The Fort McMurray fire and subsequent reconstruction demonstrates the necessity—but also the limitations—of home insurance in the face of natural disasters

Tuesday, May 3, 2016, isn’t a day Lisa Reesik will soon forget. It started out beautifully, without a single cloud in the blue northern Alberta sky.

While there was a wildfire burning outside Fort McMurray, a city of more than 80,000, it wasn’t a major concern for residents like Reesik. That day, the mother of two went to work and carried on business as usual. Even as she went to lunch with co-workers, there was no sign of what was to come. But by 1 p.m. the skies over the town turned ugly, quickly.

From downtown, Reesik could see the smoke swallowing up Abasand and Beacon Hill, the neighbourhoods her family of four called home for 16 years. “It was like something out of a movie,” she tells Our House magazine. “There was smoke, but you knew there were flames.”

When word came the fire jumped the Athabasca River that bisects the city, Reesik left work and headed for home to pack what she could. She grabbed a few documents and a garbage bag full of clothes for her kids and husband and headed to her brother’s place to meet up with the rest of the family.

As she left her home, she prayed the blaze wouldn’t take out her aunt’s house, which was much closer to the conflagration. Eventually her entire extended family met up and headed north out of the city for safety. Reesik’s husband, Robin, who worked for the energy company Suncor, was evacuated to the south of Fort McMurray. But there was no way out to the north so, not feeling safe, the family decided to make a break for it and go back through town to the south.

At 9:30 p.m., the family crossed back into Fort McMurray amid rumours the fire had taken out much of the city’s major structures. The smoke was so thick, she could only see a few inches in front of her car.

An hour later Reesik got a call from a friend.

“She said, ‘I’m really sorry, your home is gone,’ and began to cry,” Reesik recalls. “I said, ‘It’s OK.’ I knew in my belly it was gone at 5:30. I just had this overwhelming sense that it was gone. I really thought when I looked at the city in the rearview mirror, I would never be back because there would be nothing to come back to.”

Nine hours later, the family was reunited in Lac La Biche, a couple of hundred kilometres south, where they would call a camper home for the next two months.

“You felt as though you had cheated death,” she says. But Reesik also knew her family had every intention to rebuild. Fortunately, she and husband had purchased the right amount of insurance for the home and their mortgage. They used their insurance to keep paying the mortgage and minimized their spending until Robin was able to return to work. When it was time to rebuild, they also relied on their mortgage provider to help them get a construction mortgage and find the right contractors to do the work properly.

The family has been renting a home in the meantime, but plans to move back to their new home this fall.

“We had so much we had built up and our lives together, we wanted it back,” she says. “I wanted my kids to see I was Ok despite it all, and they would be OK despite it all.” The Reesiks had also purchased replacement insurance, which means in the end, they would not be out of pocket for the entire ordeal.

But not everyone was so lucky. The Fort McMurray fire, the most costly natural disaster in Canada’s history, was an eye-opening experience for even seasoned mortgage professionals. Charlene Elliott is a DLC mortgage broker in Fort McMurray and her memories of that fateful time are just as vivid. When word went out to evacuate the city, she was at the airport watching the flames race through town. At the same time her husband and kids were trying to get out.

“It’s surreal. You really can’t believe you’re living through it,” Elliott recalls. The family basically escaped with the clothes on their backs, eventually making it to Calgary for a few days and spending almost a month in Edmonton before returning in June 2016.

Despite living in a hard-hit neighbourhood, Elliott’s home was spared. The roof was singed and needed to be replaced, but that was about it.

Still, as she goes about her job helping people get mortgages, she’s quick to insist her clients get proper insurance coverage.  “I tell my clients, you have to make sure you have full coverage,” Elliott says. “Don’t cheap out on your insurance premiums because you think you’re fully covered… [People] felt it when [they] came back.”

She notes that after the evacuation, the banks and lenders were good about holding payments while people put their lives back together. In Elliott’s case, she deferred her payments for three months. Some lenders allowed deferrals for up to six months. When it came to the rebuilding stage, in some cases lenders would make the homeowner pay off the mortgage from insurance and then do a builder mortgage, she says, while some would pay the builder through construction.

In the end, the fire destroyed 2,400 structures and triggered insurance payouts estimated over $4 billion, the highest total for any such event in Canada. But there are few places across the country immune to a natural or human-caused disaster. B.C.’s south coast is awaiting a major earthquake, flooding is common in the prairies and ice storms can batter Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation has a mortgage loan insurance program, but it protects lenders against mortgage default and is not standard all-risk insurance. “This means that physical damage to a house due to a natural disaster would typically be covered by the homeowners’ property insurance policy. Lenders are required to ensure standard all-risk insurance is in place to protect against loss or damage to buildings and their contents,” a CMHC spokesperson noted in an email to Our House.

The email also explained that in exceptional situations, CMHC may offer special arrangements to support homeowners affected by natural disasters. The government agency recently extended a number of flexibilities to lenders to assist Canadians who may be affected by fires this past summer in western Canada.

Aly Kanji is the president and CEO of InsureLine Inc., a national insurance provider who’s seen firsthand just how unprepared people are for a disaster to strike, natural or otherwise. “One of the things that most people don’t appreciate is that you’re still making your mortgage payments while the repairs are getting done,” he says, adding that it can be a big deal when you have to find a place to rent and still make a payment. The typical insurance policy includes fire and liability, but there is an option to buy a comprehensive policy or specified perils policy that will cover you for more.

Kanji suggests that there is a misconception about the types of events you can be insured for and who will be around to help. For instance, in most parts of B.C., you can purchase earthquake insurance. However, he points out that it’s quite different than regular insurance in that the deductible is usually five, eight or 10 per cent of the total coverage amount. It’s possible to buy a separate policy to lower the deductible to the usual cost of a policy.

He also observes that the government isn’t going to help cover a home if insurance was available. The federal government did step up during the Alberta floods of 2013, but that was because insurance that would have covered widespread, natural flooding wasn’t available in Canada at the time.

Kanji also argues that people often don’t buy enough insurance. They think $20,000 to $30,000 for replacement insurance can get them through a disaster, but the costs can add up quickly. For a typical apartment, he estimates $60,000 to $80,000 is adequate. “That’s the problem: no one thinks they’ll have to use the product,” he says.

Kanji has some advice for new homeowners: It’s Important to take the time to understand what’s available. You only have to do it once.

Back in Fort McMurray, Reesik and her family are waiting to move into their new home. But it’s not likely to be joyous occasion. The past year has been difficult for the family, and she admits it will be a big adjustment. “I think it’s going to be hard, to be honest,” she says. “It’s going to take time to make it [feel like] home.”

Courest of Jeremy Deutsch, Lead Writer – Dominion Lending Centres

As a mortgage professional there are things I wish more people were aware of which is why we are going to take a look into the paperwork we all need to hold onto to avoid frustration or even a decline when applying for a mortgage. Each of the following is taken from real life observations of everyday folks just like you and I.

1. Separation Agreement – When you apply for a mortgage one of the first questions we ask is marital status. If your answer is separated or divorced then the banks are going to want to see the official document. They are seeking to ensure that you do not have any alimony or child support payments which will make it difficult to pay the mortgage. The legal system only keeps these documents for 7 years after which you will not be able to get a copy. Your marital status is reported on your tax return which can trigger the request for this documentation long after it seems relevant.

2. Proof of Debts paid– Keep all records of debts you have paid! Here are three real world examples.
a) Client A has paid off her mortgage, receives verification from the bank and promptly destroys the paperwork at a mortgage burning party just like on the commercial. Due to a clerical error the debt as paid is not reported to land titles so the mortgage remains vested against the property adding additional steps when she goes to get a new loan.
b) Client B pays out his truck loan in full and receives a letter stating this. Due to a clerical error the interest accrued shows a small outstanding balance. The client believes all is well while the small debt quickly hits a written off status on the credit bureau and he is declined for a mortgage three years later.
c) Client C settles with a collection agency on a debt gone bad – The debt is not reported as paid to the credit agencies and the ‘ongoing’ bad debt causes a large drop to her score and she pays higher rates than she should. The collection agency has since gone out of business and there is no record of the payment to be found.

3. Bankruptcy/Orderly Payment of Debts – As with the separation agreement, the trustee will only keep a copy for 7 years. When you apply for a mortgage, the bank will want to ensure they were not affected by the bankruptcy and also to determine if there was a foreclosure. Even though this information is supposed to fall off the credit report that is not always the case.

4. Child Maintenance – whether paying or receiving child support, you will want to keep all correspondence in regards to this to ensure you are receiving the appropriate credit for monies paid or have been given all the money you were supposed to have received.

Emotionally you have valid reason to want each of these documents so far away from you but realistically you are likely to need them at some point. There are a number of online services such as Dropbox or Google Drive where you could scan these to yourself and save them digitally. Alternatively, you could spend a small amount of money on an accordion style file folder and go old school with actual paper copies of all of the above applicable to your situation.

Courtesy of Pam Pikkert, AMP – DLC Regional Mortgage Group

You’ve been squirreling away your bonus cheques, savings and reducing the amount of times you visit Starbucks so you can finally get into your own home to build solid equity for your future. Now that you know what you want and what you can afford, it’s time to visit your local Dominion Lending Centres mortgage specialist to get yourself pre-approved for a mortgage.

Note, we did not say go to your bank to get pre-approved!

A mortgage broker works with banks (including yours), credit unions and other lending institutions to help find you the best rate on your mortgage. Since they work with so many different lending institutions across the country, they are in the best position to approach banks and ask for the best rates – sometimes better than what the same bank would have been able to offer you had you gone in on your own. Best of all, you do not pay a dime for their services – the lending institution does!

To work with a broker for your pre-approved mortgage, you will need the same documentation you would have to provide your bank so be sure to have your documents in order. You will need the following documents:

For a Salaried Employee

• an employment letter/verification of employment
• current/most recent pay stub

For an Hourly Employee

• current/most recent pay stub
• an employment letter/verification of employment
• Two (2) years of your T4 tax slips

For Someone Who is Self Employed

• last two (2) income tax returns
• proof of self-employment

Once you have submitted these details, you are on your way to getting pre-approved for your mortgage and providing yourself with a clear budget on the home you would like to buy!

Courtesy of Max Omar, AMP – DLC  Capital Region

Imagine that, a few years from now, the time has come to renew your mortgage.

Several years back, you got a $350,000 at the then great rate of 2.24%. Your mortgage payments are $1522 per month.

Because we are now in what the financial brainboxes call “ an escalating rate environment “ – normal people just say rates are going up – when you open your renewal notice you might encounter the same feeling you get when you look at the price of a car you like.

When you actually do look at the renewal notice, you see that the remaining balance on your mortgage is now $294,662, the new ( very competitive rate ) is 3.25% and that the new payment is $1668, actually $150 dollars a month MORE than you were paying previously. You think “WHAT THE….???”

This type of sticker shock is a new sensation to an entire generation of Canadians. Brokers are fond of talking about the fact that rates had not moved in 7 years but we rarely talk about the fact that rates have been trending down for more than twenty years and chances are, if you’ve had a mortgage for any time during that period, the payment at renewal has always been lower than when you started out.

‘Well, what’s to be done’, you ask? ‘How do I avoid “sticker shock”?

The key to avoiding that sinking feeling is to increase your payment slightly every year. You can find out how much to increase it during your Annual Mortgage Review. By increasing your monthly payment by even 2% a month, you can potentially avoid that sinking feeling – and pay off your mortgage even faster!

But wait; “Annual Mortgage Review? Qu’est-ce que c’est”, you ask.

An annual mortgage review, done with either your mortgage provider’s representative or your own mortgage representative ( i.e. your friendly Mortgage Professional) is just a quick check up to discuss what the current balance is, how things are going and do a quick review of your early payment privileges, increased payment privileges and potential prepayment privileges.

Its best to have these annually because , well, the average human needs to be shown the same information seven times to learn it – save time and start today. If you have any questions, please contact your local Dominion Lending Centres mortgage specialist.

Courtesy of Jonathan Barlow, AMP – DLC A Better Way

What prevents many potential homeowners from buying a home is the lack of a down payment.
Many first-time home buyers are receiving down payment gifts from family.

Unfortunately, many are not in this position and need to plan to save their own down payment.
When you can visualize the benefits of owning your own home and it becomes your number one desire, most of us can save that down payment.
Every time you feel like spending money that is not a need and takes away from you down payment, consider what you could be giving up, your home.

I recently did a mortgage for a couple buying their first home. During the process, they told me that 25 years ago they moved into a brand new rental home and they just finished paying off the landlords mortgage. The house had gone up about $800,000 in value over the 25 years. If the couple would have had their down payment and bought the home they would have a home worth over $1,000,000 paid for.

Here are some tips 
Avoid borrowing money for a depreciating asset like a car or furniture. Did you know that most people who buy furniture interest free for a year do not pay it off and end up paying about 29% interest on that loan?

Open a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) and start contributing monthly. Try and maximize what you can put in the TFSA. Turn it into a game and see how fast you can make it grow. Remember the end game is your own home.
The Business Insider reports that 62% of your expenditure is spent on three areas: Housing, transportation and food. Focus on cutting down expenses in these areas and put the extra money in your TFSA. It may be tight living in a smaller place for a few years or even staying at home for a few years to save up that down payment, but if you could look down the road 25 years and have a choice of buying your first home or owning a million-dollar home with no mortgage, what would you choose? You need to keep that vision of owning you own home if front of you to make the sacrifices worth it. The longer you rent the more you are paying off someone else’s home.

I read a stat that 43% of the annual food cost are eating out. Then there are prepared meals that involve no cooking that when included add up to 60% of your food budget. I recently had a friend that stopped eating out and is now putting about an extra $350 a month in his investment account.
Create a budget, control your spending, and buy groceries on sale. Use the Flipp app and find the lowest price on main items and price match. You can save $100’s of dollars doing this.
All these savings can go into your TFSA. Ask friend for their money saving ideas. Stay focused and before you know it you will have your down payment.

Courtesy of Kevin Bay, AMP – DLC Producers West Financial

From the summer issue of Dominion Lending Centres’ Our House Magazine.  One woman’s experience planning— then living—her dream nuptials under the open sky of her in-laws backyard.

Some of the most stressful parts of planning a wedding involve picking a venue for the reception. For Kate Brady, and events manager by trade, she knew exactly what she wanted when it was time to tie the knot in June 2015. Kate and her groom John Muddiman transformed his parents’ Oakville Ont., backyard into the reception hall. While it wasn’t particularly traditional, it was ideal for the couple. The reception, which included 100 of their closest friends and family, involved a plexiglass dance floor over a pool and a few other unique touches along the way.

Q: Why did you chose a backyard wedding?
A: Growing up I always loved that movie Father of the Bride – it always looked fun – and through the whole wedding process I really wanted something different. I was at the age where we were the last of our friends to get married, so I’d been to so many weddings. It doesn’t really matter what you do with it… it’s still going to feel very similar to what someone else has done. I really wanted something unique, and because we’re in the backyard it really limited our numbers. That really encouraged us to have more of an intimate wedding.

Q: What were some of the challenges?
A: The flow itself. When you’re in a backyard, you want to make sure things function the way they would if people were coming to any other venue for a wedding. We brought in nice Port-o-Potty trailers to make sure people weren’t going through the house. From a catering perspective, they need space. My in-laws have a pretty large property, so the kitchen was pretty expansive, and it was fairly open concept so they could use the dining room and living room. Making sure the ovens were up to code from a cooking perspective for chefs that want to produce that level food. We were lucky the way the backyard was structured; we had no rain that day. Had it rained, the whole flow and the vibe of the night would have changed. If it rained everybody would have been forced into the tent and then you’re trucking in the rain to go to the bathroom. Parking was also a bit of a challenge. There are tons of options; you can bus people in from the ceremony but a lot of people chose to carpool on your own. But that was a bit of an issue making sure people aren’t being ticketed. For us, it was a concern; how do we make sure people aren’t drinking and driving and they’re being responsible and leaving our property and getting pulled over?

Q: Do you think it was more work to host it at home?
A: The one thing I would say when you’re planning a backyard wedding versus going to a venue, a lot venues will provide some sort of an event planner that will coordinate with the bride and groom, so if you’re doing a backyard wedding, you don’t get that. So if you have the budget, having an event planner to coordinate especially the day of… I did bring in an event planner in the day of to manage all the vendors and make sure set up as going effectively and making sure things were taken care of.

Q: What kind of advice would you give a couple considering a backyard wedding?
A: I think, trust your gut and do what you need to do to get the wedding to reflect you. No matter where you are whether it’s the backyard or venue you want a wedding to truly reflect the two people getting married. Not to sweat the small stuff. Because at the end of the day something’s going to go wrong with the wedding, whether it rains, you just have to have fun with it and not get too caught up into those details. Make sure you’re doing your research and you’re engaging vendors that are trustworthy, that are reputable in your area and know what they’re talking about. If they’re reputable, they’re going to give you advice, they going to guide you through it.

Q: Would you suggest others do this?
A: Yes! It was so personal. Every little touch I wasn’t restricted, I really had free reign and creative vision of what I really wanted to do and I could envision the space and we made it happen. In the end, it was everything I had expected and more. After the ceremony, the first thing I did was get to the backyard and lock everyone out for just five minutes just to take it all in. It’s so cool. You’re in an environment where you might be every day… to see it come to life with your vision for you and your husband or future bride, that’s really cool.

Courtesy of Jeremy Deutsch, Lead Writer – Dominion Lending Centres

From the pages of the summer edition of Dominion Lending Centres’ Our House Magazine. How the humble house Terry Fox grew up in is becoming a Canadian landmark.

The home at 3337 Morrill St. in Port Coquitlam B.C., is in a typical suburban setting, surrounded by green trees, well worn pavement and the sounds of busy yard work. The home is certainly pleasant and well maintained, but doesn’t really stick out for any particular reason. You likely wouldn’t know the historical significance of this very insignificant-looking home.

“I have very strong memories of that house and being inside,” Darrell Fox tells Our House Magazine.

Fox is the younger brother of Canadian hero Terry Fox. The family lived in the Port Coquitlam home on Morrill Street for 16 years.

Darrell, who was only a teenager when his older brother embarked on running the Marathon of Hope across Canada in 1980, keeps a huge selection of memories for the house.

Terry would begin his training route for the Marathon of Hope every day from the home and spend hours mapping his course on the kitchen table. Terry also spent his final days in the home before cancer took his life.

“It is an important part of our history,” Darrell said.

The Fox family purchased the home in 1968 for $18,000—unbelievable considering the cost of real estate in the neighbourhood today. It was a brand new build and the first home the family owned.

Darrell grew up in the home along with his three other siblings including Terry. He spent his formative years in the house. There were countless days of ball hockey, soccer and digging out rocks from the front yard to plant grass. The doors, thanks to family matriarch Betty Fox, were always open to the neighbourhood. But there was certainly pain.

Terry was diagnosed with a malignant tumour in his leg in 1977 and had the leg amputated at the age of 18. But it didn’t slow him down. He would go on to plan his Marathon of Hope to raise money for cancer research and begin running in the spring of 1980. Only a few months later, the cancer returned and spread to his lungs. He was forced to quit while traversing northern Ontario. He died in June of 1981.

Darrell admits he’s blocked most of that difficult time out of his mind. The family sold the home and moved in 1984. He said it was hard for his parents to live in the home after his brother’s death and it played a role in the family’s move.

But all these years later, Darrell sees the home in a much different, more positive light.

“I love to go back there and stand in front of that house and stare at it,” he said. “It’s hard not to stand in front of it and be brought back in time because it looks so similar. You don’t want to live in the past but you want to go back there and cherish those memories.”

When he goes back to visit his childhood home, he’s greeted by the friendly faces of Terri and Doug Robertson. The couple currently owns the home. Terri bought the home with an ex-husband in 2000, but at the time had no idea of its significance. It wasn’t until a few years later, watching the news on TV, that she saw her house and realized it belonged to a Canadian hero.

“First, I love the house and later when I found out three or four years later I started telling people, ‘I live in Terry Fox’s house.’ I feel important,” Terri says.

Leading a tour of the home, the owners point out there have been some updates and changes since Fox lived there. The kitchen and floors have been renovated, a secondary suite has been added, and Terry’s room is now a home office. But the bathtub is the same and the cement patio out back, where the Fox kids carved their names and Terry practiced his basketball skills, remains intact. And whenever the couple comes across a piece of the old home, like the original bathtub, they’re sure to call the Fox family to see if they want it. And over the years as Terry’s legend grows, the home has become a place for people to stop by for a look. In one case, a teacher came all the way from Ontario to knock on the door and take a peek.

The way Doug sees it, the Robertsons are stewards of the home. Other properties in the area are being gobbled up by developers and the land would be very attractive for redevelopment.

“If we were to ever sell, and we don’t have any intention, I can see someone wanting to knock it down,” Doug says.

While he doesn’t see the home on Morrill as a heritage home in the classic sense for its age or character, he believes its significance does make it qualify for the status.

To mark the 35^th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope in 2015, the cities of Port Coquitlam, Coquitlam and Port Moody, along with the Terry Fox Foundation, recognized Terry’s training route with a special 10-kilometre run. Each city also put up permanent signs to mark the route, including one in front of 3337 Morrill. The next run is scheduled for 2020 on the 40^th anniversary.

Darrell Fox never expected all those years ago that his childhood home would have such significance and be important to so many people. It was after all, just a house.

“It’s what’s inside the house that makes up the home,” he says. “We were a typical Canadian family living the Canadian dream in that house. We were pretty excited to live in Port Coquitlam and to be starting to focus and realize our dream. And there’s nothing special about the house, but it was special to us because we were inside it and enjoying it.”

Courtesy Jeremy Deutsch, Lead Writer, Dominion Lending Centres

When I made the decision to become a mortgage broker, I was cautioned by friends already in the field to choose wisely where I would plant my flag.

After a bit of deliberation, I chose a franchise that was very familiar to me – the owners were people I had worked with in my previous life. I will admit though, to being less sure about the parent company.

Coming up on a year down the road, I’m certain I’ve landed on my feet not only with the franchise office but also the the parent company. There are tons of reasons for me to celebrate but I think how Dominion Lending Centres works for you impresses me the most.

Here are five reasons why my working at Dominion Lending Centres matters to you, even more than it matters to me:

Size Matters

I am one of 2,600 plus like-minded brokers who work under the DLC banner. The franchise office I work from has 80 brokers alone. This means access to more options, better “buying power”, when finding financing for you.

Advocacy

Some of you may have noted that in October, the federal government made changes to the mortgage qualification rules. One consequence of the changes was that your mortgage buying power has reduced by 20 per cent, even while prices go up. All 2,600 hundred of us have been involved in a campaign to reduce the harmful effects of these rule changes. DLC’s corporate office have even made presentations to the parliamentary committee studying the matter.

The Best Advice

Because we are 2,600 experienced professionals and we talk to each other, we always have the right solution at hand.

The Most Up To Date Information

Our access to current information is remarkable, even in an industry where interest rates fluctuate like gas prices. We receive 30-50 updates a day. When we meet with you, you get the benefit of the most recent, most accurate information we have.

A Single Purpose – Our Relationship With You.

When you win, we win. The one thing that drives success for all of us at DLC is having a great relationship with you; a relationship where you can end up living where you want to, comfortably and sustainably.

Courtesy of Jonathan Barlow, AMP – DLC A Better Way

Well, what a year it has been. Of course I refer to ‘year’ being the school year. With June now upon us, schools are winding down, just as Bullying Ends Here is about to take a few months to catch our breath and plan for an amazing 2017/18.

To wind down this year, Dominion Lending Centres played a big role in helping us reach thousands more. In April, Mark Goode and his team worked hard to setup a couple of presentations in his community of Orillia. Based on the feedback, I suspect that I will be returning there at some point to share the program with many more!

Another DLC’er that deserves much recognition is Jeff Brown from Belleville. Jeff put together one heck of a day for us, however due to some unforeseen circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the day did not proceed. I know that Bullying Ends Here will be in his community at some point. We wont give up Jeff!

With our school presentation schedule now complete, we are so proud to share with you the following milestones;

– spoke to over 100,000 youth all across the Country (a total of over 350,000 since 2012)
– spoke to the National Conference on Bullying in Orlando, FL.
– received more than 10,000 emails and thousands of messages through social media
– released an updated version of the book Bullying Ends Here – My Life
– created a bookmark proudly showing the DLC logo to all that purchase the book
– about to launch our brand new electronic quarterly newsletter
– working on introducing a Youth Advisory Board to the program
– created short commercials showing the support for our program from Rick MERCER, Naheed NENSHI, Steven PAGE, Brad MAY, Brian BURKE and Prime Minister Justin TRUDEAU!!! Stay tuned for many more in the works.
– launched our 3 minute commercial to showcase our program and what we really do…feel free to take a peek on our homepage.
– launched our revised format of our website bullyingendshere.ca
– presented over 100 times

Most importantly, we are now credited with saving 43 lives!!!

I can not state enough how this truly is teamwork. From those that plan the presentations that form the schedule, to the schools/communities that believe in us, to the volunteer work of our team at Bullying Ends Here to Dominion Lending Centres generous annual donations that assist us in being able to reach everyone. Its a team that makes it all come together. With over 100 requests waiting for the next school year, including many from overseas, its going to be the best one yet!

This is why I always say ‘Together we will not only change lives, but SAVE them!’

Our Bullying Ends Here Coin Award is going full steam ahead. We want to recognize those in our country that go above and beyond to help make our world a better place. We want to continue to spread Jamie’s message of acceptance and understanding and know the importance of highlighting the work that others are doing. If you know someone who stands out above the rest, of any age, please nominate them on our website.

I know that 2017/18 is going to be the best one yet. I am proud to announce that I will be starting the presentation schedule off with a TEDX talk in Vancouver in September. What a humbling honour this will be to showcase our message to potentially millions around the world. Until then, its time to kick back, relax and catch our breath. Its going to be one heck of a ride starting in September and we cant wait to bring you along with us.

Courtesy of Tad Milmine, Founder of Bulling Ends Here