Former Grow Op

2

Tenants come and go at unusual hours but never seem to stay over night.

Little or no garbage is brought to the curb each week.

Mail is rarely delivered to the house, and the mail box may be taped shut.

Windows are always dark and may be secured with metal bars, blacked out or heavily draped.

A strong odour similar to skunk cabbage (bulk marijuana comes from the building.

Power meter spins at a very high speed or signs of electrical tampering.

Heavy condensation on the inside of the windows.

Humming sounds of fans or generators.

Condensation or discolouring on the roof.

Unusual amounts of steam coming from vents in the house in cold weather.

Rooftop with no snow on it when the surrounding houses are covered in snow.

Individuals arriving at the house to put the garage, move toys in the front yard shovel the snow or cut the law and then leaving immediately.

People entering and exiting the residence only through the garage keeping the garage door closed.

Excessive security such as guard dogs, “keep out” signs, high fences, heavy chains and locks on gates.

Housing affordability: the great quandary Why there’s time to wait for the right home at the right price

With only Montreal and Vancouver left to cheer for in the Stanley Cup playoffs, many luncheon conversations have returned to the topic of housing prices.

Recently, we’ve seen lots of headlines suggesting that house prices have run up to an unsustainable level and are due for a correction.

In mid March, The New York Times made a rare foray north of the border with a headline that read “Some See a Real Estate Bubble Forming in Canada.” A couple of weeks back, Gluskin Sheff star economist David Rosenberg released a report suggesting that Toronto and Vancouver housing prices could drop by 20 per cent.

And one of the most e-mailed Globe articles last week was based on a ReMax report trumpeting the buoyant sales of luxury homes.

Focusing on affordability

Perhaps the most important determinant of short-term-price movements is affordability, the percentage of a typical household’s income required to carry a house. The two big variables that drive this number: house prices and mortgage rates.

RBC has been tracking this data for 100 neighbourhoods across Canada since 1985, focusing on typical two bedroom homes, bungalows, townhouses and condos.

As housing prices spiralled up in the 1980s, this guideline was relaxed – since 1985, the typical household would have devoted 39 per cent of its income to carrying a detached, 1,200 square foot bungalow.

RBC economist Robert Hogue points out that there have been large swings in affordability over time and that different cities show different patterns.

In most cities, rising house prices meant that affordability was at its lowest in early 1990, when the typical household would have spent 53 per cent of income to carry a bungalow. On the other end of the scale, Vancouver, always an outlier when it comes to real estate, hit its own high of 81 per cent of household income to carry a bungalow in early 2008.

Once out of balance, there are only three ways for affordability to get back in line:

– Prices can stay flat as incomes increase over a period of years

– Mortgage rates can come down – unlikely in the next while

– Or housing prices can drop – something that happened after the all-time lows on affordability were hit in 1990

The impact of low mortgage rates

In the past eighteen months, governments around the world chopped interest rates to boost economies – and Canada was no exception.

As a result of low interest rates, carrying costs dropped and affordability improved. Even with strong housing prices, at the end of December the affordability level in most cities was close to its long-term average. The exception, again, was Vancouver – with the average bungalow taking up 69 per cent of the typical family’s income, up from the historical average of 57 per cent.

In a recent report, RBC estimated that in late December posted rates for a five year mortgage were 5.6 per cent, 1.6 percentage points lower than normally expected given inflation expectations. Note that we’ve already seen mortgages rates begin moving up toward those higher levels, with more increases likely to come.

RBC estimates that if mortgages had been at their normal levels in December, the percentage of the typical Canadian household’s income to carry an average bungalow would have increased by four percentage points – although some cities would have been hit worse than others.

The affordability verdict

If mortgage rates in December had been at normal levels, the percentage of income to carry a house in most cities would have been well above its long-term average. The good news: In most cities those percentages would still have been well below their highs – prices may be a bit elevated but this doesn’t suggest a bubble or a big drop ahead.

The one city to worry about if you’re a homeowner is Vancouver, where normal mortgage rates would have resulted in the typical household spending 78 per cent of its income to carry a bungalow, just shy of the peak level.

History shows that it’s impossible to accurately predict short-term movements of house prices – markets regularly overshoot rational levels both on the way up and the way down. What we can say is that based on current affordability, if house prices do continue to escalate, at some point they’re almost certain to correct back down.

That means there’s no rush to buy and time to wait for the right home at the right price – and that for the next while at least home buyers should evaluate houses as places to live rather than on their potential for appreciation. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/features/experts-podium/housing-affordability-the-great-quandary/article1554481/

Have a great day!

BUSY HOUSING MARKET MEANS MORE CHOICE FOR FRASER VALLEY BUYERS

(Surrey, BC) – The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board’s Multiple Listing Service (MLS®) saw close to record levels of listings in April, in addition to strong sales and prices.

Deanna Horn, president of the Board, says, “This is a typical, healthy spring market for the Fraser Valley. We received an abundance of new listings in all price categories giving buyers tremendous opportunity, while sellers saw a typical detached home sell in an average of 40 days for 13 per cent more than in April of last year.”

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board received 3,760 new listings in April compared to 2,477 new listings received during the same month last year, an increase of 51.8 per cent. The new inventory increased the number of active listings to the second highest April on record, reaching 10,635, with only April 1995, at 11,891, offering more selection.

Along with the surge in listings, April sales remained strong, similar to the same month in 2007 and 2008, finishing with 1,793 total units sold, an increase of 38.7 per cent compared to the 1,293 sales sold in April of last year when the market was beginning to recover.

“A number of factors are motivating buyers. Spring is one of the most popular times of year to house hunt, plus interest rates are edging up and buyers are inquiring about the upcoming Harmonized Sales Tax in BC.”

Horn explains, “The Fraser Valley will offer savings when the HST comes into effect because many new homes in our region fall under the new housing rebate threshold.”

Thanks to lobbying efforts by REALTORS® and other housing industry advocates, the threshold to receive the maximum BC new housing rebate was increased to $525,000 from $400,000, the government’s originally proposed limit. Horn says, “It’s important for buyers to know that the majority of new townhomes and apartments in the Fraser Valley cost less than $525,000, including some single family detached homes.”

In April, the benchmark price for Fraser Valley detached homes was $520,423 – reflecting all residential sales on the MLS®, of which approximately 10 per cent were new homes. That benchmark price is 13.1 per cent higher than it was in April 2009, when it was $460,229.

The benchmark price of Fraser Valley townhouses in April was $326,367, a 10.6 per cent increase compared to $295,078 in April 2009. The benchmark price of apartments increased by 8.3 per cent year-over-year going from $230,337 in April 2009 to $249,453 in April 2010.

Information and photos of all Fraser Valley Real Estate Board listings can be found on the national, public web site www.REALTOR.ca. Further market statistics can be found on the Board’s web page at www.fvreb.bc.ca. The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board is an association of 2,978 real estate professionals who live and work in the communities of North Delta, Surrey, White Rock, Langley, Abbotsford, and Mission.

Islands join Greek party

Diane Francis, Financial Post  Published: Saturday, May 01, 2010

Greece isn’t a country. It’s a party.

The Germans, one of the few groups in Europe who work, are furious. They are balking at the bailout but must come across because a couple of big German banks are on the hook for Greece’s IOUs.

Best suggestion by a German politician, not altogether silly, is that Greece should pay off its lenders with islands. These Aegean beauties are government-owned and their privatization might help skate the whole place onside quickly.

Despite the world’s crisis, there are plenty of well-heeled buyers: the suits at Goldman Sachs (dubbed “haves” and “have yachts”), Russian oligarchs, oil sheiks or Mexican cartelistas.

That aside, the details oozing out about Greece’s spendthrift ways, make it obvious that the real legacy of Goldman Sachs and Wall Street is that they democratized greed.

Greek retirement ages are 60 and 65 years, respectively, for males and females, but the average is more like 53 years because many jobs are considered physically strenuous or hazardous. These include hairdressers (all that standing and putting your hands into chemicals); musicians (all that plucking into the wee hours); bakers and radio presenters.

Public-sector employees have got bonuses for showing up to work on time. They received a 13th month’s wages at Christmas and a 14th month’s wages at Easter.

While these perqs are now history, at the insistence of the IMF and EU, it’s hard to imagine the Greeks rolling up their sleeves and getting back to work. The same goes for the other members of PIIGS, more elegantly dubbed the “Club Med,” which includes fellow miscreants Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain.

Well, the party’s over for them, but not for Goldman Sacks (sic) yet. The investment banking casino played a starring role in the Greek comedy when it gave the country a strategy to hide debts from euro zone officials.

As we write, Goldman trading desks are busily shorting all those Greek stocks and bonds they once sold long to clients, and its underwriters are undoubtedly preparing a series of IPOs to peddle those islands.
Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=2973587#ixzz0mobwuzPX

 Hi Cindy
>
> Thank you to you, Dave and Amanda for organizing the garage sale 
> yesterday.   It was a huge success from our point of view with many  
> many people stopping buy.  We recovered a few hundred dollars (from  
> our original investments of thousands ha ha) and knew that our  
> possessions were being passed on to people who could make some use 
> of  them, rather than ending up in landfill!   Additionally, we got 
> to  meet several of our new neighbours, as well as visit and chat 
> with  neighbours we already knew and many of the buyers.   For 
> instance, I  recognized the accent of one lady as Polish, and she 
> and Alec had a  good chat in Polish.   Another family was speaking 
> Korean and we were  able to chat with them about Alecs 6 week sojurn 
> in South Korea in the  1980s.  So, really it was a fun social 
> experience for us too!
>
> We realize that it takes a great deal of work on your part to 
> organize the publicity and drop off and pick up of signs as well as 
> provide  tips and info to us, and we really appreciate it.   Thank 
> you Cindy:    you even dropped around to make sure everything was OK!
>
> I hope Amanda’s elbow is on the mend and she is getting back on track.
>
> God bless.
>
> Cathie

Highlights

•   Fears of contagion in Europe’s government bond market grew this weak as S&P downgraded the sovereign debt of Greece, Portugal and Spain

•   The USD rallied as investors sought refuge in U.S. Treasuries, meanwhile stocks fluctuated as strong earnings counteracted investor risk aversion

•   US Q1 GDP recorded solid 3.2% annualized growth, further supporting our view that the economic recovery is both sustainable and gaining traction

•   Personal consumption expenditures and private fixed investment showed signs of strength, while net export growth disappointed

•   The Fed’s policy meeting this week was rather bland, as the FOMC reiterated its commitment to keep rates low for an ‘extended period’

•   Canadian economic activity advanced 0.3% M/M in February, an eased pace from January but still putting real GDP on track for a 5.3% annualized gain in Q1/2010

•   The goods-producing sector accounted for the bulk of February’s GDP advance, led by a 1.2% M/M increase in manufacturing activity

•   Pace of appreciation in Canadian Teranet-NB home price index (a quality-adjusted measure preferred over the average re-sale price) accelerated to 9.9% Y/Y in February, from 7.5% Y/Y in January

•   However, the monthly increases in the home price index are slowing, with a 0.2% M/M rise in February – the slowest pace of gain since the April 2009 turn in the index

8th Annual Garage Sale Sponsored

By The Walkers

Saturday, May 1 at 9:00 AM

Bell Park: Maps & Address Lists Available:

                   13761 18A Avenue & 13824 19A Avenue

Specialty Items

1. 13868 19A Avenue books, clothing

2. 13836 19A Avenue kids skates, soccer gear

3. 13816 19A Avenue clothes, shoes, furniture

4. 13796 19A Avenue antiques dishes, collectables

5. 13690 18A Avenue

6. 13761 18A Avenue

7. 13768 18A Avenue bedroom furniture

8. 13781 18A Avenue

9. 13885 18A Avenue cedar scrubs, perennials, household items

10. 13899 18A Avenue 

11. 13936 18A Avenue brass head and foot board, TV., TV stand

12. 1921 139A Street kids toys, books, decorative accessories, brand

new car tires – 2009 Toyota Sienna

13. 13885 18 Avenue all house furniture, drum set, keyboard

14. 13761 18 Avenue

Amble Greene:

Maps & Address Lists Available: 13521 19A Avenue

1. 13521 19 Avenue furniture, sports equipment, books, fabric

2. 13561 19 Avenue kids toys

3. 1741 Amble Greene Dr furniture, pictures, black curtain rods, basket ball hoop, aluminum shutters

4. 1693 134B Street kids toys

Chantrell Park:

Maps & Address Lists Available: 2281 Chantrell Park Drive

1. 2281 Chantrell Park Dr furniture, wetsuits, wooden canoe paddles,   life jackets, body surf boards, books

2. 2289 138A Street small appliances, small trailer, treasures

Elgin Park:

Maps & Address Lists Available: 3105 142nd Street

1. 3105 142 Street multi family kids toys, small appliances

2. 14240 29A Avenue household items from summer cabin, kids toys

3. 14088 31A Avenue

4. 14099 31A Avenue

5. 14136 29 Avenue

Are Big Banks jumping the gun?

Rob Carrick

 The Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Apr. 29, 2010

 Interest rates are rising – we all get that – but it looks like the Big Banks are pushing things a bit with mortgages.

 After a pair of increases in the past two weeks, the posted Big Bank five-year fixed mortgage rate now stands at 6.25 per cent. Does that seem high? In fact, it’s just half a percentage point below the average level for the past decade.

We’re supposed to be in the early phase of what could be a long cycle of rate increases. The Bank of Canada hasn’t even started raising its overnight rate, which sets the trend for borrowing costs other than fixed-rate mortgages. The overnight rate could very well start rising June 1 (that’s the central bank’s next rate-setting date), but even then it’s not dead certain that rates will move.

Mortgage rates are linked to bond yields, which have been rising for a while now. But mortgage rates have been moving faster.

Thanks to the always helpful Bank of Canada online interest rate database, we know that the yield for five-year Government of Canada bonds has averaged 4.03 per cent since the beginning of 2000. Five-year Canada bonds had a yield of 3.02 per cent yesterday, which means they’re three-quarters of the way back to their average of the past decade.

The 10-year average for posted five-year fixed-rate mortgages is 6.75 per cent, which means this rate is almost 93 per cent of the way back to its long-term average. There is zero consensus that things have normalized after the financial crisis, but the banks are just about all the way back to pricing mortgages as if they were.

And, no, this “go big or go home” attitude to rates has not been extended to guaranteed investment certificates, which are one source the banks use for the money they lend out as mortgages. The current posted Big Bank five-year GIC rate tops out at 2.1 per cent, or 63 per cent of its 10-year average rate of 3.31 per cent.

John Turner, director of mortgages at Bank of Montreal, said the banks are simply reacting to the rising rate environment in setting borrowing costs for mortgages.

“It’s not about any of us trying to get ahead of things, because the market won’t let us,” he said. “It’s a very competitive market.”

Mr. Turner cited two factors that have driven fixed-rate mortgages lately. One is an effort by the banks to anticipate higher bond yields and avoid repeated increases in mortgage rates. “We don’t like to move rates because it causes dissatisfaction, and it causes disruption in the sales force.”

The other driver of higher mortgage costs is the rising cost of providing interest-rate guarantees for people who are smart enough to lock in a rate as soon as they start looking for a home. Mr. Turner said these costs haven’t been a factor much in recent years because the general trend for interest rates has been downward. Now, with rates on a definite upward path, rate guarantees are a bigger consideration for lenders.

Banks won’t say this out loud, but their own internal business considerations help set mortgage rates as well. Sometimes, this works in favour of borrowers. In February, for example, the banks lowered mortgage rates even as bond yields rose a tick or two. Now, the banks seem to be in a mood to emphasize profits over market share or, as it’s known in bank land, widen spreads between what they charge and what they pay.

“The banks normally do this when interest rates are moving,” said David McVay, a financial services industry consultant with McVay and Associates. “But their retail profits have been pretty strong, and they widened spreads quite well when they put up line-of-credit rates [in 2008-09]. That was a big boost to profits right there.”

Mr. McVay seconded Mr. Turner’s comment about the mortgage marketplace being too competitive for banks to be out of line with their mortgage rates. In fact, there is a huge variation in rates right now that demands some shopping around from homebuyers and people facing renewals.

One of the better deals in the mortgage market today is BMO’s offer of a 4.35-per-cent five-year, fixed-rate mortgage. You can’t take an amortization longer than 25 years with this mortgage, and there’s less room to make pre-payments than there is with a standard BMO mortgage. But a glance at the websites of several mortgage brokers yesterday suggests you won’t find a lower rate.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/are-big-banks-jumping-the-gun/article

by Malcolm Morrison, THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO – Real estate fraud is a rare thing but experts in the field say that doesn’t mean people should assume it will never happen to them – considering the misery it can inflict on the unwary homeowner, it’s worth knowing that it’s out there and it’s nasty.

“I compare the fraud issue to the lottery,” said Ray Leclair of title insurance provider TitlePlus.

“There are millions of transactions in Ontario alone in real property every year. A very minute number of those are fraudulent. So for the public to win or lose in the fraud lottery, the odds are very low.”

But it’s not an experience you would ever want to go through, he said, even though governments have put in place some measures to make it easier for people to regain ownership title that have been fraudulently pilfered.

“At the end of the day, even if you get your title back, there’s the question of (legal fees).”

There are two types of real estate fraud to be concerned about – mortgage fraud and title fraud.

Mortgage fraud is something that is more troublesome for lenders. It involves a fraudster leaving the title or ownership of a property in the current owner’s name but mortgaging it without their knowledge, sometimes by fraudulently discharging the existing mortgage. It can also happen when a would-be homeowner falsifies information to get a mortgage.

“That’s just a fact of lending,” said Laura Parsons, manager of specialized sales for Bank of Montreal in Calgary.

“There are people out there who normally wouldn’t get a loan granted to them but because they are fraudulent and give incomplete information or they don’t let the lender know all the information, they end up getting approved.”

What the average homeowner has to look out for is title fraud. It happens when a fraudster changes the ownership or title of a property into another name in order to sell or refinance the property.

According to the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services, “it often involves fraudsters using stolen identity or forged documents to transfer a registered owner’s title to himself or herself securing a mortgage on the property and then disappearing with the mortgage proceeds.”

Parsons calls it a form of identity theft.

“So they know all the details of the person, they go to the land title registry, they pull a title and they find out that there is no encumbrance on the property,” she said.

“Now they have basically a ticket to sell the property, so they go in and they can change home ownership.”

If the fraudster has enough information, they can change ownership of the property at a land titles office, put a property in their own name. Then they either sell it or go to the bank and get a homeowner line of credit or a mortgage put on that property for their own purposes.

You would think that you would know immediately if you had been scammed, but fraudsters aren’t entirely stupid and there are ways to delay finding out.

“They have gone in and taken the title or put a mortgage on and then they will pay it for two or three months,” said Leclair.

In the meantime, you’re getting all your bills and everything looks fine.

“In the meantime, your mortgage is gone and there’s a new mortgage on there – it’s going to be paid for two or three months and then two or three months later, they default, there’s two or three months waiting time before the bank actually does something so six months, nine months down the road, you now get an angry bank calling you, saying they’re going to sell, or you get someone showing up at the door saying you’re out the door.”

Leclair also pointed to a fraud victim in Vancouver who started wondering why he wasn’t getting his property tax bill.

He called city hall and was told “well, you sold the property.”

“It’s very ordinary things. You don’t get a water bill, you don’t get those kind of things that could be a hint that something has changed along the way.”

Leclair notes that while the government has systems in place to help you if you are defrauded, it’s up to the homeowner to monitor. Both he and Parsons emphasized the importance of protecting your private information as a way to avoid becoming a target of real estate fraud.

Parsons said, in particular, you want to keep your social insurance number confidential. And that means not carrying around your SIN card in your wallet where it could be lost or stolen.

“And now with these recycling bins, people are throwing more and more of their mail and personal information in the blue bin – people should get a shredder – $149 buys you some security,” she said.

And consider title insurance. Not only does it protect you now and in the future, it provides coverage for fraud that may have occurred prior to your purchase of your home.

Leclair said the insurance costs about $200 to $300, depending on the value of the property, and it is good for as long as you own the home.

And one of the worst things you can do?

“I’ve read articles where people say the best protection against fraud is to get the biggest mortgage you can on your property – it’s a fallacy,” said Leclair.

“People figure, well if there’s no equity in the property, how can they steal it? Well they can go in and fraudulently discharge the mortgage. I laugh every time I see this. Discharging a mortgage is probably simpler than anything else. It’s the bank’s signature, it’s very easy to imitate. Who knows what a bank’s signature looks like?”

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/article/cpmoney/real-estate-fraud-rare-but-experts-warn-homeowners-lookout-20100408

Beware fraudsters’ dirty tricks

A hot real-estate market has lit a fire under criminal activity

Be warned: Booming markets bring not only higher home prices but often a significant increase in residential real-estate fraud.

That is the word coming out of such disparate organizations as title insurance companies, mortgage insurance firms and law enforcement agencies.

“Yes indeed, we see instances of fraud rise with booming markets, especially in major cities,” says Ray Leclair, vice-president at TitlePLUS, the title insurance arm of Lawyers Professional Indemnity Co., which provides lawyers their version of medical malpractice insurance.

But, he adds, real-estate fraud is not confined exclusively to any upsurge in prices. “It can also take place years after you have bought a home, at a time when homeowners would not expect it.”

While there are no hard statistics on real-estate and mortgage fraud for Canada, in the United States estimates of annual losses run between $4-billion (U.S.) and $6-billion a year. In June, 2008, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation had 42 working groups investigating 1,380 cases – and that was after the U.S. real-estate bubble burst.

“Industry statistics suggest mortgage fraud alone results in annual losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Mr. Leclair says. “In many cases there is little publicity because banks are concerned about maintaining customer confidence.

“They just quietly absorb the losses.”

If you want another statistic, think about this one. Many forms of real-estate fraud require the participation of a lawyer. Last fall, The Globe and Mail reported that in Ontario, between 100 and 140 lawyers were under investigation for complaints having to do with alleged mortgage irregularities.

So what is real-estate fraud?

Criminals are an inventive lot. If there is money to be made, they will find ways to get at it. When 1930s bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, his answer was a no-brainer. “Because that is where the money is,” he said.

Same with real estate. When the average home price in the GTA is well above $450,000 and a $400,000 mortgage is at stake, that is a powerful incentive for a few days’ work for those with a criminal bent.

The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (cisc.gc.ca), a group that represents 308 law enforcement agencies across Canada, lists half a dozen schemes that have made villains millions in recent years. They range from tarting up a grow-op house and selling it complete with mould and structural damage to unsuspecting buyers to “fraud for shelter.”

In those cases, a buyer wildly overstates family income, buys a home, gets a mortgage and then promptly stops paying the bills. These relatively garden-variety criminals can often get six months free of basic living costs before they are forced to move on.

More common scams are variations on the Oklahoma, in which a property is sold to a fictitious buyer, who then arranges a large mortgage, pockets the proceeds and disappears. This may also involve a number of equally fictitious buyers flipping the property one to another. Each sale raises the purchase price until the final sale involves a whopping big mortgage.

This crew then pockets the proceeds and vanishes.

Then there are those involving identity theft. Criminals find ways – almost always involving bent lawyers – to change the name of the registered owner on the title to the property. They then obtain a mortgage or even sell the home, collect the proceeds and move on.

The real owners only find out when the mortgage company starts sending nasty letters about missed mortgage payments or the new owners show up with a moving van.

Is there any way to protect homes against fraud? Not surprisingly, Mr. Leclair is a keen proponent of title insurance. Yes, lawyers are supposed to do due diligence, but all they can certify is that everything was ship-shape on closing day.

Title insurance, however, safeguards against fraud, misrepresentation or error as long as a person owns a home.

Title insurance can even kick in should a builder make an unintentional error in paperwork. Mr. Leclair talks about a recent case where a client bought a condo with a lake view and paid extra for it. On moving day, however, his key did not fit the door of the suite he thought he bought. It did, however, open the door to the one across the hallway with a lovely view of a parking lot.

“It was a clerical error,” Mr. Leclair says. “It was not intentional.”

TitlePLUS worked with their client and the developer to find a resolution. The client liked the suite, so a significant reduction in purchase price was arrived at.

“Title insurance can also cover a huge range of small items,” Mr. Leclair says. “We get lots of cases involving things like the vendor not paying taxes or utility bills as claimed or buyers not given the parking spots they were entitled to.”

He suggests simple preventative measures such as checking credit scores regularly to spot inquiries you do not recognize; protecting personal documents so no one can access birth certificates, social insurance numbers, bank statement or credit card information; and keeping an eye on the mail lest property tax and utility bills you do not recognize show up.

“Real-estate fraud is one of those crimes that can happen to anyone,” he says. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/beware-fraudsters-dirty-tricks/article1535677/?cmpid=rss1