So far so good with the rate cut cycle. Everything's been going mostly according to plan after May (which usually indicates we're due for something unplanned).

Camerican price levels are slowly but surely disinflating, the labour market is easing, and Wall Street / Bay Street projects that GDP will dive in the back half of this year.

As usual, fortune-telling investors are pricing all this in well in advance. The more traders get confident that rate cuts will continue, the more the fixed-rate leading 4-year swap rate will inch towards the 2% range.

Finding good help is a chore. Even harder is losing an employee that a company has trained and cultivated for years. It's especially a gut punch for small businesses with limited backup staff.

That's why firms across the country are eager to offer benefits that matter. And in a land where some have to sell their kidneys to buy a home, one employee perk that resonates is housing assistance. Be it down payment help or company-sponsored rate subsidies, housing-related benefits appeal to most staff, especially first-time buyers on a shoestring.

For brokers or lenders that strategically facilitate these plans, the upside is more business with minimal expense. And enhancing a firm's benefits package doesn't have to cost the company a penny.

Admittedly, it sounds good on paper. Problem is, the execution isn't easy, and the results are often underwhelming.

In the story that follows, MLN dissects this strategy to show what works, including feedback from brokers who've actually done it.

One in three Canadians now take financial advice from online robots. And that number will only grow.

If you sell mortgages and value internet leads, this means you'll want to get friendly with AI. ChatGPT and similar bots open up a new world of possibilities for mortgage marketers. Savvy originators can use these tools to widen their net when fishing for clients.

For those without established referral networks, AI optimization takes on even more importance, as not everyone can boast the brand muscle of RBC, the search engine optimization (SEO) prowess of RateHub, or the social media fame of Ron Butler.

If you're a broker reading this publication, what you probably do have is:

• A willingness to invest time in your business
• A core trade area (city/town you broker in)
• A desire to be the best broker in that area.

Those are the first three prerequisites for appearing in local broker searches on ChatGPT. But there's naturally a lot more to it than that.

Developers have been buying down mortgage rates to move unsold inventory for years. As I reported in the Financial Post last week, Concord, Ontario-based CountryWide Homes has been trying to lure buyers with a 2.34% three-year fixed since July.

Similar builder tactics are taking root nationwide. At first glance, this looks like a bad dream to your average mortgage broker. 2.34% is 240 bps lower than any nationally advertised conventional rate. It's hard to compete with that.

Or is it?