A Spotlight Shines on RBC's Appraisal Policy

All of a sudden, RBC’s preconstruction appraisals are getting more scrutiny than Facebook's Metaverse ROI projections. And it's thanks in part to this Globe story about a guy who could have saved his $439,000 condo deposit by mortgaging with RBC—who would have valued his condo $600,000 above its current worth—but he chose not to.

Mortgage Hall of Famer Paul Grewal and capital markets expert Leon Dadoun have teamed up to launch Highclere Capital.

GTA-based Highclere is a technology-driven broker-focused mortgage finance company that promises:

In 2024, the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AIC) unveiled revamped appraisal forms to reflect a bunch of standards changes it made.

"These changes significantly increase the potential liability for brokers who start a deal with one lender, but end up funding with a private lender," says Christopher Bisson, Founder of Appraisal Management firm Value Connect Inc.

“Most mortgage brokers have no idea these changes were made," he adds, likely because they're busy with things more exhilarating than appraisal paperwork.

Among the AIC's form additions were things like:

We reckon that most folks have no inkling who Pinch Financial is or what it does.

As it turns out, this unassuming fintech has morphed into a powerhouse in the mortgage world.

As you may have heard recently, Pinch struck a deal with Realtor.ca, the undisputed leader in Canadian real estate listings with a 50% market share. The plan is for Realtor.ca to cash in on mortgage-related revenue while Pinch orchestrates the technology to make it possible.

On Friday, I penned a Financial Post column explaining the consumer-facing angle, but there's much more to reveal here—behind the curtains—about how this partnership changes the mortgage space. If mortgage lead generation gets your pulse racing, this is a must-read.
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Interest rate uncertainty is nothing new, but seldom does it hit the crescendo we're seeing today.

At least during the Subprime Mortgage Crisis and COVID, you knew central banks had to cut.

Today, most talking heads expect lower inflation but it could go either way by year-end, dictated largely by U.S. policy. Trump & co.'s growth agenda could either prove a tailwind for Canadian inflation or a gale-force headwind that blows our GDP into an abyss, or both.

Amid this week's funhouse of uncertainty, one Big 6 bank economist countered the chaos with an outlook as sharp as a bowling ball:

“Canada's economy will either improve this year or slide into a moderate recession—it all depends on which way the tariff winds blow.”

Blink twice if that clears everything up.

Economists are so mystified they aren't even trying to pretend they have answers. This bank's forecast is the personal finance version of “maybe bring an umbrella”—technically true, functionally unsatisfying, and somehow forgivable.

If there’s anything the 2025 tariff circus reinforced, it’s that even the best-paid macroeconomists with their Ivy League spreadsheets can't predict whether we'll be sipping champagne in two months or hoarding canned beans.

But this isn't the first time a crisis has tossed the outlook like a salad, and it won't be the last.

Whether it’s a pandemic, banking system fiasco, real estate bubble, oil shock, currency devaluation, sovereign debt crisis, or tactless coercion from your biggest trading partner, mortgage rates have always been subject to economic upheavals.

The conundrum is: How do you pick a mortgage term when the rate forecast has the stability of a housecat on a Roomba?

The answer is, we bet on what is knowable.

For instance:
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