Justin da Rosa
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

 

A Canadian start up called Seizin likens itself to Uber and Airbnb and claims to give Canadians control of the real estate market by cutting out third-party commissions.

“Seizin is a Canadian start up launching an online platform for residential real estate in Toronto,” Seizin said in a press kit, which was shared with CREW. “The Seizin platform is the beginning of true peer-to-peer real estate in Canada, empowering homeowners to market their properties to prospective buyers and cut out agents’ commissions to save tens – if not hundreds – of thousands of dollars.”

The company, which bills itself as a technology company and not a brokerage, allows homeowners to market and sell their homes directly to buyers on a secure platform.

“Commissions add a massive transaction cost to residential real estate sales. Last year in the City of Toronto alone, we estimate there was a $1.2-billion wealth transfer from homeowners in aggregate to real estate brokerages through commissions (based on a $24.6-billion sales volume and an average commission of 5%),” Seizin said. “There is lack of trust in the traditional real estate model resulting from its high cost, bidding wars, dubious practices such as phantom offers, high-pressure environment and misaligned incentives. Canadians want a better way and are not receiving it from discount brokerages or FSBO companies.”

It also operates offline, by offering lawn signs – similar to those used by agents for decades.

“The most exciting part of our launch is that this is just the beginning,” Johnny Henderson, cofounder and CEO of Seizin, wrote in a release. “The development of Seizin continues to be an iterative process and we have big plans for the future as we add functionality and expand our coverage. I hope you’ll follow Seizin as it pursues its mission of disrupting residential real estate and finding new ways to empower Canadians.”

Seizin will also offer market data as well as access to experts that help sellers better market their homes, including; appraisers, painters, and photographers.

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Keith Leslie
Canadian Real Estate Wealth

Ontario will take steps next week to deal with rising house prices in the Toronto area, but it will not follow British Columbia’s lead and impose a tax on foreign buyers.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa said Tuesday that “something must be done” to deal with soaring home prices in Toronto, especially for first-time buyers who find it near impossible to save a big enough down payment to enter the market.

“We recognize that more has to be done in order to enable those in the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Golden Horseshoe to accommodate some of the rising price points of homes, and we know that it’s becoming more difficult for first-time homebuyers, so we’re looking at ways to address it,” he said.

Sousa told the Canadian Club Toronto he needs more data on the impact of B.C.’s foreign buyer’s tax in Vancouver and more information on the Toronto market, and doesn’t want to do anything that would adversely affect neighbouring real estate markets.

“The market mix is different than it is in British Columbia, so we want to take the appropriate steps to address the matter without then negatively impacting other regions around the GTA,” he said. “We have to determine what the degree of foreign investment is, what degree of vacancies are occurring, to what degree there is speculation going on and flipping of properties.”

Home sales in Vancouver began to dip before the 15 per cent tax on foreign buyers was implemented in August, but those declines have accelerated since, plunging nearly 39 per cent last month compared with October 2015.

In the Greater Toronto Area, a record 9,768 properties were sold last month up 11.5 per cent year-over-year even as prices jumped 21 per cent from the same month in 2015.

Sousa will outline Ontario’s plan to address housing affordability in next week’s fall economic statement, but he wouldn’t say if he plans to offer tax breaks to first-time buyers or take measures to help lower prices.

“We want to make certain that we’re providing the appropriate supports,” he said.

The Ontario Real Estate Association wants the government to exempt first-time buyers from the land transfer tax, which rises from half-a-per cent on the first $55,000 of a purchase price to two per cent for everything above $400,000.

The city of Toronto also imposes a land transfer tax of its own, of one per cent on the first $55,000 and two per cent on the rest of the sale price.

“Expanding that first-time homebuyers’ tax credit would really help, especially in the GTA,” said OREA CEO Tim Hudak.

Sousa also announced that the Liberal government would soon introduce legislation to establish a Financial Services Regulatory Authority that will “modernize and strengthen” regulations, with more of a consumer focus. He said the mandates of the Financial Services Commission of Ontario, the Financial Service Tribunal and the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Ontario were “outdated.”

Further details of the new regulator will be revealed when the economic statement is delivered Monday, he said

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Justin da Rosa
Mortgage Broker News

Starting June 30, 2017, brokers in BC will have to disclose what they earn to their clients.

The Financial Institutions Commission (FICOM) released the Mortgage Broker Conflict of Interest Guidelines late Tuesday.

Under the guidelines, every broker who works on a transaction will be required to disclose to borrowers the commissions and bonuses they earn on the file.

“Section 17.3 of the Act requires that mortgage brokers provide disclosure to borrowers in the  prescribed Form 10, which is found in the Act Regulations,” FICOM said in its guidelines.

“Section 17.4 requires the same type of disclosure be provided to lenders.”

The disclosure requirement has been met with widespread industry criticism – many arguing they put the broker industry at a competitive disadvantage against bank mortgage specialists, who are not subject to the disclosure rule.

The Registrar of Mortgage Brokers released a Q&A that addresses many industry questions. That can be read in full here.

Under the new guidelines, brokers will have to go so far as describe what future bonuses they could make on a deal.

“The Registrar accepts that future payments may be difficult to predict with certainty.  While the adequacy of disclosure will depend on the facts of the transaction, as a general practice, a description of each funding tier and what the potential bonus commission will be, in a dollar amount, for each funding tier,  would be considered reasonable disclosure under the Act,” The Registrar of Mortgage Brokers said in its Q&A. “Mortgage brokers are expected to explain how the volume bonus works to consumers, and what is required in order for a mortgage broker to earn the volume bonus in the future.”

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Canadian Real Estate Wealth

A Shanghai real estate exhibit, which aims to connect Chinese nationals with overseas investment properties, speaks to the growing interest in those types of opportunities.

The 13th edition of the “Overseas Property and Immigration and Investment Exhibition” is set for March 10-12 at the Shanghai International Convention Centre.

CREW obtained a brochure for the invite-only event, which is targeted to Chinese “VIP” buyers interested in purchasing foreign real estate.

The inaugural edition of the event, which took place in March of 2011, drew a total of eight countries and 29 companies who targeted investors. The total number of potential investors was under 9,000.

Fast-forward to a recent event, which took place in March of this year, where a total of 43 countries and 208 companies took part. VIP investors totalled a whopping 35,001.

“With over 100+ expos in 10 years, we have opened our doors to over 3,500 exhibitors, 500,000+ high-end investors and welcomed the voice of hundreds of senior level industry experts,” a rep for the forum wrote in an email to CREW.

Foreign investment in Canada’s real estate market is a hot topic. Its influence is difficult to determine and much of the stats and studies are anecdotal or incomplete.

According to the brochure of the September edition of the event, 55% of potential investor attendees are between the age of 40-50. The vast majority of attendees have an annual household income of over $600,000.

As for exhibitors, companies from North America make up the second-largest group at 30% — following just behind Australia (36%).

Copyright © 2016 Key Media Pty Ltd

Jill Slattery
other

The most expensive home for sale in Canada is a condo in Coal Harbour.

The $58,888,000 penthouse at Three Harbour Green on Thurlow Street is right at the waterfront and has 360-degree views of the city, ocean and mountains.

It’s just over 8,000 square feet with four bedrooms and five bathrooms, plus two rooftop terraces and a balcony totalling 4,840 square feet. It also has a private seven-car garage.

Built in 2012, the property was last sold in 2014 for $16.6 million, meaning the latest listing price shows an increase of 254 per cent.

Documents show the condo is currently owned by a numbered company called 0996109 B.C. Ltd.

But with the uncertainty in Vancouver’s real estate market at the moment, what are the chances a buyer will step up to the plate with almost $60 million in hand?

The condo is the only property listed at over $50 million in the country, and is one of only seven listed at over $30 million. Plus, there have only been five homes sold for over $20 million in Metro Vancouver in the last two years.

There’s also the 15 per cent foreign buyer tax that will add another $8.8 million to the price tag, if an overseas buyer takes the bite.

But for someone with that kind of money, realtor Tom Gradecak says they’d likely be able to negotiate.

“If someone is looking to spend $50 million on a house, they will probably find a way to buy the home and likely negotiate part or all of the tax with the seller,” Gradecak said.

On the other hand, UBC economist and real estate expert Thomas Davidoff questions the financial aptitude of someone willing to spend that kind of money on taxes.

“Naturally, the 15 per cent foreign buyer tax makes this a more difficult sale, because the number of Canadians willing and able to purchase this property must be small, and no one got rich paying over $9 million dollars in taxes to buy luxuries,” Davidoff said.

Even if a local buyer could put together a 20 per cent down payment on the condo – $11.7 million – they would still need to find about $118,000 bi-weekly for mortgage payments. That’s $2.8 million a year in payments.

© 2016 Global News

Grosvenor’s Connaught making its home in North Vancouver’s popular Edgemont Village

Simon Briault
The Vancouver Sun

Connaught

Project location: 3230 Connaught Crescent, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver

Project size: 23 townhomes and 59 apartments. Homes that are still available range between 1,097 and 1,528 square feet and are priced at $1.38 million to $2.26 million.

Developer: Grosvenor

Architect: Rositch Hemphill Architects

Interior designer: Scott Trepp

Sales centre: 3044 Edgemont Boulevard, North Vancouver

Hours: noon — 5 p.m.

Telephone: 604-699-0036

Website: connaughtliving.com

Occupancy: Spring 2018

People love Edgemont Village. It’s consistently ranked among North Vancouver’s favourite neighbourhoods and its popularity is one of the reasons why those behind Connaught, a new development of townhomes and apartments to be located just off Edgemont Boulevard, have had no problems generating interest from buyers.

Negar Hadavi is one of them. A director at a company that sells natural wellness products, she and her husband bought a three-bedroom, two-level townhome at Connaught and will be taking possession in early 2018 when the 82-home development is complete.

“My husband is an entrepreneur who owns a spin studio and one of the reasons we bought here is that we’re opening our second location only two minutes away from the development,” Hadavi said. “There’s not much you can get in the area now for $1.5 to $2 million. Instead of buying an old house that we would have to tear down and rebuild, we were looking for a more urban type of living arrangement. It’s concrete, it has air conditioning and it has a lot of premium amenities that we would have wanted if we had built our own place.”

The developers, a company called Grosvenor, have a 300-year history and started out building homes in the West End of London, England. Developments in Vancouver, where the company has been operating for more than 40 years, include The RISE along the Cambie Corridor, 15West in North Vancouver, 5955 Balsam in Kerrisdale and a development in West Vancouver called Grosvenor Ambleside.

“We have a strong reputation for quality, and seek opportunities to create, to invest in and to manage properties and places that contribute to the success of a city,” said Michael Ward, senior vice-president of development for Grosvenor Americas. “Grosvenor aims to make long-term contributions to places like Edgemont Village by using creative design and high-quality building methods in all our projects.”

At Connaught, this translates into outdoor living areas for every home – some as large as 1,000 square feet – a landscaped rooftop courtyard equipped with a barbecue, a fire pit, seating and a natural kid’s play area, and interiors that are reminiscent of a single-family home.

“It was important that the homes fit within the context of Edgemont Village, so Connaught features comfortable, spacious living spaces that lend to the feel of a single-family home,” Ward said. “This is echoed throughout the homes, from the size of the rooms and extent of the storage space, to ample counter space and extra-large sinks in the kitchen. Downsizers will notice single-family home elements are incorporated into each Connaught home and young families will feel the benefits of generous, thoughtfully designed spaces.”

Kitchens feature imported Italian wood cabinetry, soft-close door and drawer mechanisms and under-cabinet lighting. Bosch appliance packages include five-burner gas cooktops, integrated dishwashers and fridge freezers, and stainless steel exhaust hoods. There are polished quartz countertops complemented by marble slab backsplashes, under-mount stainless steel sinks with polished chrome kitchen faucets by Kohler and integrated garbage/recycling centres.

Bathrooms feature imported Italian wood vanities, over-sized marble tile for flooring, shower and tub surrounds. There are four-inch profile polished quartz countertops and under-mount sinks in bathrooms, including double vanity sinks in all master bathrooms. The chrome faucets are by Kohler, there are rain shower heads and polished chrome hand-helds in all master ensuites, and all bathrooms feature dual-flush toilets.

So the luxury is all there, but both Hadavi and Ward both come back to the location of Connaught when asked what really makes it special.

“Location has definitely been a key selling point for the project,” Ward said. “Edgemont Village offers the feel of a small community in a spectacular setting. It’s not uncommon here for business owners to know their patrons by name. Buyers benefit from the unique collection of established and family-owned businesses in the area, and residents will also benefit from a full-service Thrifty Foods amongst an array of boutique shops and services at Connaught.”

Hadavi explained that she grew up in North Vancouver and still has a strong attachment to the area. She and her husband were married two years ago and are looking to raise a family soon.

“Another reason we like the area is the school system – I obviously know it very well. Edgemont is a residential area that feels really homey. It’s safe and quiet, but also only a 15-minute drive to downtown and it’s probably the only suburb of Vancouver I would consider living in. All my friends live on the North Shore and all my mum’s friends live there too so it just feels like home. I love Edgemont Village. It’s my happy place.”

Homes at Connaught have been selling fast. The two- and three-bedroom homes that are still available range between 1,097 and 1,528 square feet and are priced between $1.38 million to $2.26 million.

Connaught, By the Numbers:

15: in minutes, driving distance to downtown Vancouver

23: number of townhomes at Connaught

59: number of apartments at Connaught

1,000: in square feet, the size of the largest outdoor area

1,528: in square feet, the size of the largest Connaught homes still on offer

 © 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.

TR/MSC
other

This milestone confirms that greatness attracts greatness; your talents and achievements have built a brand others want to join.

In the third quarter, we had gains in the U.S., gains in Canada and gains in the rest of the world. We’ve grown every quarter for over four years – 19 quarters in all. You can share the news on Facebook, or from ABOVE. 

The people drawn to RE/MAX are a mix of established producers and newer agents aspiring to get better. And the growing agent count benefits us all – it brings more listings, more yard signs, more advertising, more brand power, more phone calls, more web traffic, more referrals and more satisfied buyers and sellers.

So celebrate the fact we’re 110,000 agents strong. And know you’re in good company – because more and more professionals are choosing to call RE/MAX home.

Jimmy Le-Tang
other

The ”One-Plus” Rule

The formula used to calculate the principal residence exemption is: 

(1+B)/C  

Where B = the number of years your home is your principal residence and C = number of years of ownership.  The “one-plus” portion of the formula enables a taxpayer to purchase a home in a given year and sell their former home in the same calendar year and still be able to claim both residences in the same year as their principal residence.  In other words, the “one-plus” rule enables an overlap of one year whereby both residences would still qualify for the principal residence exemption.  If both properties are owned for more than one year then one of those properties would be disqualified from claiming the principal residence for the years in excess of one. 

The Department of Finance indicated that the One-Plus rule was not intended to apply to non-residents of Canada.  Effective October 2, 2016, the one-plus rule will only apply to persons resident in Canada in the year the person acquires the property.  The effect of this change is that non-resident buyers would not be able to claim the principal residence exemption in respect of the subject property for the year in which the property was purchased.  This effectively creates a taxable capital gain for one year of ownership when the property is eventually disposed. 

Positive Reporting Requirement for Disposals of Principal Residence

By way of legislation, taxpayers have always been required to report the sale of their principal residence and claim the principal residence exemption in order to avoid paying taxes on the capital gain on the sale of their principal residence.  Historically, the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) did not require taxpayers to report the capital gain if the entire capital gain is waived due to utilization of the principal residence exemption.  This meant that no additional action on the part of the taxpayer was required to avoid paying taxes on the capital gain.   

Effective January 1, 2016, ALL taxpayers will have to report the sale of their principal residence on their personal tax return in the year in which the sale occurred.  In other words, for all of your clients that disposed of their principal residence in 2016, they will need to report the sale on their 2016 personal tax return which is due April 30, 2017.  The taxpayer would report the disposition on Schedule 3 Summary of Dispositions – Capital Gains (or Losses) and claim the principal residence exemption by filing Form T2091 to designate the home as a principal residence for any given year.  This means that taxpayers MUST file the election to utilize the principal residence exemption, otherwise, taxes would be calculated on the taxable capital gain.  Given the current market, the taxes on the capital gain would be significant. 

If taxpayers forget to file, then they would need to file an amended return for the year in which the disposal took place.  The CRA indicated that they will treat the filing of Form T2091 as an election; accordingly, filing a late election will trigger a late filing penalty at the lower of $8,000 or $100 for each complete month from the original filing due date to the date that the form is filed. 

Statute-Barred Period for Reassessment

Normally, the statute-barred period for the CRA to be able to reassess a tax return is 3 years from the date of the notice of assessment for that tax year.  However, in the case of failing to report the disposition of real property (regardless of whether the real property was a principal residence), the statute-barred period is indefinite.  This means that the CRA can go back indefinitely to impose taxes on capital gains that were not reported on the sale of real property occurring in 2016 and later tax years.  For example, your client sells their real property (principal residence or investment property) in 2016 but forgets to report the disposition.  Fifteen years later, the CRA catches wind of your client’s failure to report.  The CRA can go back and recalculate the taxes payable as at the year in which the sale took place.  This will result in taxes payable.  Further, because the taxes were not paid by the due date (15 years ago), the CRA will also charge interest going back 15 years!  Even at fairly low prescribed interest rates, interest on a significant taxes payable balance over 15 years is a lot of money. 

Closing Comments

Your clients do not expect you to be tax experts (that’s my role); however, your clients may expect you to know enough to tell them about a potential issue and to refer them on to a professional who can help them (nudge… this is where I hope you would refer your clients to me).  Even if your clients don’t have that expectation of you, what a hero you’d be in your clients’ eyes if you simply brought this issue to their attention.  The mere mention of the potential issue is a clear demonstration of the extraordinary client service that you provide to your clients.

Woodfibre proceeding with B.C.’s first major LNG project in Squamish

GORDON HOEKSTRA AND DERRICK PENNER
The Vancouver Sun

Premier Christy Clark donned a hard hat Friday to join Woodfibre LNG executive Byng Giraud, as he announced what amounts to his company’s funding approval for a proposed $1.6-billion natural gas liquefaction plant.

Giraud, country manager for Woodfibre LNG, said the board’s decision is the equivalent of a final investment decision for the project, which will export 2.1 million tonnes of LNG per year to Asia starting in 2020.

The company still needs to secure natural gas supplies in B.C.’s northeast, a permit from the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission and its engineering consultants are still working on details of construction costs, but, as Giraud said, “this project is a go.”

The announcement is welcome news for Clark ahead of the May 2017 election, after two years of headlines about LNG proponents cancelling projects, delaying proposals and being caught in indecision in the middle of a supply glut that has collapsed global prices for the fuel.

“This is the first of 20 projects that are in the pipeline somewhere to go forward so far, and I’m just delighted to say that LNG in British Columbia is finally becoming a reality,” Clark said.

Woodfibre, which will be built on an old pulp mill site south of town, is the smallest of the leading four proposals in B.C., promising 650 construction jobs and 100 permanent operating jobs. Other proposals include the Shell Canada-led, $25-billion LNG Canada venture, which is currently on hold.

“It gives (Clark) the first half of the soundbite. ‘We took action and there’s a plant that is about to be built,’” said Mario Canseco, vice-president of public affairs for pollster Insights West.

“But it’s nowhere (close to what Clark) promised.”

Canseco’s firm has been tracking attitudes on key issues such as the economy, the environment and housing in the province and said it won’t be easy for the B.C. Liberals to convince voters that they’ve delivered on the LNG file.

And it is unlikely that any other LNG proponent will come through with a final investment decision before the election next May, according to an update from natural gas development minister Rich Coleman.

The announcement also comes at time when there is still a high level of uncertainty within the global LNG industry.

Ed Kallio, principal and analyst with Calgary-based Eau Claire Energy Advisory, said the Woodfibre announcement was encouraging and a “pretty big step” that shows its board of directors has confidence the elements are in place to go ahead.

However, Kallio said the economics for LNG are currently upside down, with prices for the fuel in Asia not high enough to cover a project’s cost. He said prices would need to rise and stabilize by 2020 to make the project viable.

Giraud, however, was less concerned about market prices.

“We’re a bit of a different company, we can take different sorts of risks,” he said.

Woodfibre is a private company and can “take a longer view” than the big public companies that have quarterly obligations to shareholders, he said.

Also, Woodfibre’s parent company, Pacific Oil & Gas Limited, which is part of the Singapore-based RGE group, owns natural gas-fired power plants and shares in an LNG import terminal in China, so is approaching the deal as more of a customer, Giraud said.

The company’s decision was helped along by a key concession from the province on electricity prices. Woodfibre was granted B.C. Hydro’s heritage industrial rates because it plans to use electricity to drive its liquefaction process, not burn natural gas as others have proposed.

That rate is $60 per megawatt hour, which is cheaper than the $84 per megawatt hour that the province negotiated with LNG producers to cover electricity for ancillary needs — but energy and mines minister Bill Bennett doesn’t consider it a subsidy.

Clark said this price — dubbed the “eDrive” rate — will be open to any other LNG proposal that switches from gas to electricity to power liquefaction.

The eDrive news was welcomed by B.C.’s independent power producers, which have been lobbying to become suppliers to the LNG industry.

“It is important to electrify LNG facilities in order to help gain social licence and mitigate climate change concerns,” said Paul Kariya, executive director of the IPP lobby group Clean Energy B.C.

However, while Clark continued to tout LNG as an option to help displace dirtier emissions from coal, environmentalists again condemned her LNG ambitions.

The Woodfibre plant undermines B.C.’s attempts to meet its own climate-change goals, according to Pembina Institute associate director Matt Horne.

The project also faces considerable opposition within Squamish itself, where a growing number of residents see the LNG development as incompatible with the town’s post-industrial identity as an eco-tourist destination.

Woodfibre and the province made the announcement at the proposed plant site a day after the company’s community office was vandalized by a fire that damaged the building’s exterior.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc

DAN FUMANO
The Vancouver Sun

When Trump University rolled through Vancouver in 2010, teaching people the secrets of acquiring wealth through real estate investment, the list of presenters and staff members included the names of a convicted cocaine trafficker, a controversial self-proclaimed “real estate guru” and an Ontario man implicated in a multimillion dollar fraud.

Trump University ran from 2005-11 as a travelling, educational institute promising to teach “students” the strategies of its namesake, celebrity billionaire Donald Trump, now the U.S. Republican Party’s nominee in next week’s presidential election.

But Trump University was sued by former students and scrutinized by U.S. authorities, who claimed it was an elaborate scam.

The instructors, students heard, were all “hand-picked” by Trump himself.

A review of thousands of pages of Trump University customer satisfaction surveys reveals the names of at least 10 of the presenters and staff members who worked, in the first half of 2010, on three-day seminars in Vancouver, where the initiative was called “Trump Education.”

The surveys were released this year by Trump and his attorneys. They were completed by students of seminars between 2007-10 in locations around the U.S., as well as Saskatoon, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

One Trump team member listed in the Vancouver “Profit from Real Estate Investing” session was Damian Pell, who 10 years earlier had pleaded guilty in Florida to a felony charge of trafficking cocaine, The Associated Press reported last week.

Florida court records reviewed by Postmedia News show Pell was arrested in 1999 and pleaded guilty the following year, receiving a three-year jail sentence and a $53,000 fine.

An attendee of Pell’s April 2010 seminar in Vancouver wrote Pell was “helpful, yet little to know (sic) education. 50 minutes on himself, how he conducts business in everything but real estate.”

One week after Pell’s seminar in Vancouver, a man named Dave Ravindra presented a Trump Education “retreat” in Vancouver, the surveys show.

Last year, a man named Dave Ravindra (also known as “Ravindra Dave”) entered a settlement agreement with the Ontario Securities Commission, saying he and his former spouse raised more than $5 million from dozens of investors, engaged in “fraudulent conduct” and “used investor funds for other business purposes, and for personal benefit.”

An OSC spokeswoman could not confirm that the Dave Ravindra who committed fraud in Ontario was the same person who spoke at Trump Education seminar in Vancouver. But according to OSC filings, the man implicated in the Ontario fraud spent 2009-12 presenting “predominantly paid seminars to the public in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia that purported to provide education and information regarding real estate related investments.”

In August 2015, the OSC ordered Ravindra and his co-respondents to pay a total of $3.6 million in dis-gorgements, costs and penalties. As of this week, the OSC’s delinquent payments list shows Ravindra had not yet paid a dime.

In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Scnheiderman sued Trump and others involved with Trump University, “for engaging in persistent fraudulent, illegal and deceptive conduct in connection with the operation of Trump University.”

Court filings describe an introductory video at the seminars, in which “Donald Trump himself tells prospective students ‘We’re going to have professors that are absolutely terrific — terrific people, terrific brains, successful, the best. We’re going to have the best of the best … These are all people that are hand-picked by me.’ ”

At the seminars, the attorney general alleged, Trump University staff tried to “upsell” attendees — many of whom were senior citizens — “elite mentorship programs,” which cost US$10,000-$35,000.

In the surveys on the website, many Vancouver attendees expressed excitement about the knowledge and skills they learned.

An attendee of self-proclaimed “real-estate guru” Gerald Martin’s January 2010 Trump seminar in Vancouver wrote on his survey: “I would love to take the Elite Program, is there financing available yes/no. $15,000 down payment the rest in a 3-year term at 7%.”

Trump University is no longer in operation.

Emails sent to the Trump Organization and Trump campaign had not been answered by Thursday.

© 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.