Each Wednesday, Real Estate Magazine shares insights, experiences and advice from top-performing teams and agents across Canada. If you’d like to contribute or nominate a colleague or team, send us an email.

Editor’s note: Rob Golfi answered our questions in September 2025, as part of a feature in a special print edition of REM.

REM: How did you first get into real estate?
RGT: I wanted a business where effort directly translated into results. In real estate, when you make a sale, you get paid in 60 to 90 days. In traditional business, you’re often chasing receivables or waiting months for payment. Real estate gave me control over my own success — the harder I worked, the faster I saw the return.

REM: When did you decide to build a team?
RGT: When I joined Re/Max Escarpment in 1999, there were only two teams in the office. I saw how they leveraged time, resources and talent to grow beyond what one agent could do. That inspired me to start my own team so I could scale, create systems and deliver a better client experience.

REM: What role do you play today?
RGT: I’m the visionary. I set the direction, oversee finance, lead the brand and stay involved in operations to make sure everything runs at the highest level. My job is to ensure the systems, marketing and people all align to achieve our goals.

REM: Give us a snapshot of the team today.
RGT:

• Agents: 65

• Staff: 20 (admin, marketing, client care and support)

• Markets: Hamilton, Halton, Brantford, Niagara

• 2024 production: 872 transactions | $670,502,463 volume

• 2025 YTD: 577 transactions | $423,477,248 volume

• Staff-to-agent ratio: 3:1

The Golfi Team continues to expand, with a presence in multiple southern Ontario boards and a strong internal culture built around accountability and results.

REM: What were your first key hires?
RGT: An administrator, an administrative assistant and an agent. Solid administrative support was the foundation — it freed me to focus on listings, marketing and growth. Adding a second agent immediately expanded our ability to handle more clients and maintain quality service.

REM: What advice would you give a new team leader?
RGT: Don’t be greedy. Give your agents all the leads. If they succeed, the team succeeds — and that momentum fuels growth. Your focus should be on building a machine that supports your agents, not competing with them.

REM: What are your top lead sources?
RGT: Direct mail, PPC (Google and Meta ads) and radio/outdoor advertising. Our marketing budget is divided roughly as follows:

• 35 per cent direct mail

• 30 per cent PPC

• 20 per cent radio/outdoor

• 10 per cent SEO/website

• 5 per cent referrals and community events

We’ve learned that every channel plays a role — PPC delivers volume, direct mail drives listing appointments and radio/outdoor builds the brand.

REM: Which channel would hurt most if cut?
RGT: Radio and outdoor. They’re brand trust builders. Those channels connect us to the community, create top-of-mind awareness and legitimize everything else we do online.

REM: How do you handle new leads?
RGT: Every lead goes into our lead router system and is hand-assigned to the duty agent. Our goal is a response time of under five minutes. For call-in leads, it typically takes three to four touches to set an appointment and six to eight touches to convert to a contract. Online leads can take longer. We used to have inside sales agents (ISAs), but we found a strong agent-led follow-up model works best for us today.

REM: What’s in your tech stack?
RGT:

• CRM: Follow Up Boss

• Website/IDX: Sierra Interactive

• Automation: Follow Up Boss + TextingBetty

• AI: Currently piloting AI agents for calls and appointment booking, with weekly email reports for activity-based coaching

• Finance: SISU, leadership meetings, whiteboards and Excel

• Other tools: ConnectTeam (internal comms), BombBomb (video messaging), Canva (marketing)

REM: How much do you reinvest back into the business?
RGT: About 20 per cent goes into marketing and 25 to 30 per cent into staff. We track cost per lead, cost per appointment and cost per deal — but cost per deal is the key number. That’s the metric that shows real profitability. At our scale, a healthy return on ad spend (ROAS) is about 5:1 — for every dollar spent, we expect five back in closed business.

REM: What kind of agents thrive on your team?
RGT: Full-time, coachable, driven agents who follow proven systems. We reward consistency and persistence — and new agents typically get their first deal within 30 to 90 days.

REM: What do top earners do differently?
RGT: They follow up relentlessly and stay in touch long after closing. Follow-up is everything. The best agents never stop nurturing their database — they build lifetime relationships.

Lightning round with Rob Golfi

Market insight: Luxury listings sell faster than people think. Priced right, many move in 45 days or less.
Tech you’d fight to keep: Follow Up Boss — it’s the backbone of our lead management and client follow-up.

Marketing hill you’ll die on: Billboards. They build credibility and brand recognition like nothing else.
Agents fail because… they’re lazy.
Teams win because… they offer accountability, training and great culture.

The post Team spotlight: Q&A with the Rob Golfi Team appeared first on REM.

Following a speech to business leaders in St. John’s, NL, he told reporters on Wednesday that lowering the Bank’s policy rate from 5 per cent to 2.75 per cent over the last year eases the sting for the 60 per cent of mortgage holders who scored ultra-low rates in the early days of the pandemic and are renewing in 2025 and 2026.

“Yes, there is a reset. They will be facing a higher interest rate, but they’re going from an exceptionally low rate to kind of a normal rate, as opposed to something high,” Macklem said in response to a question from Real Estate Magazine at the event hosted by the St. John’s Board of Trade.

“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy.” 

Macklem noted that mortgage holders were stress-tested for a higher rate than the rates they will face at renewal. 

Mortgage delinquencies are already rising

Mortgage holders are already missing more payments, particularly in Ontario. More than 11,000 mortgages in Ontario recorded a missed payment in Q4 2024 — nearly three times the number seen in 2022, according to Equifax.  

Delinquencies were “very low” for a few years, said Macklem. “They have risen, but they’re still below pre-pandemic levels.”

“We are watching that closely. I’m not saying it’s easy, but most Canadians are keeping up with their mortgage payments.”

Renters are more vulnerable

Macklem said rather than homeowners, renters appear more at risk for falling behind.

“If you look at late payments by renters on things like car loans, they actually have risen above pre-pandemic levels,” he said.

More rate cuts ahead? Maybe, says Macklem

Macklem landed in Canada’s easternmost city to deliver a speech on the impact of U.S. trade policy on jobs and inflation.

“Since President Trump took office in January, the world has faced a dramatic escalation in tariffs and pervasive uncertainty,” he said.

“In Canada, trade has been disrupted and jobs have been lost. Businesses have re-evaluated their investment plans. Consumers have become more cautious. And Canadians have told us that they expect higher prices for many imported goods.”

He said the recent announcement that Canada and the U.S. agreed to negotiate a new economic and security relationship within 30 days is welcome news and will help restore stability to jobs, prices, and inflation.

The Bank of Canada last adjusted the policy rate in March to 2.75 per cent from 3 per cent. Macklem said that the weaker the economy and the more downward pressure on inflation, the greater the need to lower the policy interest rate. 

“However, if the recent firmness in underlying inflation were to persist, it would be more difficult to cut the policy rate,” he said.

“Overall, my colleagues and I agreed there could be a need for a further reduction in the policy interest rate if the effects of U.S. tariffs and uncertainty continued to spread through the economy and cost pressures on inflation were contained.”

Courtney Zwicker

Courtney Zwicker is a digital reporter and associate editor for REM. Based in Atlantic Canada, she has over a decade of experience covering daily business news.

The post Why Tiff Macklem isn’t sweating the mortgage renewal wave appeared first on REM.

The idea-prolific CEO of Heaps Estrin Real Estate Team came up with the city-facing mural initiative, which she says allows the team to give something lasting back to the neighbourhoods they serve while spotlighting Canadian artists.

In addition to beautifying the communities where they have had a lot of activity, she says the murals are a way to introduce themselves to new neighbourhoods.

Although the first three murals adorn Heaps Estrin properties, they will appear on a variety of other buildings as Heaps secures more walls throughout the city.

She says building owners have been receptive. Some are offering their walls for free (in return for the beautification project) while others are charging a fee.

“We rent the spaces from landlords, who have the rights to the walls,” she says. “While we don’t check with the building owner on the specific design, they approve us using the space for a mural. Our team collectively chooses the artist.”

Calls for proposals are sent out through several agencies and websites catering to mural artists.

“There has been an incredibly favourable response from talented artists,” she says.

Bringing art to life

From start to finish, the process can take three to six months. First, locations need to be identified and secured, a call for proposals is made, the installation selected, and the mural created, Heaps says.

It’s not an inexpensive endeavour. The cost depends on the size of the wall (so far the largest mural is 20×30 feet). Artist compensation can run in the five figures, she says.

Global artistic talent

The first installation of 2025 features internationally recognized artist Jacquie Comrie, whose work has been featured around the world.

“Jacquie grew up in the community and is a strong forward-looking person,” Heaps says.

Comrie is a Panamanian multimedia artist, mother and mental health advocate in Toronto.

“Personally and professionally, colour is her medicine and language of emotion. Her work is grounded in the belief that colour can be a tool for wellness, healing and emotional connection,” her bio says, adding, “with our current crisis in mental health across the globe, Jacquie seeks to reimagine public art while creating spaces of healing accessible to everyone.”

Comrie’s work joins that of Toronto artist Chris Perez, whose mural (the first in the initiative) was commissioned in 2021. Heaps had seen Perez’s work on a building on Gerrard Street and reached out.

They met and “became buddies,” she says. She gave him carte blanche to create a floral mural that reflects the Leaside community.

Perez is a Filipino abstract painting and mural artist, whose influences are derived from street art, graffiti, murals, abstract art and expressionist painting, his bio says.

The third mural is by American multi-media artist Maxine McCrann, who is based in Toronto. The mural is featured at another of Heaps’ unique marketing concepts, The Lobby, a modern home and lifestyle boutique, art gallery and intimate event space.

McCrann’s bio says, “She believes in slowing down, taking a breath and staying for dessert, striving to capture the little in between moments that make life so beautiful.”

West-end project coming

The soon-to-be-unveiled mural in the west-end Junction neighbourhood will be “more literal and tie back to the brand as the company introduces itself to a new community,” Heaps says.

It will highlight the team’s mascot HERB, a 1993 Subaru Sambar that makes appearances in community parades, local fundraising events and Heaps Estrin parties. She says HERB has become a familiar sight in the company’s communities.

Marketing expertise

Heaps, who has a Bachelor of Commerce with a major in marketing and worked in advertising before her career in real estate, doesn’t rely on conventional advertising.

One in a long list of creative marketing initiatives, the mural project will “transform blank urban walls into vibrant works of art that lifts spirits, sparks conversation and reflects the city’s diversity,” says Heaps, who has ties to the art community and an art gallery at one
of her office locations.

The president, CEO and broker of record is recognized as a thought leader, regularly sharing her insights with local and national media.

She was recently recognized by the Women of Influence+ organization, the RBC Canadian Women Entrepreneur Awards and was inducted into the Royal LePage National Chairman’s Club hall of fame in 2023. She is also a supporter of many charitable organizations.

Plans are underway for more murals. Artists and anyone who wants to submit walls for consideration are asked to contact Jane McIver, director of marketing at jane@heapsestrin.com

Connie Adair

Connie Adair is a contributing writer for REM.

The post How Cailey Heaps is transforming Toronto with city-wide mural initiative appeared first on REM.

Natalka Falcomer

Natalka Falcomer is a lawyer, real estate broker and Certified Leasing Officer who started her real estate career in private equity. She created, hosted and co-produced a popular legal call-in show on Rogers TV and founded and recently sold Groundworks, a firm specializing in commercial leasing law. She is currently the Chief Real Estate Officer of Houseful.ca, leading the development and expansion of the company’s personalized home buying and selling experience for the Canadian market. She sits as an advisor on NAR REACH Canada and is the former multi-year board member of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

The post Building a real estate empire: Lessons from Howard Drukarsh and timeless management principles appeared first on REM.

Emma Caplan-Fisher

Emma Caplan-Fisher is an editor and writer for REM. She has over a decade of experience in various content types and topics, including real estate, housing, business, tech, and home & design. Emma’s work has also been featured in Cottage Life, the Vancouver Real Estate Podcast, the Chicago Tribune, Narcity Media, Healthline, and others. She holds a Certificate in Editing from Simon Fraser University.

The post Beyond the big cities: The business of real estate in smaller communities appeared first on REM.

Susan Doran

Susan Doran is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has been contributing to REM since its very first issue.

The post The Industry Abroad: Decoding China’s real estate market appeared first on REM.

Jamie Burke

Jamie (she/her) is a Writer with Real Estate Magazine, as well as Partner of a marketing agency, Burke By Burke, with her husband Eddie. She is an avid reader, self-proclaimed foodie, urban land economics enthusiast, Barry’s Tea drinker and part-time yogi. She lives, works and plays in Port Moody, BC, on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), qʼʷa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo) Peoples

The post Can West Coast Modern break free of luxury? appeared first on REM.

It’s a frustrating and puzzling landscape. 

The British Columbia Real Estate Association’s chief economist, Brendon Ogmundson, notes that there’s plenty of housing demand Canada-wide due to factors such as immigration and the block of millennials at the prime age to become first-time home buyers. “But it will take a decline in rates to unlock demand and turn it into sales,” Ogmundson says. “This year will be all about what happens with interest rates.” 

Things could start off rough, he warns, with the Bank of Canada raising the key interest rate for an eighth consecutive time, to 4.5 per cent, on Wednesday. But by the end of the year, Ogmundson and many others expect rates to have stabilized and the market to be rebounding – depending on inflation.

Limited inventory and flat prices

Currently, sales are down in most areas, and prices are flat, so houses are on the market longer, and buyers and sellers need patience.  

“It’s a bizarre playing field now,” especially with inventory severely limited in markets across the country, says ReMax Canada president Christopher Alexander. “There’s more doom and gloom in the media than I’ve heard in my career.”   

Sellers are reluctant to put their homes on the market, and buyers are holding back due to negative headlines, Alexander has observed. With mortgage rates on the rise and a lack of affordable starter homes creating a generational disadvantage, the current climate is especially challenging for first-time buyers.  

In major cities, the cost of renting is now often as high as carrying a mortgage. “We’ve reached equilibrium,” Alexander states. 

This isn’t great news, although, for some potential first-time buyers still on the fence, it may help tip the scales to the buy side in the time-honoured ‘buy or rent’ debate. 

But how do you, as a realtor, help clients – first-time or otherwise – navigate this market where one size definitely doesn’t fit all?

Education and honesty

From Alexander’s bird’s-eye view, “The name of the game this year is education.” 

Agents will need to keep clients informed to a greater degree, he says, providing accurate and honest information for each situation. Often, due to “working at street level,” realtors have more insight into the market than the media, Alexander notes.       

The phrase ‘educate and inform rather than push and persuade’ is cropping up on industry online forums. It’s an enlightened maxim. Remember, too, that “It’s super important for buyers not to over-extend themselves right now,” cautions Alexander. 

Be honest, including when it’s advisable that a client stay put and not sell.

Choose your clients wisely

Stay positive. Keep on top of training, new policies and government initiatives for first-time buyers. Expand your database of professional contacts, services, and lenders. 

Clients may not realize that when the margin between lower and higher-priced properties narrows, it can be a good time to move up. Remind sellers that while their profit may be lower than a year ago, the purchase price of their next home will be too. 

Choose your clients wisely. “Every realtor has wasted time with clients whose expectations are out of whack. It’s a big headache,” says Alexander. “If clients have unrealistic expectations around price despite all the information you provide, respectfully decline to work with them. Your time is too valuable.”

He’s confident that most clients are well aware that the market has changed since last year.

Regions that buck the trend

There are always anomalies – communities that buck the trend and maintain prices that remain largely immune to big market fluctuations (reportedly Sudbury, Ont., and Kootenay, B.C., among them). For clients who are highly flexible, these regions may offer an affordable alternative option.  

In some cases, these areas may be far enough off the beaten track that they weren’t targeted even by the migration of people escaping large cities during the height of the pandemic. 

That exodus has now “slowed down in a big way,” Alexander contends.

“I think a lot of people who moved to rural centres from the cities are probably pretty bored and are realizing that lifestyle desires don’t change overnight,” he laughs. “This year, a lot of people may re-assess, and we may see people moving back to the city.”

Exploring alternative options

In urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver, buyers can benefit from government programs pushing for densification – including laneway housing, lot splitting, and multi-unit dwellings. “There’s going to be some opportunity there,” Alexander says.   

The condo market, while in a sales slump in many areas, is also still a potential source of opportunity, value, and financial appreciation. It’s interesting to note that, at least in Toronto, the price gap between pre-construction and resale condos is widening, with the latter now tending to offer more affordability. Pre-construction condo assignment sales – where the original buyer re-assigns the purchase contract to another buyer – are another option. So is co-operative housing. 

Opportunities are still around. Lately, there even have been increasing reports of multiple offers, says Alexander. 

The market will likely be touch-and-go for quite a while yet. But Jamie Johnston, broker/owner of Toronto-based ReMax Condos Plus, notes that due to divorce, work, a growing family or other life changes, there will always be people who can’t put off moving, no matter the market.  

Find them, he advises. 

Susan Doran

Susan Doran is a Toronto-based freelance writer who has been contributing to REM since its very first issue.

The post Managing client expectations in an uncertain market appeared first on REM.

The province created the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) to administer and enforce the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act and regulate real estate brokerages, brokers and salespersons.

The audit found that the activities the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) performs to ensure salespersons, brokers, and brokerages comply with the act and its regulations are not always effective and timely.

Reactions to the report

Kevin Crigger, past president of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB), described the auditor general’s report as “incredibly damning of an organization that is supposed to oversee the real estate industry and provide effective oversight.”

“It’s certainly clear from the auditor general’s report that they’re failing in that capacity. TRREB has long advocated for higher ethical standards for the profession, and there certainly has been a method through the Real Estate Business Brokers Act of 2002 for RECO to take a much more active position in regulating and enforcing the existing regulations.

“The auditor general has made it very clear that they’ve been completely ineffective in that role, and the Ontario government has taken substantial steps in modernizing and advancing the profession with the introduction of the Trust in Real Estate Services Act. And maybe as a secondary step, it’s time for them to review the senior leadership of RECO, and I think change needs to start from the top.

“This is certainly an opportunity for the government with evidence-based decision-making to look at the effectiveness of the organization, recognize its failings and replace those who ultimately have failed consumers in Ontario, and to some degree really failed the profession.”

Crigger said a realtor has the highest level of professional responsibility to consumer clients. When you look at bad actors in the profession, realtors have been the ones calling for greater enforcement and greater penalties.

“There’s no place for bad actors in our business,” he said. “Those of us who are licenced realtors in the province certainly have arguably one of the most extensive regulatory frameworks to work within. I can tell you now, having served for the last 18 months representing 70,000 members across the Greater Toronto Area; we have an incredible collective of professionals who care deeply about their clients.

“The challenge is the actions of an individual impact us all. And when you look at where the greatest calls for increasing professionalism, increasing fines and penalties, calling for the suspension and termination of those who act unethically, those calls have been coming from within, and they’ve fallen on deaf ears with RECO. 

“I certainly can tell you in my position as the president of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, we have pushed, and we have advocated for greater enforcement, (for) RECO taking a proactive position…The auditor general’s report comes as no surprise to me, and I would suggest it was no surprise to anyone in our profession that they are failing in their job.”

Ken Dekker, president of the Ottawa Real Estate Board (OREB), said the board wasn’t surprised by the audit. 

“We’ve been advocating for some stronger regulations, and better oversight of the act and also some changes to the act, a lot of those are being handled by the Trust in Real Estate Services Act (TRESA) which is partially enforced now,” Dekker said.

OREB’s president added that phase two would likely come into play this spring. “That will strengthen RECO’s ability to enforce and handle things. I think that’s very good,” he said

“(For the industry), it means better accountability, better controls for who gets into the industry in the first place and stronger discipline for those breaking the rules.”

Potential impact on consumers

Dekker doesn’t believe the report will have a huge change in what consumers will see, but he believes when RECO begins enforcing TRESA, consumers will start to see a difference and be better protected.

“There’s going to be more flexibility for sellers, and they can choose either an open offer process or a closed offer. Where we’re regulated right now, it’s just a closed offer process,” he said.

“There are changes in the language which I think consumers will have a better idea . . . There’s just clearer language.”

Dekker said TRESA is also bringing higher educational standards through specialty designations. 

“It’s also going to increase the ability for fines for bad actors, people that break the rules,” he said. 

Need for change

The 51-page report made 25 recommendations for the regulator and highlighted RECO’s failure to track complaints and follow up on investigations, complete brokerage inspections and its handling of ethics violations.

“We appreciate the opportunities the auditor general’s report presents to enhance the important work we do,” said Michael Beard, CEO of RECO, in a press release. 

“And we are pleased that so many of the recommendations align very closely with our strategy to modernize our approach to administering the law in the public interest.”

The auditor general’s full report can be found here.

Editor’s note: Kevin Crigger spoke with Real Estate Magazine in December while president of TRREB. As of Jan. 1, 2023, he remains on the board of directors as past president. 

Mario Toneguzzi

Mario Toneguzzi is a contributing writer for REM. He has more than 40 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist, and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald, covering sports, crime, politics, health, faith, city and breaking news, and business. He now works on his own as a freelance writer for several national publications and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Mario was named in 2021 as one of the Top 10 Business Journalists in the World by PR News – the only Canadian to make the list.

The post Ontario’s real estate industry reacts to critical report on regulator appeared first on REM.

And while the invitation was addressed to him– it wasn’t meant for him.

It was intended for the world’s 54th-ranked golfer and PGA tour winner, Scott Stallings.

Real estate agent Scott Stallings, one half of The Stallings Team with Atlanta Fine Homes Sotheby’s, immediately recognized the mistake and took to social media to share the news.

He joked on Instagram that he intended to show up to the tournament in April with his clubs, but his wife persuaded Stallings to reach out to the golfer.

The pro-golfer got the message and shared the news on Twitter, saying he’d “been checking the mailbox five times a day and then I got this random DM…”

Interestingly enough, golfer Stalling’s wife is also named Jennifer.

Literally had been checking the mailbox five times a day and then I got this random DM yesterday 🫠 pic.twitter.com/yMvUYm3ioK

— Scott Stallings (@stallingsgolf) January 2, 2023

Once the real estate agent convinced the golfer it was not a joke, he made sure the prestigious green envelope was sent to the right Scott Stallings.

I promise you I wasn’t kidding! @TheMasters Invitation mailed to you. My wife made me do it! You’re Welcome @stallingsgolf pic.twitter.com/x0hTdPyXBS

— TheStallingsTeam (@stallingsteam) January 2, 2023

The mixup has turned out to be good publicity for all parties involved, and both Stallings have been good sports about the case of mistaken identity.

And to cap off the fun– the realtor ended up getting an actual invite to attend the practice rounds at this year’s masters as well as an invite to dinner with the pro-golfer.

WE ARE GOING TO @TheMasters! @stallingsgolf invited us to meet him and his Jenny for dinner and to attend the practice rounds! This was on the bucket list. We are grateful to be able to fulfill this dream! Can’t wait to see Scott in the Green Jacket! Thanks for following the fun!

— TheStallingsTeam (@stallingsteam) January 4, 2023

The post Real estate agent with the same name as golfer gets an invite to the masters appeared first on REM.