If you’ve been around the mortgage game long enough to remember when people still used fax machines, Greg Williamson has likely crossed your radar. He used to be a broker, then he got into broker training with 180 Degrees Coaching, then he co-founded Finmo in 2017, then he sold it to Lendesk in 2020.

Now he’s returned, launching a YouTube broker help series called the Inspired Founders Club (link).

Typically, I skim right past this sort of content—not because it lacks merit, but because there's so much of it out there, it's hard to keep up.

But I’ve got a soft spot for perceptive thinkers, and Williamson is a guy with more than a few spare brain cells. He's always been an engaging speaker, and the vids were free, so what the hell.

What was most impressive wasn’t his advice—there are educators in this business with more experience and success (we'll have an interview with a $350+ million producer/trainer for you soon).

It was more Williamson's willingness to showcase his journey and setbacks with a disarming honesty. We all have defeats, but few are open enough to let you learn from their mistakes in real-time. Williamson does that in a manner that's not contrived, with a humble sense of humour and in a way that inspires.

For homeowners who need cash but either can’t charm a lender or don't want payments, there are options. But few consider this particular option: the Home Equity Sharing Agreement (HESA).

Home Equity Partners (HEQ) is one of a handful of purveyors of HESAs in Canada. We caught up with its CEO and founder, Shael Weinreb, to pin down who they make sense for, and who should run in the other direction.

Weinreb's Inspiration

"HESAs are one of the first non-debt investment-type products for Canadians to access equity in their homes,” Weinreb explains. His inspiration for starting this business was a major bank, the one that denied his 80-year-old, retired father a 10% LTV HELOC on a $2 million home.

"My father desperately needed the money at the time," Weinreb recalls. "He was declined despite being a loyal customer at the bank for 40 years. It put a lot of strain on our family."

So Weinreb decided to launch a product his dad could have qualified for at the time, the HESA.

What's a HESA?

Just as traders were getting cozy with the idea of Fed cuts, along comes a wicked curveball.

On Thursday, it was U.S. PPI, which detonated the biggest blowout (forecast overshoot) in years.

The Bank of Canada kicked the tires on a 25-bp cut last month but deferred it, hinting they’ll only ease if underlying inflation stops acting so spicy.

For mortgage shoppers, that and a nickel still buys a nickel — nothing our readers didn't already know. The Bank is still waiting for a clearer pile of data to push it off the fence, one way or another.

Bond investors feared that U.S. inflation would land hotter than expected on Tuesday. It did make some noise (more on that), but not enough to convince traders the Fed won't cut in September.

For the crew at the BoC, Canadian inflation is always paramount. U.S. CPI plays second fiddle, but with its 0.82 correlation to Canadian CPI since 1991, America's bearing on Canadian price levels is undeniable.

That's why today's acceleration in U.S. core inflation feels a bit unerving, kinda like finding out your “quiet” neighbour is hoarding fireworks.

With Monday’s economic calendar offering all the excitement of an unplugged slot machine—and U.S. CPI incoming—yields chose not to commit one way or another.

After Friday's letdown on employment, the 5-year yield's 2 bps dip felt like a shrug.

Looking ahead to this week, Canadian economic data is sparse. That means the next five days should see our rates marching to the beat of whatever tune the U.S. and global markets decide to play.