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Couple wins $1,000 in Dominion Lending campaign

January 6, 2016   ·   0 Comments

By Victoria Botelho

Josie McNaboe and her partner Kev aren’t living in their dream house, but they sure are living in a house close enough to it and it’s all thanks to Dominion Lending Centres (DLC), Canada’s largest mortgage company. 

Ms. McNaboe, 41, moved from the United Kingdom to Canada about 2 1/2 years ago and has been living with her partner since then. Just recently, the couple was able to secure a house that ‘really ticked every box’ in their books. Although getting their house wasn’t all smooth sailing, it was definitely a journey well worth it in the end.

After their realtor from Coldwell Bankers, Chris, suggested professional mortgage broker, Phil Weir, from Dominion Lending Centres to help out with finding their dream house, the couple were able to secure a perfect and fairly new home just a few minutes’ walk from her job at Headwaters Health Care Centre.

With all the hard work and dedication Mr. Weir put into making this couple’s first home mortgage as painless as possible, Ms. McNaboe was more than ecstatic to give back, and giving back is exactly what she did with entering the #THANKSDLC campaign.

This campaign encouraged those who have had a positive experience with DLC to submit a video explaining the impact the company has had for them.

“The campaign, I think, for them is like real people, real stories,” she explained when asked what her take on the contest was.

The couple had a recent experience with what this campaign stands for when their hearts were set on a dream house, but they were not able to secure it in time.

“The house that we ended up getting, which we are completely in love with, wasn’t the original house we went for when we first were helped by DLC. … It felt like, heartbreaking at the time,” she admits, when she found out she couldn’t get her dream house, explaining, “circumstances kind of intervened.”

She says putting in “all of this money [and] all of this hustle” and still not getting the house was frustrating, but it wasn’t the end of the line for this couple.

After losing out on that deal, Mr. Weir from DLC still gave his all in helping this couple find a house that they would love forever.

Not getting her dream house was a setback, but with Mr. Weir helping, Ms. McNaboe was able to find and secure a house that gave her that ‘oh my god, this is perfect’ feeling for her and her partner.

With this new house, Ms. McNaboe was overjoyed and incredibly grateful to Dominion Lending Centres and Mr. Weir. This need to give thanks is what motivated her and her partner to submit a video submission to DLC and resulted in them winning $1,000 for being a runner-up out of all submissions in Canada.

When Ms. McNaboe found out about the campaign, she and her partner jumped at the opportunity to say thank you to Mr. Weir and his company for their new home.

“We really appreciate somebody who goes out of [their] way to make something happen,” she explained when asked about what motivated her to enter this contest, “I hope it gets [Phil] recognized in some way”.

Since Ms. McNaboe has never really entered many contests or competitions, she said this opportunity was a “sure, why not?” impulse.

“We’re super happy with them,” she said, adding that DLC “really went out of their way to kind of make a huge difference.”

She sees being one of nine runners-up in all of Canada that had submitted videos for this campaign is a huge accomplishment.

It was “phenomenal, like I don’t know much about the size of Dominion Lending Centres as a company, but they have a lot of offices,” she said, asked for her reaction to the phone call she received about being chosen as a runner-up.

“It’s huge, like one in 10 of the entire country”. Even with the $1,000 cheque that Ms. McNaboe will be receiving for being a runner-up, she is still a winner regardless of the money for being able to call her almost perfect house, her home.

The contest involved recording a video from your smart phone in order to say thanks to DLC for the positive impact they had on getting a mortgage for your dream house.

Of course, after submitting the video entry, you notice some aspects that you wish you could’ve changed. “I could’ve given a tour of my house,” Ms. McNaboe said when asked what she would do differently if she could redo the contest. “It was very amateur though, it’s kind of embarrassing”.

Seeing as the contest rules were to film the entry video with some type of phone, the contest called for a lot of fun and creativity to be incorporated throughout the videos. Judging by the winner’s video, fun and creativity was definitely used in the submissions.

There is currently no information on where their video can be accessed and enjoyed, but she says the video is “less than a minute long and very un-professional.”

All that matters is she had fun filming, showing her gratitude to Dominion Lending Centres and is currently in line to claim her cheque for $1,000.

To view the creative takes on what DLC has done for various families all over Canada and the video submission that earned the top $5,000 prize, go to dominionlending.ca.

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