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Pat Sawler
902-465-5533
HALIFAX OFFICE:
1959 Upper Water Street
Suite 1301
Halifax, NS B3J 3N2
SURREY OFFICE:
7404 King George Blvd
Suite 200
Surrey, British Columbia, V3W 1N6
Nova Scotia Brokerage 2021-3000179
Broker 2021-3000180
Fixer Upper
In more normal real estate markets, people would look at several homes and then buy the one that was perfect for them. Show up on the day after it closed with all their suff and carry on with their lives. In today’s real estate market with next to no inventory, people are bidding on the […]
Inflation and interest rates
There is lots of talk about an impending increase to the bank of Canada prime lending rate. This is because inflation has been on the rise recently. Also rising inflation is usually a sign that the economy is doing well. While I do not profess to be an economist and can’t really give you any […]
Don’t pull my credit
Sometimes clients who apply for a pre approval or a mortgage ask me not to pull their credit. They are concerned that my pulling their credit will negatively effect their credit score. When you apply for a mortgage through a broker or a financial institution, as part of the application process you give permission for […]
Purchase Plus Improvements
In this age of highly competitive real estate market, sometimes you just have to jump and offer on the next available decent house in your price range. However since the homes are going for well over asking price and sometimes with interiors that have not been touched since Justin Trudeau’s father was Prime Minster, a […]
Year end closings
If you are currently house hunting or planning to refinance and would like to close on before the end of the year, then please choose your dates wisely. This is because we have 3 statutory holiday’s within the last week of the year. Christmas & Boxing day fall on Saturday & Sunday this year and […]
Teamwork
Your mortgage like most things in life takes a team to make happen. It is more than just you and me. Here are some of the players on our team. Myself your broker- I help you complete the application and assist you in getting your documents together. Review all the supporting documents ( credit, income, […]
Be Caring
In a very competitive fields like mortgage brokering, car sales, financial planning or real estate sales, where most of the established agents have a similar level of knowledge. Clients are attracted and retained not by how much you know as the playing field is pretty level after you have been doing it for a while […]
All said and done
When all is said and done then you can put your guard down and celebrate. However beware of premature elation. You financing is not complete when the vendor accepts your offer. It’s not complete when your mortgage request has been approved. It’s not complete when all financing conditions have been approved. It is only complete […]
Mortgage Math Revised
A few years ago I wrote a post about how you can calculate out your own debt service and figure out on your own how much house you can afford. A lot has changed since I published that in 2015, so today I wanted to update a few key components to that prior post. Insurer’s […]
Get it in writing
Important events in your life should always be received in writing. A handshake is good for a greeting not for a formal agreement. I had a prospective client call me yesterday and tell me that the previous broker they worked with got them pre approved but that they had never received it in writing. Job […]
Sales process
One of my colleagues recently told me an interesting stat. He said that 74% of people find their realtor because they called them back after they made several calls to agents to enquire about their services. I find that surprising for a service that is 100% commission. I know we are in a very busy […]
It’s not over till
It’s not over till the fat lady sings, or in the case of your mortgage till your lawyer receives the funds. So just because you have received a file complete on the purchase of your new home, it does not mean that it is time to go on a shopping spree and go wild. The […]
Rate change
Last night I received notification from several of my lenders that they were reducing their 5 year fixed rate. Depending on the lender reductions were anywhere from 10 to 40 basis points. Remember one hundred basis points = 1%. However you know what did not change? The variable rates did not change. This is because […]
Trusted Advisor
To me it hasn’t seemed that long ago when if you had car trouble someone always had a guy who could fix it at his place. It didn’t matter if it was as simple as brakes or a complicated as major motor work, it was all possible in someone’s back yard. Now vehicles are so […]
Request Declined
Sometimes it happens that your mortgage request has been declined. More often than not this is an opportunity to restructure the request and start again. See if any debts can be repaid, have you included all the assets and properly explained the sources of income and all your debts? Can you increase you down payment […]