Rate Change

Rate change

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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 the variable rates are based on the bank of Canada prime lending rate and the fixed rates are based on bond yields.

If you are renewing your mortgage or buying a new home, I always ask my clients if this will be your forever home. If the answer is yes then there is nothing wrong with the fixed rates. However most 5 year mortgages are broken around the 38 month mark of the 60 month term. If you are on a fixed rate this will … Read more

Trusted Advisor

Trusted Advisor

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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 complicated it is in your best interest to trust the repairs to the experts at the dealerships or major garage networks.

The same can be said for your taxes. If you were self employed like I am you kept all your receipts in various shoe boxes and worked through them at the end of the year in the hopes that everything made sense. Now it is best to seek the expert advice of a competent tax specialist or accountant. Also no more shoe boxes, everything … Read more

Request Declined

Request Declined

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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 or have someone co-sign with you to strengthen the file. Or better yet does it qualify for an exception?

Don’t give up hope just because you ran into a brick wall with one lender as there are plenty of other lenders who may be able to assist you with your mortgage request. There are lenders for the self-employed, high net worth, less than perfect credit or if you have foreign assets or income. I have frequently found that persistence does pay off so don’t take … Read more

The Best Time

The best time

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The best time to buy a house according to the old adage is always now. In this hot real estate market and thanks to rock bottom interest rates, you will be paying down principal much faster than you are paying in interest. For example if you bought a house for 550K with 30K down on a variable rate of 1.35% over 5 years, you would pay 33K in interest in the 1st 5 years while paying down your principal by over 94K.

The best time to invest according to legendary investor Warren Buffet is always now. It also helps to follow his investment advice of buying and holding for the long term. Trust me I am still kicking my self for selling my Apple stock in 2014.

The best time to start a business like the two previous statements is … Read more

Appraisals

Appraisals

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Usually when you pay for something you own it. The exception to this rule is for real estate appraisals. When and if they are required, they requested and owned by the lender. On the odd chance that we your broker have a copy, just remember that we can not release it to you.

Appraisal are required if you are putting more than 20% down on a property and high ratio mortgage insurance is not involved. However there are a few lenders who use an Automatic Valuation Service to confirm the value of the property thus negating the need for a full appraisal inspection. Also as of late appraisals have been required if the agreed upon purchase price exceeded the listing price by a large margin. This is because of our hot real estate market.

Today I am thankful for the … Read more

Referrals

New Clients

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The best kind of new clients to get come from referrals. This could be from past clients or referral partners like realtors or financial planners. This is because they come pre screened from a trusted source so they are people who really know what they want and have already been told who you are and how you operate.

This is why I spend time every day developing relationships with these same referral partners. Every day I reach out and connect with my referral partners. To those who are afraid of cold calls, these calls are not cold and there is no selling involved. The purpose of my calls is just to touch base and keep the lines of communication open and see how people are doing. It’s not complicated, just just relationship building. If you are in sales, this is … Read more

Mortgage Math

Extra Payments

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If you are one of the lucky few who’s mortgage is coming up for renewal in the next few months, this post is for you. Let’s say for example that you will have a mortgage balance of 300K at renewal and that you have been at 2.79% for the past 5 years on a 25 year amortization. Upon renewal you are offered a fixed rate of 2.09 or a variable rate of Prime ( 2.45) less 1% or 1.45.

So 5 years ago you started at 350K at 2.79% and you have paid 1,618.88 per month, you did it with no struggle and now you have an option to renew at lower rates. For example if you take the fixed at 2.09 your monthly payment on a 20 year amortization will now be 1,529.18 or 89.70 less than what you … Read more

Future Homeowner

Future Homeowner

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Any goal worth achieving will take some planning to make happen. Take our hot real estate market for example. If you plan on buying a home in the not too distant future then you need to start to work on a few things to make that happen. We are going to look at the two most common road blocks to home ownership, being credit and down payment.

If you don’t already know your credit score, you should surf over to Equifax ( One of the main credit monitoring agencies) and get a copy of your free credit report. If you have had late payments to your creditors in the past then they will need to be paid as soon as possible. If you have not had credit in your name in the past then you will need to get a … Read more

Exceptions

Exceptions

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Rules in life and in mortgages are made to be broken, on an exception basis. Lenders look at your mortgage application and judge it based on the 5C’s of credit ( Character, Capacity, Credit, Collateral and Capital). Having a strong strength in 4 out of the 5 would be grounds to request an exception.

Note however that if the area that is suffering is credit, it is highly unlikely an exception will be granted. Most often the exceptions are coming from the Capacity or the debt service component. This is usually due to the applicant’s above average credit rating, high net worth and low loan to value.

There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by requesting an exception to get your file approved and completed. We must just build the case to show a compelling reason for the … Read more

Bankers Hours

Broker’s hours vs banker’s hours

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Simply put, unless I am sleeping, eating or doing a workout I will take your call or return your text. Try getting that same level of service from your bank or even your bank mortgage specialist who have extended hours on occasion. However even-though I may take your call, if my corresponding lender is not available the best I can do is answer your questions to the best of my ability.

Although I do not get many client calls or texts on the weekend, it does happen and I want to make sure that they are take care of and that I have property answered their questions. I can’t imagine waiting to try to get questions answered on baker’s hours.

Today I am thankful for an early morning start to a 80K bike ride with friends, having tools to fix … Read more