Tag Archive for: Halifax Mortgage Broker

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 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 the 1st no as tragic or permanent.

“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle

Today I am thankful for the fact that there are always more options than problems, that rejections and failures are not fatal as they are opportunities to learn more and better for next time and that the traffic jam on the bridge had cleared up by the time I need to go back to Halifax.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

The best time

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 always now. With a long term outlook like your real estate and your investing and old school work ethic you are sure to succeed.

“If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for ten years, don’t even think about owning it for ten minutes.” – Warren Buffett

Today I am thankful for the bodyweight warrior who helps keep me limber on the daily basis, seeing a doe and her two fawns eating apples near our home in the west end on Halifax and having fully formed ideas come to me while out on a run. Awesome.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Win your morning

When you win your morning you have a much better chance at winning you day. To do this I have two simple rules: 1) prepare ahead of time and 2) get up early.

Lay out your workout clothes and your work clothes the night before. Don’t leave anything to chance or that you think you will do it at the last minute cause you won’t. If you meal prep then Sunday is the best day to do this so you are prepared for the week and this is one less thing to think about.

Now getting up early is not as difficult as one may think. It starts by going to bed at a decent hour so you can get at least 7-8 hours of sleep. To do this properly it’s best to turn off all your electronic devices at least an hour before you go to bed. So no wasting time on your phone or bing watching Netflix on your TV. The best way to wind down is to read.

Set a goal of getting up at 5am. Remember it is a lot easier if you’re not up till 11:30. First thing I do at that hour is take my vitamins with a large glass of water. Early morning is a great time to meditate ( check out Calm or Headspace) to help you out. Early morning is also the best time to get in your workout so you’re primed for your day. And incase you are wondering, no I don’t drink coffee.

That US Army slogan is right, ” Get up early and get more accomplished before 9am than most people get done all day”.

Today I am thankful for the calm and quiet of the early morning, a wonderful walk with my dog before the roads got busy and thankful for having teenagers who sleep in.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

New Clients

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 what you should be doing.

I am certain you can bring in a large amount of leads and or contacts from doing Google adwords, Facebook or Linkedin ads. However what’s missing is transfer for trust from someone you have developed a relationship with. So more often than not considerable time must be spent with these new contacts to develop the report and see if we are a fit or not. The best strategy for long term growth is to spend the time developing the key relationship that will attract you the people you want to work with in the first place.

Today I am thankful for a great 50K ride with folks from the gym, that all the peloton classes are paying off as I kept up with bikes 1/4 the weight of mine and for an early start so work can be done for the rest of the day.

“Referrals aren’t given easily. If you don’t take the time to establish credibility, you’re not going to get the referral. People have to get to know you. They have feel comfortable with who you are and what you do.” Ivan Misner

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Can Do Attitude

Let’s face it in life shit happens to all of us. It is how we deal with it that sets up apart. Having a defeatist or pessimestic will only make the situation worse. Once you have gotten over the initial shock of what happened to you, start looking for ways to overcome your obstacle.

So you gained a few too many pounds during lockdown, after you are done feeling sorry for yourself do something about it. The same goes if an unexpected bill arrives and threw a wrench into your financial plan, deal with it. Faced with prospects of your rent increasing when the moratorium lifts, you know it’s coming now it time to do something about it.

Take responsibility for what happens to you makes it that much easier to overcome the issue in the first place. Just because you got knocked down by life does not mean that you have to stay down. Dust yourself off and keep going.

Today I am thankful for the new perspective that occurred while walking the dog today, challenges that exist to make us better tomorrow than we were yesterday and the feeling from a run before the day gets too hot.

“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” Lou Holtz

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Stressed and can’t think

When you are having stressful moments and trust me they do happen. Then get up and do something that does not require any thinking. Go for a walk, cut your grass, meditate or workout. Enough to get your mind off what was effecting you day. Know that whatever it is, it too shall pass.

Today I am thankful for friends who call me back when I need them and they know who they are and thank you, that myself and my family are in great heath and that temporary inconveniences are there to make your better in the long run.

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” William James

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Future Homeowner

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 small credit card or revolving loan. Something that reports to the credit bureau with a limit of at least 1,500. Now here is the important part, never miss a payment or be late with a payment as this will impact your credit score.

Now that you are working on your credit and you have a plan to establish it or improve it. Next important item in your home ownership journey is your down payment. You are going to need at least 5% down payment and 1.5% of the purchase price as deed transfer tax. If this is going to be your first home you can take advantage of the Home Buyers Plan. This means that you can borrow up to 35K from your RRSP tax free ( it does have to be paid back) and use this toward your down payment. Otherwise starting putting some away from every pay check and stick it in a TFSA and watch it grow to the amount that you need.

“A house is made of bricks and beams. A home is made of hopes and dreams.”

Today I am thankful for the sound of rain overnight, a quiet walk with my dog and a refreshing run all before the craziness of the day started.

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Exceptions

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 exception. More often than not lenders are willing to do it if the strength of the other factors outweighs the deficit.

Today I am thankful for an exception that was granted that allowed one of my clients to become a homeowner, a wonderful visit to my brother’s cottage and 80K bike ride with friends.

“Nature provides exceptions to every rule.” Margaret Fuller

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Broker’s hours vs banker’s hours

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 a loose pedal 40K away from where we started and beautiful ocean views along our ride.

“I really love showing up at work at 10 A.M and trying to make it funny until 3 P.M, and then going home. It’s like comedy bankers hours.” Chris Eigeman

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here

Parenting

Your life changes drastically in so many ways after you have kids. We started with two in 2004. My wife had twins that were 11 weeks early and we spent the first 8 weeks in NICU for one and 12 weeks for the other. Thankfully they are now healthy 16 almost 17 year olds. Having kids teach you that you can survive on less than 4 hours sleep, how to change diapers half awake and that these little people do not care if you can’t sing well. Although my wife has a great singing voice.

My girls adapted well to a schedule of every four hours and slept pretty well when it wasn’t the scheduled time to get up. There were the odd times when they were older (3 or 4) and dropped their stuffies and cried blue bloody murder but other than that they were good. My son who was born in 2006 didn’t like a schedule and was not fond of sleeping till he was almost 7. So the past few years were practically bliss as the kids are old enough to sleep till 10 or 11am in the summer and put them selves to bed when my wife goes to bed.

Last night as one of my teenage girls was up watching whatever on Netflix at 1:30am she let out a scream like someone was attacking her or her sister said something that disagreed with her. I ran to her room to discover that she saw a spider and was trying to kill it unsuccessfully with her skateboard. After the spider was dispatched she was finely able to relax and go to bed. I would love to hear some of your parenting stories.

Today I am thankful for a wife who is a light sleeper to tell me to get up to tend to the emergency, that it was not a rodent as we would of had company in our bed and that at 11am she is still asleep.

What it’s like to be a parent: It’s one of the hardest things you’ll ever do but in exchange it teaches you the meaning of unconditional love.” Nicholas Sparks

I look forward to hearing from you in regard to your mortgage needs.

Patrick

p.s- You can click on this link to start the process whenever you are ready. Schedule your meeting with me here.

p.s.s- I should tell you that I am licensed in Nova Scotia, Ontario(M18001555) & in British Columbia(BCFSA #504098).

p.s.s.s You can download my new mortgage app here