Tag Archive for: mortgage options

Short Week!

Yes I know it’s a Tuesday but it feel’s like a Monday. With 4 banking days this week but with 5 days worth of work to fill them.

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

Cheers,

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).

It’s a Seller’s Market

Since this is very much a seller’s market and many properties are receiving multiple offers and are also then going for well above list price. So the number one quality to have in this market is patience. There are new properties being listed every day, so sooner or later you will find one that works for you. Just remember that if you are pre-approved ( and I hope you are, if not call me) for 500K that means that you can’t offer 525K. You should be pre-approved at the top of your affordability ratio’s so any higher and you will not get approved.

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

Cheers,

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).

It’s Grrrreat!

It’s not just a Good Friday, it’s a Great Friday. Getting up without having to rush around and drive anybody anywhere or have to call anybody is a great feeling. Got to meditate and do my workout before anyone even got up. I love holiday’s like this where sometimes the best use of our time is to settle down with a great book.

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

Cheers,

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).

Don’t be an April Fool!

Happy April Fool’s day, hopefully you have not been tricked yet. Just a short post with some idea’s on how not to be fooled in today’s hot real estate market. 

1) Make sure that you get pre-approved before you start house hunting. Note that most lenders just issue a rate hold but do not actually thoroughly review your file. You will need to deal with a competent professional who will actually review all your necessary supporting documents before your house hunting journey.

2) Don’t get carried away with excitement cause the inventory of available homes are low and there are many buyers bidding on the same property. So I am advising you NOT to write a condition free offer on a property you want to purchase. Unless you have the purchase price in cash this is not a wise decision. See my prior blog post.

3) Interest rates have been rising lately but not all rates. While in the past most people have favoured fixed rates since your payment would not change over the term of your mortgage. There is a better option with variable rates. While fixed rates are based on bond yield which have been steadily rising recently, the variable rates are based on the Bank of Canada overnight rate which has not changed. These are still at generational lows.

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

Cheers,

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).

Exclusive arrangement

Let’s talk about professional relationships. When you are looking to buy a home you don’t go house hunting with nor put in offers on the same property with 5 different Realtors. You also don’t consult and meet with 5 lawyers when it comes time to close your transaction. However when it comes time to finance said purchase why is it that a select few people (thankfully they are the exception not the rule) have no qualms about dealing with several brokers at the same time. Usually these people can be spotted in the first 15 minutes of the conversation as they seem to be concerned only about rate.

Let me save you the trouble with an example. Rates from most of the lenders in the market are consistently around the same amount. Some may very by 5 basis points or .05%. This works out to $2.39 per 100,000 mortgage payment per month. So all in all not a huge amount of savings for a small difference in rate.

Do yourself a favour and stick with whoever gives you the best service cause at the end of the day that is what is the most important. Do they get back to you in a timely manner, do they answer their phone and do they operate with a sense of urgency to get your financing done in a timely manner.

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

Cheers,

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).

10 New People

The surest way to succeed in sales is always have a full pipeline of people that could be potentially interested in your product or service. In this modern age most people are spending a lot of resources marketing to people on-line through Google, Facebook, Instagram or Linkedin. Due to Covid-19 it is difficult and potentially dangerous to meet new people face to face.

However most have forgotten or are just reluctant to pick up the phone and touch base with people the old fashioned way. Not all calls are cold calls, start with people you know then move over to people who know your target audience. Pick up the phone and start connecting with new 10 new people a day. That is what I am doing and it’s great connecting with new people. Hopefully I will be talking with you soon.

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

Cheers,

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).

Eat That Frog!

it’s a figure of speech, I don’t actually mean for you to eat the frog. What is meant by that is to do your difficult task first. Don’t put it off get it done and the rest of your day will be piece of cake. If you are in sales, do you call’s first. Want to get in shape, do your workout first thing in the morning. This will allow you to start your day with a sense of accomplishment.

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

Cheers,

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).

Got time to chat?

As much as mortgages are about numbers, debt service ratios, pre approval amount and interest rates, they are at the end of the day a people business. If you have any questions about your mortgage whether I did it or not, feel free to give me a call and I would be more than happy to help you out.

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

Cheers,

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).

Real Estate Bubble???

We are in the midst of a crazy real estate market from coast to coast here in Canada. Properties are selling very quickly and in some cases there are multiple offers and they are selling not for thousands of dollars over list but hundreds of thousands of dollars over the listing price.

Here in Nova Scotia in particular where we are used to only modest gains in values of only single percentage points. There was recently a transaction in my subdivision, single family home, bungalow, 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and unfinished basement. The property had not been on the market since new 54 years ago. My Realtor told me that this home had 28 offers and sold for just under 300K over list price.

Now unless you have been under a rock lately you have heard some of the financial pundits talking about a possible real estate bubble here in Canada. While that headline does get a lot of attention, I don’t believe that is the case nor will we experience the pains that the US felt back in 2009.

A few facts to consider, since we are still in the midst of a pandemic our borders have essentially been closed to all except for necessary travellers. Normally Canada welcomes about 500K people per year to immigrate here but now it is down to just a trickle. Real estate inventories on the market are down compared to past years. So with low interest rates, record levels of immigration prior to the lockdown and general population with money to burn has only poured fuel on the fire that was already present.

Knowing this I don’t think we are on the brink of a similar bubble the American’s faced in 2009. We don’t have lenders making loans with low or no documents, nor do we have people qualifying for their mortgages on teaser rates like they did. Our mortgage stress test was implemented in 2016 and has served us well. With discounted AAA rates now at 2.24% and the qualifying rate still at 4.79% I would say that we still have a great buffer in place to protect consumers from rates rising too quickly.

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

Cheers,

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).

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket

Warren Buffett is famous for saying this in regards to your investments, as it opens you up to greater risk. However I want to also tell you that it applies to your banking relationships as well.

We have some great banking institutions here in Canada. There are lots of great options for your personal banking, your investments, your mortgages and your commercial banking. However it’s best if they were not all with the same lender. Let me give you an example of why in regards to your mortgage.

The majority of lenders these days are securing your mortgage as a collateral charge. What this means is that they are registering the loan for the value of the property or the value + 25% depending on the market. The advantage of this is that it allows the lender to offer you a line of credit without you having to incur additional legal or appraisal fee’s. While that is convenient but what if you also have all of your savings, chequing and credit cards with the same lender and for some unforeseen reason you missed some credit card payments, because all of your lending is with the same source you could have your mortgage foreclosed upon because of a credit card default.

The solution is to make sure that your personal baking ( checking, saving & investments) are with lender ABC while your mortgage is with lender DEF, and your credit cards could be with lender XYZ. Diversify your personal banking as much as you diversify your investments.

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

Cheers,

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).