Tag Archive for: Mortgage solutions

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

The High Road

There are moments in life where people do you wrong for seemingly no logical reason. You could do what a lot of people are doing these days and trash them on social medial and huff and puff and go around how they are ruining your life. Or better yet you could be the bigger person, acknowledge what was said and done and move one like a grown up.

I admit that yes it does suck but letting it bother you and effect all area’s of your life frankly sucks a lot more. You can not control the events around your life. The one thing that you can control is your response or reaction to those events. This does not mean that you should not defend yourself, but doing so should not also involve also trying to take down the person who did you wrong. The old expression still rings true that two wrongs do not make a right.

Today I am thankful for the new perspective that today brings, that sleeping on your challenges always helps bring upon new solutions that you never thought about and inside every challenge are the seeds of great opportunities.

“It’s a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“How people treat you is their karma. How you react is yours.” —Wayne Dyer

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

Being Stoic

Acording to Merriam-Webster being stoic is defined as someone who accepts what happens without complaining or showing emotion. This is especially true when something bad or unpleasant is happening. However I think it’s more than that, I think it’s the ability to keep your emotions in check without suffering from the deep downs or the incredible high’s.

This ancient philosophy is alive and well thanks to the writings of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca. Many modern great minds and leaders were know to practice the teachings of Stoicism, from George Washington, Walt Whitman, Adam Smith, Ralph Waldo Emerson and many others. At it’s core are tools and teachings to help you live a better life, with courage, temperance, justice and wisdom.

“If at some point in your life, you should come across anything better than justice, truth, self-control and courage, it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.” Marcus Aurelius

Today I am thankful for the hidden opportunity found inside every challenge, knowing that worrying about things beyond my control is a total waste of time and teachings from 2,500 years ago are just as relevant today.

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

Opporunity Cost

Not all financing is created equal. There are low rates for AAA credit clients, moderate rates for alternative lending and higher rates for private mortgages. I have done a lot of private lending over the years and at the end of the day it is never about the rate it is about the opportunity cost. The cost of completing your build on time, the cost of loosing your home or the cost of picking up this property at the right price and the right time. All these things private lending can help you accomplish.

It’s true that private lending is not for everyone. It is essentially a bridge loan which takes you from where you are right now to where you want to be. There is also a cost for missing out on the opportunities and this is just one option available to you to make sure that you don’t miss out. This is not long term financing but financing to make sure that you don’t miss out on the opportunities in life.

Today I am thankful for a beautiful walk to my meeting this morning, that it was close enough so I could do that and for my dog who tells me that Amazon or election people were at my door.

“Intelligent people make decisions based on opportunity costs”. Charlie Munger

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

Comfort zone

One of the worst places to possibly be is in the comfort zone. This means that you have settled and that you are more or less just going though the motions. When you are comfortable you don’t push yourself to improve or get better, you are just happy doing what you are doing and not taking any chances.

While I am not saying that you should quit your job or terminate your relationships all to give you some challenges in your life. You should always have something that you are striving to achieve as this makes you driven and motivated to keep improving and moving your life forward.

Today I am thankful for the challenges that I face on a regular basis that keep me moving forward, for a fun afternoon canoeing with my son and the start of an exciting week ahead with beautiful weather.

“Move out of your comfort zone. You can only grow if you are willing to feel awkward and uncomfortable when you try something new.” Brian Tracy

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

5 to 10 basis points

This amounts to .5 to .10 of a percentage point as a basis point is essentially 1/100th of a percentage point. I bring this up as consumers will shop their mortgage business and leave an existing relationship at the last minute for perceived deal of 5 one hundreds of a percent.

So here is some mortgage math for you. Let’s take the average current mortgage balance of 400,000, taken over 5 year term and 25 year amortization. At current 5 year fixed rates of 2.09% that would give you a mortgage payment of 1,711 per month. There are also some no frills quick close deals at 1.99% giving you a monthly payment of 1,692 per month. This amounts to a savings of $19 a month or $1,140 over the 5 years. Or $5 per hundred thousand mortgage balance.

Remember not all products are created equal. Some products are locked in closed for the term, meaning that the only way to break it is with the power of sale. Some have reduced pre payment privileges or no portability features. Make sure that you look at everything as there is more to consider than just the rate.

Today I am thankful for a warm and refreshing run this morning before it got too hot, a delicious burger delivered right to my door yesterday and that my dog recovered quickly from overheating on Friday night.

“Do not let Sunday be taken from you. If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.” – Albert Schweitzer

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

Beach Day!

Some weeks the accomplishment is just making it to Friday. If this is you, I feel your pain. However with the warm humid weather we are having it will be a great time to head to the beach. One of the things we are blessed with here in Nova Scotia is lots and lots of beaches. We have over 90 beaches and 7,500 km of coastline you are guaranteed to find one that you like.

Although our summer’s are typically short and now that the hot humid weather is here, a day at the beach could be a great idea. With the hot air temperature and cool water make a perfect combination to refresh and recharge. Here is a link to find the perfect beach for you so you can enjoy a perfect day by the water.

Today I am thankful for the relatively cool nights that have accompanied these warm days, having several beaches to choose from which are only a short drive away from home and friends with pools on warm hot summer days.

“Live in the sunshine, swim in the sea, drink the wild air.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

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