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Posted by: Brian Turner
3 Hacks to Win a Multiple Offer The market has been heating up over the last three months. We are starting to see multiple offers again. We are starting to see houses going over asking again. Take some time to learn the lessons from the last time the market overheated during the pandemic. This is […]
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Qualifying Ratios In Canada, all mortgages need to qualify under the B-20 stress test. The stress test is simply a set of two qualifying ratios that ensure that a borrower has the financial capacity to weather an increase in interest rates. Under the current B-20 regulations, the qualifying rate is set at the higher of […]
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Closing costs For a purchase, all lenders require that you as a borrower have sufficient funds on hand for closing costs. The requirement amounts to an additional 1.5% of the purchase price. As a result, with this added cost, it means that the minimum cash reserves to buy a house are not 5%, but rather […]
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Types of Mortgages In Canada, mortgages are either high ratio (insured) or conventional. The hard border between these two types of mortgages lies at 20%. If you have 5-20% as a down payment, you require mortgage default insurance. If you have more than 20% down, the lenders consider your mortgage to be conventional. The conventional […]
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Mortgage Hacks In Canada, all mortgage applications with a financial institution are subject to the B-20 stress test. This means that the borrowers need to qualify at the higher of the contract rate plus 2 percent or the Bank of Canada rate (currently 5.25%). Qualifying refers to meeting 2 ratios. The first is gross debt […]
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The importance of an exit strategy A woman called me on the verge of tears on Saturday morning as she was at risk of losing the family home. She and her husband as well as her daughter and son-in-law had purchased a home in February of 2022. In retrospect, we now call this time peak […]
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Prepayment penalties apply to almost every mortgage All of the banks have what they call customer retention programs. In the mortgage fine print of a fixed rate mortgage, it is called a prepayment penalty. In more positive terms, a prepayment privilege. Most lenders have a 15% annual prepayment privilege, and some have 20% prepayment privilege. […]
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The first ever reverse mortgage that I did was for an existing client. Dave and Lisa were retirees who had taken on a bit too much debt. I helped them find a second mortgage on their home to consolidate their debts and get their monthly payment down. We planned to combine the first and second […]
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3 Tips for Surviving and Thriving Without Conditions of Financing Current market conditions are such that offers with fewer conditions tend to be more successful. In other words there in an inverse relationship between the number of conditions and likelihood of success. One of the conditions that buyers often drop is that of financing. Dropping […]
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How am I able to offer next day approval? The quick answer is that I work with you and on your behalf before you place an offer. I work with you to smooth out any of the potential bumps in the financing road. The more detailed answer follows below. What I do As a mortgage […]
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