3 Mortgage Terms You Need to Know Prepayment, Portability and Assumability Prepayments One of the most common questions we get is about mortgage prepayments. The conditions vary from lender to lender but the nice thing about prepayments is that you can pay a little more every year if you want to pay off your mortage […]

Reverse mortgage – Some common misconceptions The words reverse mortgage carry some negative connotation. What does it really mean? What makes reverse mortgage different than a regular or demand mortgage in Canada? There are no payments required if 1 applicant lives in the home. Payments can be made if they wish, they are truly optional. […]

The Most Important Question This Spring Short Version: The most important question a home-seller must ask their Broker or their banker this Spring: ‘Do I QUALIFY to port my mortgage?’ You must re-qualify to port your mortgage to a new property, and you must re-qualify under stringent new rules. How stringent? Long Version: Let’s say […]

Getting on the Property Ladder As property prices continue to rise across Canada, the conversation around “how to climb the property ladder” has made a subtle shift to “how to get on the property ladder in the first place.” Especially if you’re single. Whereas before it was assumed anyone would qualify to buy a starter […]

Getting pre-approved for a mortgage this Spring Apparently, as per the weather experts, March has a lot of snowfall and surprisingly so does April! Hearing this on the radio gives you a wave of emotions: holy cow, oh great, I wonder how many vacation days I have left and when can I take down my […]

Spring Into Action: Refinance Your Mortgage With the Help of a Mortgage Broker We sprung forward last earlier this month by changing our clocks one hour ahead. For some, their microwave and oven clocks are once again displaying the correct time since the last time we needed to adjust our clocks (in the Fall). Patience […]

March is fraud awareness month You may have heard that March is Fraud Awareness Month. Authorities are trying to raise awareness of identity theft , phishing schemes and other forms of fraud. What you may not know is that as many as 1 in 5 Canadians are committing mortgage fraud whether they know it or […]

But They Said It Was Portable… The question most often asked: ‘Is my mortgage portable?’ The answer most often given: ‘Yes.’ This answer is increasingly wrong. In reality you qualify to move ~80% of the balance… maybe. If you are thinking of: Moving (upsizing or downsizing) Locking a variable-rate mortgage into a fixed-rate product … […]

What Is a “Monoline” Lender? What usually follows once someone hears the term “Monoline Lender” for the first time is a feeling of suspicion and lack of trust. It’s understandable, I mean why is this “bank” you’ve never heard of willing to loan you money when you’ve never banked with them before? In an effort […]

Keeping Your Credit Score Healthy If you haven’t seen your credit score, you’re not alone. Many of our clients don’t know about their credit score or even know what it is when we first meet with them. During our initial consultation, we go over your complete credit report with you. As an added bonus, we’ll […]