Mortgages
Find the Perfect Home with a Mortgage including Home Renovations
Posted by Brad Speniel | May 22, 2015 at 1:22 pm
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 1 minute
Many homebuyers looking at older properties find themselves in a common predicament: they’ve found a property that suits them, but it needs some costly and immediate upgrades.
Many buyers add the costs of those immediate home renovations into their mortgage, instead of racking up credit card bills or selling investments to pay for the upgrades. Known as a “purchase plus improvements” mortgage, this type of mortgage covers the sale price of the home, plus any renovations that would increase the value of the property, with as little as 5 per cent down.
If you’re buying a home but want to add a second story, finish a basement or redo a kitchen, it can make a lot of sense to add those costs to your mortgage. That way you can spread your payments over the life of the mortgage and have a cost-effective way to get your dream home. You can also use your pre-payment privileges to pay the renovation off faster. The process is actually quite simple:
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Understanding the Real Value of Properties
Posted by Brad Speniel | May 22, 2015 at 12:46 pm
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 1 minute
At Canada’s Best Mortgage, we strongly believe in keeping you well informed. With that in mind, we are constantly reading and researching to find the best articles and information available to provide to you. We recently read Canadian Real Estate Wealth’s “Understanding the Real Value of Properties” and are excited to share this valuable resource.
Fixed Rate versus Variable Rate Mortgages
Posted by Brad Speniel | May 22, 2015 at 11:58 am
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 3 minutes
When you see the mortgage rates being advertised by financial institutions, you may think your mortgage worries are over. All you have to do is lock in for the next five years and you are set. But it’s not that easy. Right now, the lowest available rate – and the one that makes
the rate sign look great from the street – will be for a variable mortgage. With a variable rate mortgage, your mortgage rate will move in conjunction with your lender’s Prime lending rate, which in turn tracks the Bank of Canada’s benchmark rate, and will typically be quoted as Prime minus a specified percentage. So, there is no way real way to
predict how your rate will vary in the upcoming years.
Self-Employed? Work with a Mortgage Broker to Secure Home Financing
Posted by Brad Speniel | May 22, 2015 at 11:54 am
ESTIMATED READING TIME: 2 minutes
While freelancers, contractors, entrepreneurs and small business owners are considered an excellent and reliable customer group, it’s not always easy for someone who is self-employed to get mortgage financing. Salaried employees prove their income with their T4 slips. The self-employed on the other hand have a much harder time proving their
earnings because they use accounting techniques to report lower income so that taxes are reduced as much as possible. This can make it harder to prove to lenders that they can afford to make their mortgage payments.
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