First Time Home Buyers Incentive Program The new First Time Home Buyer Incentive program from CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) was officially released on September 2. This program was met with mixed reactions across the mortgage industry, but we wanted to take a minute to give you the facts regarding the program. Below are […]

4 Ways to Make the Mortgage Process Smoother Mortgages are complicated—we get it! But there are steps that you as a homebuyer can take to make the process a much smoother one (plus let you walk away with the sharpest rate!) 1. Use a Broker This should be the first step you take when getting […]

Mortgages are like coffee The most common question we get for mortgages is “what is your best rate?” Now imagine we walked into our local coffee shop and asked “what is your best price?” Doesn’t happen. There are all kinds of different coffees and lots of ways to make them. The same goes for mortgages. […]

20 Terms that Homebuyers Need to Know Buying a home is one of the most important financial decisions you will make. It’s common for a first-time homebuyer to be overwhelmed when it comes to real estate industry jargon, so this BLOG is to help make some of the jargon understandable. To help you understand the […]

Income Qualified There are several different ways a borrower can qualify for a mortgage when it comes to their income. One of the most common ways is known as income qualified. All of the following methods of employment income are under the income qualified umbrella: Annual salary income employees Full time employees working guaranteed weekly […]

Source of Funds Over the past several years, investigators have been working on an ongoing investigation relating to criminal money laundering in Canada. Looking at B.C. alone, billions of dollars have been laundered through B.C. casinos by criminal organizations and parked in high end B.C. real estate over the past decade or more. With government […]

7 Steps To Buying a Home It’s important to understand the home buying process, so here’s a 7-step checklist. Step 1: Down Payment The hardest part to buying a home is saving the down payment (a gift from the Bank of Mom & Dad also works). • For purchases under $500,000 minimum down payment is […]

3 “Rules of Lending” – What Banks look at when you apply for a Mortgage Buying a home is usually the biggest purchase most people make and there are a lot of factors to consider. Our job is to provide you with a much information (as you can handle!!) so you make the best decision […]

Who Really Sets Interest Rates? A recent article in the Huffington Post addressed the pricing strategy for the Big Six Banks, BMO, CIBC, National Bank, RBC, Scotia and TD and who really sets interest rates.  RBC announcing a rate drop in January and the other banks soon followed.  For consumers the banks are seen as […]

What is an Uninsurable Mortgage? With the mortgage rule changes in recent years, lenders have had to make some adjustments to their rate offerings. There are different tiers and rate pricing based on the following 3 categories: 1) Insured – a mortgage that is insured with mortgage default insurance through one of Canada’s mortgage insurers, […]