23 Feb

Steven Brouwer, Ranked 3rd best in Canada in 2022!

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

For Immediate Release

 

Entrust Mortgage Broker, Steven Brouwer, Ranked 3rd Best in Canada for 2022 on Rate-My-Agent.com

Chilliwack, BC – Steven Brouwer of Entrust Mortgage has been ranked the 3rd  Mortgage Broker in Canada for 2022 by Rate-My-Agent.com. The review site analyzes all the ratings and reviews on the site to compile a list of the Top 10 Mortgage Brokers in Canada for 2022.

“Unlike other agent ranking sites, agents can’t pay to have negative reviews removed or hidden and cannot pay to be included on the list of top-rated agents,” says Rate-My-Agent. The company won’t disclose exactly how it verifies reviews “to protect the integrity of the process,” but it says “there have been many attempts by agents to game the system and rankings, which is why we keep our algorithms a closely held secret.”

Rate-My-Agent.com is the only review site that actually penalizes agents caught cheating.

Steven had 19 reviews and a “success ratio” of 100%. Agents are rated on knowledge, professionalism, responsiveness, usefulness of website, value of service, and mortgage application guidance.

The rest of the top mortgage brokers for 2022 can be found on Rate-My-Agent.com.

The list is published annually based on that year’s verified reviews.

 

This year Rate-My-Agent.com started recognizing and ranking agents for their charitable contributions as well. The Top Giving Agents in Canada ranks agents based on how much they give to registered Canadian charities. “When choosing an agent to work with, people can consider if the agents’ values align with theirs, and hopefully, this helps people find the right agent”. The new ‘Worthy Cause’ ranking will not impact the agents’ annual ranking which is solely based on the reviews agents get from their clients. The company already pledges 50% of its profit every year to worthy causes. “Our vision is to see how much good we can do, and this year we have joined forces with Raising the Roof to fight youth homelessness in Canada.”

Rate-My-Agent.com is a rating and review platform for real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and insurance agents.  It’s free for the general public and real estate professionals.

 

21 Feb

Mortgages and Corporations

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Mortgages and Corporations.

If you are a self-employed client who owns your own business, you may have chosen to set that business up as a corporation. This means the business operates as essentially its own person. They have income through business revenue and expenses from marketing costs, materials, office space, etc.

When it comes to getting a mortgage, there are a few benefits to putting that mortgage under the corporation instead of your individual self:

  1. Corporations tend to pay a lower tax rate than the personal income tax rate and only pay taxes on the net business income.
  2. When it comes to qualifying for a mortgage, a lender can look at the business income or the personal income they pay themselves.
  3. Adding the net business income or the personal income from year 1 and year 2 and dividing it by two is the income a lender will associate with that borrower. Keep in mind though this will also be affected if there is more than one shareholder.

There are two ways one can go about this type of corporate mortgage, depending on if the corporation is the operating company or acts as the holding company.

Mortgages and Operating Companies

As with any mortgage, there are considerations and more-so when looking to put your mortgage under your corporate umbrella. While you would essentially qualify as though you’re buying a property in your name, your application will be packaged much differently to the lender. You would be instead qualifying as a corporation with a personal guarantee from yourself.

It is also possible to do a mortgage deal under your personal name but utilize both personal and corporate income. Lenders can do this by looking at both personal T1 generals and respective NOA, plus you can qualify by looking at the Net Business Income before taxes as seen on company financials.

When it comes to getting a mortgage under an operating company (versus a holding company), you may encounter limitations with the lenders that provide this type of deal. You would be looking at an Alt A (B Lender) to finance this particular mortgage, which may come with higher interest rates.

Mortgages and Holding Companies

When it comes to getting a mortgage under a holding company, you will find things are a bit easier. Having a mortgage under a holding company, versus the operating company, essentially removes any limitations or liability from the operating company with regards to the mortgage.

However, to be eligible, you must meet the definition of a Personal Holding Company (PHC) or Personal Investment Company (PIC) per the bank. This is typically considered “a Canadian incorporated entity established by an individual or individuals for the purpose of conducting investment activities, which can include holding real estate, and/or investments. Personal Holding or Investment Companies, and the owner of the PHC or PIC must qualify personally, and sign as covenantor”.

Some additional reasons to consider a mortgage under a corporation or holding company include:

  1. If your intent is to flip properties rather than hold them as rental revenue, it might make sense to consider holding it through a corporation
  2. You have retained corporate profit that can be used to buy a property without withdrawing money personally and incurring personal tax.

The most important thing to note when going this route for a mortgage is that ALL DIRECTORS listed on the corporation MUST also be listed on the mortgage application. For a sole proprietorship, this is easy as there is typically only one director, however on larger corporations this is something to consider.

For some individuals, the benefits might not be enough to convince them to put their property under the corporation but for others, it may be the perfect solution.

To find out how your income would be viewed by a lender if you have your business set-up as a corporation, contact a Dominion Lending Centres mortgage expert.

Written by My DLC Marketing Team

30 Mar

Why Are Mortgage Rates Rising?

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

Why Are Mortgage Rates Rising?

 

Over the past month, the Bank of Canada has lowered its overnight rate by a whopping 1.5 percentage points to a mere 0.25%. Many people expected mortgage rates to fall equivalently. The banks have reduced prime rates by the full 150 basis points (bps). But, since the second Bank of Canada rate cut on March 13, banks and other lenders have hiked mortgage rates for fixed- and variable-rate loans. That’s not what happens typically when the Bank cuts its overnight rate. But these are extraordinary times.

The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted everything, shutting down the entire global economy and damaging business and consumer confidence. No one knows when it will end. This degree of uncertainty and the risk to our health is profoundly unnerving.

Most businesses have ground to a halt, so unemployment has surged. Hourly workers and many of the self-employed have found themselves with no income for an indeterminate period. All but essential workers are staying at home, including vast numbers of students and pre-school children. Nothing like this has happened in the past century. The societal and emotional toll is enormous, and governments at all levels are introducing income support programs for individuals and businesses, but so far, no cheques are in the mail.

In consequence, the economy hasn’t just slowed; it has frozen in place and is rapidly contracting. Travel has stopped. Trade and transport have stopped. Manufacturing and commerce have stopped. And this is happening all over the world.

What’s more, the Saudis and Russians took advantage of the disruption to escalate oil production and drive down prices in a thinly veiled attempt to drive marginal producers in the US and Canada out of business. This has compounded the negative impact on our economy and dramatically intensified the plunge in our stock market.

Many Canadians are now forced to live off their savings or go into debt until employment insurance and other government assistance kicks in, and even when it does, it will not cover 100% of the income loss. The majority of the population has very little savings, so people are resort to drawing on their home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), other credit lines or adding to credit card debt. Businesses are doing the same.

The good news is that people and businesses that already have loans tied to the prime rate are enjoying a significant reduction in their monthly payments. All of the major banks have reduced their prime rates from 3.95% to 2.45%. So people or businesses with floating-rate loans, be they mortgages or HELOCs or commercial lines of credit, have seen their monthly borrowing costs fall by 1.5 percentage points. That helps to reduce the burden of dipping into this source of funds to replace income.

So Why Are Mortgage Rates For New Loans Rising?

These disruptive forces of Covid-19 have markedly reduced the earnings of banks and other lenders and dramatically increased their risk. That is why the stock prices of banks and other publically-traded lenders have fallen very sharply, causing their dividend yields to rise to levels well above government bond yields. As an example, Royal Bank’s stock price has fallen 22% year-to-date (ytd), increasing its annual dividend yield to 5.31%. For CIBC, it has been even worse. Its stock price has fallen 30%, driving its dividend yield to 7.66%. To put this into perspective, the 10-year Government of Canada bond yield is only 0.64%. The gap is a reflection of the investor perception of the risk confronting Canadian banks.

Thus, the cost of funds for banks and other lenders has risen sharply despite the cut in the Bank of Canada’s overnight rate. The cheapest source of funding is short-term deposits–especially savings and chequing accounts. Still, unemployed consumers and shut-down businesses are withdrawing these deposits to pay the rent and put food on the table.

Longer-term deposits called GICs, which stands for Guaranteed Investment Certificates, are a more expensive source of funds. Still, owing to their hefty penalties for early withdrawal, they become a more reliable funding source at a time like this. As noted by Rob Carrick, consumer finance reporter for the Globe and Mail, “GIC rates should be in the toilet right now because that’s what rates broadly do in times of economic stress. But GIC rates follow a similar path to mortgage rates, which have risen lately as lenders price rising default risk into borrowing costs.”

To attract funds, some of the smaller banks have increased their savings and GIC rates. For example, EQ Bank is paying 2.45% on its High-Interest Savings Account and 2.55% on its 5-year GIC. Other small banks are also hiking GIC rates, raising their cost of funds. Rob McLister noted that “The likes of Home Capital, Equitable Bank and Canadian Western Bank have lifted their 1-year GIC rates over 65 bps in the last few weeks, according to data from noted housing analyst Ben Rabidoux.”

The banks are having to set aside funds to cover rising loan loss reserves, which exacerbates their earnings decline. An unusually large component of Canadian bank loan losses is coming from the oil sector. Still, default risk is rising sharply for almost every business, small and large–think airlines, shipping companies, manufacturers, auto dealers, department stores, etc.

Lenders have also been swamped by thousands of applications to defer mortgage payments.

Hence, confronted with rising costs and falling revenues, the banks are tightening their belts. They slashed their prime rates but eliminated the discounts to prime for new variable-rate mortgage loans. Some lenders will no doubt start charging prime plus a premium for such mortgage loans. Banks have also raised fixed-rate mortgage rates as these myriad pressures reducing bank earnings are causing investors to insist banks pay more for the funds they need to remain liquid.

An additional concern is that financial markets have become less and less liquid–sellers cannot find buyers at reasonable prices. The ‘bid-ask’ spreads are widening. That’s why the central bank and CMHC are buying mortgage-backed securities in enormous volumes. That is also why the Bank of Canada has started large-scale weekly buying of government securities and commercial paper. These government entities have become the buyer of last resort, providing liquidity to the mortgage and bond markets.

These markets are crucial to the financial stability of Canada. Large-scale purchases of securities are called “quantitative easing” and have never been used before by the Bank of Canada. It was used extensively by the Fed and other central banks during the 2008-10 financial crisis. When business and consumer confidence is so low that nothing the central bank can do will spur investment and spending, they resort to quantitative easing to keep financial markets functioning. In today’s world, businesses and consumers are locked down, and no one knows when it will end. With so much uncertainty, confidence about the future diminishes. The natural tendency is for people to cancel major expenditures and hunker down.

We are living through an unprecedented period. When the health emergency has passed, we will celebrate a return to a new normal. In the meantime, seemingly odd things will continue to happen in financial markets.
24 Mar

Need to defer mortgage payments? Know the costs first

General

Posted by: Steven Brouwer

A word of caution before you defer your mortgage payments amid the COVID-19 pandemic: it will cost you in the long run.

Remember, a deferral isn’t mortgage payment forgiveness.

There seemed to be a collective sigh of relief when Finance Minister Bill Morneau, after consultation with the big banks, highlighted potential mortgage payment and credit card deferrals would be available for Canadians.

Understandably, Canadians rushed to the phones only to be met with frustration and confusion and left wondering:

Who would qualify?

  • Is there an application process?
  • Does the entire household have to be off work?
  • Will they require documentation?

None of the banks could initially could answer those questions.​ As days pass, we learn a little more, yet frustration is still high. A mortgage deferral might not be the deal you think it is.

Here’s why.

1. A mortgage deferral doesn’t mean an interest-free holiday. ​

2. If you choose to defer, the interest accrued during the skipped periods will be added to the principal  balance. This will make a difference in how much you end up paying in interest over the life of the mortgage.

My take away: a deferral is not mortgage relief, it is simply the ability to skip a payment for a specific period of time and will be added to outstanding balance of your mortgage.

 

Here are some of your other options.

1.  If you can’t handle a larger payment once the deferral ends, you could try to extend your amortization period.

2. If you are able, you could make extra payments in an effort to get back to where you started prior to the deferral.

3.  It might make more financial sense to borrow only what you need from a line of credit, paying the interest amount only, and paying back the principal amount as quickly as you can when you can.

Canadians are scrambling and worried about mortgage payments as many face layoffs in wake of the pandemic. I’ve been asked about liquidation of registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs), taking out cash advances on credit cards — all in fear of a foreclosure.

During this crisis, lenders have made it clear foreclosure isn’t going to be the first course of action and there are solutions that will help keep you in your home.

If you are in a financial crisis, a mortgage deferral is exactly the lifeline you may need. However, it is always best to reach out and ask for assistance before missing a payment. Recognize it isn’t going to free, but knowing all of your options can make it less costly

 

 

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Pattie Lovett-Reid

Chief Financial Commentator, CTV