While most people start off their mortgage search by going after the lowest rate, what they are really after is the mortgage with the lowest cost. Then again, the majority of borrowers in Canada end up with a mortgage that is not the lowest rate nor the lowest cost. Strike 1! Whether borrowers realize it Read More

Do you need to get a current value of your property? Then you are going to need an appraisal. Banks and other lending institutions want to know the “current” market value of your home before they consider loaning money on the property. An appraiser checks the general condition of your home and compares your home Read More

Currently, all borrowers in Canada need to qualify for a new mortgage at the current Bank of Canada Benchmark Qualifying Rate or at their approved mortgage interest rate plus 2.0%, whichever is higher. For more than a year, this Bank of Canada Benchmark Qualifying Rate has been 5.34%. Now, for the first time in 3-years, Read More

While people often think of mortgage brokers when they are first time home buyers, we can help people in a variety of different ways. Recently Garrett LaBarre of Calvert Home Mortgages in Calgary shared a success story with brokers. He had a client referred to him by a mortgage broker who had a conundrum. She Read More

Oftentimes even the most organized and detail oriented first-time homebuyer can overlook some unexpected costs that come with the purchase of their new home. We are outlining 4 of the costs that we most commonly see overlooked by home buyers in hopes that we can better prepare you—and save you from a few surprises! 1. Read More

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. Getting a coffee at Read More

A few years ago, I remember seeing a statistic that said that if you took out a variable rate mortgage instead of a fixed rate, you would do better in 95 out of the last 100 years. Often the spread between a 5-year variable rate and a 5-year fixed rate was more than 1% and Read More

For most people, your personal credit score and how a credit score is calculated are complete mysteries. How can you be expected to play and be successful if you aren’t even told the rules of the game? There are things borrowers can do to improve their score so they can access better mortgage products and Read More