Blogs

As you may have heard, CIBC recently announced that fewer Canadians are in a rush to pay off their mortgages. The reasoning behind this: Record low rates.

Based on the polling results, which surveyed 1,509 randomly selected participants, fewer Canadians are in a rush in pay off their mortgage as stats dropped from 68 per cent last year, to 55 per cent today. The poll also shows that 23 per cent of these Canadians have accelerated their payment frequency (down from 42 percent); 28 per cent increased the payment amount (down from 30 per cent), and 18 per cent made lump sum payments. Overall, the average Canadian is expecting to be 58 by the time they are mortgage free.

With fluctuations in the real estate market and changes to Lender requirements and qualifications, it is important to know what an Appraiser is looking for when viewing your home. When booking an appointment with the Appraiser, remember these top five items for the most accurate valuation of your home.

1) An Appraiser is required to view all rooms in your home

Since the Appraiser will make sure you are aware that all rooms need to be viewed, you’ll be able to prepare the occupants or tenants of the home. If no access is provided at the time of the inspection then a second visit may (most likely) be required by the Lender, and a fee will be charged for a second visit.

While buying your first home can be a scary, expensive, experience, today many first time home buyers are finding a peace of mind and paying off their mortgages faster by settling in homes with a secondary suite.

As this trend of additional income via renting a suite in your home becomes more and more popular, the actual number of legal secondary suites remains quite low.

Can the mortgage process be difficult?

Absolutely.

But it can also be exciting when you aren't faced with surprises at every turn.  Let's remove some of the potential surprises and make your life a little easier.

You’ve nailed down why you want to own a house and figured out a monthly budget that gives you a payment amount you’re comfortable with. Great! Now it’s time for something you might have never thought about before: your credit.

We’ve all felt the urge to price shop.  Maybe for you it’s clothes, maybe it’s patio furniture, or maybe it’s trying to find the cheapest plumber in town … regardless of when you bargain shop, almost everyone does it when it comes to mortgage rates.

How do I know?  Well turn on the TV, listen to the radio, read a newspaper, surf the net, talk to your neighbor (I’m not kidding, go ahead don’t text him or her, actually talk to them).  Any one of these sources will know something about what’s happening with mortgage rates.  And I’m guessing so do you!   So why are we so obsessed with them? It’s a good thing right?

-Mark Weisleder, via TheStar.com

The decision to buy a house is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make. According to a Toronto Lawyer, Mark Weisleder, these are 5 key things to keep in mind:

1. What is the seller telling you about the house?

Sellers used to provide disclosure statements, telling buyers about the condition of the home and disclosing problems. These days, lawyers advise against this, because of the potential for lawsuits. Some sellers are doing home inspections before they list the property for sale and giving a copy of the report to any buyer.

This helps sellers because they can correct problems noted by the inspector and so they do not have to negotiate with the buyer later. Some sellers are also providing history reports, which can be obtained from homeverified.com or Iverify.com which indicate whether the home has been the subject of an insurance claim for water, fire, flood or sewage backup, and if the home was ever listed as a grow house or meth lab.

The more information a buyer has in advance, the more informed the purchase decision. Still, even with this information, you should do your own home inspection before committing to any purchase.