Stop Paying Your Landlord’s Mortgage! Own Your Own Home

The thousands of dollars in rent you’ve paid to your landlord may be a staggering figure— a figure you don’t even want to think about. Until now, buying a house hasn’t seemed possible; it didn’t seem to be in the financial cards for your foreseeable future. Or is it? This situation is common: countless people feel trapped their home rental, pouring thousands of dollars into a place that will never be their own—they think they’re unable to produce a down payment for a home in order to escape the rental dilemma. However, putting the buying process into motion isn’t as impossible as it may seem. No matter how difficult you believe your financial situation to be, there are a few key facts that can help you make the step from the renter’s rut, to your own home-owning paradise!

Initially, of course, the most daunting factor involved in buying a house is the down payment. You know you’ll be able to handle the monthly payments—you’ve done this, and possibly more, for years as a renter. The hurdle, instead, seems to be accumulating the capital needed to put money down. Here’s the good news - this hurdle may be smaller than you think. Take a look at the following points and explore whether any of these scenarios may be possible for you:

1. Find a mortgage broker to assist you with your options for accessing different lenders.

Mortgage brokers have access to more than just one lender, usually they deal with over 40. Some of those lenders will work with clients to get them into a house with various options available for down payment and closing costs.

2. Buy a home even if your credit isn’t top-notch

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If you have saved more than the minimum for a down payment, or can secure the loan against other equity, many lending institutions will still consider you for a mortgage, despite a poor credit rating. And working with a mortgage broker we only obtain one credit bureau to save you rating from multiple inquiries.

3. Find a seller to assist you in buying and financing the home.

Some sellers may be willing to bear a second mortgage as a seller take-back. The seller then assumes the role of the lending institution, and you pay him/her the monthly payments, rather than paying the price of the home in a lump sum. This is an additional option if you have a poor credit rating.

4. Federal Government First Time Home Buyers Plan (HBP).

Canada Revenue Agency now allows first time home buyers to withdraw up to $25,000 from your RRSP contributions to put towards your home purchase. There are specific guidelines for this program which can be found at cra-arc.gc.ca.

5. Create a cash down payment without going into debt.

You may borrow the down payment from a loan or a line of credit. As long as you can service the repayment amount this is a viable option. You may also be gifted your down payment from a family member as long as it is genuinely a gift and it is in your account 15 days prior to the closing date. You may also have a co-signer on the application to increase the strength of your application for approval.

You now know, there are options. The next step is to educate yourself on what your own personal possibilities might be and how to follow through with this goal. You should be pre-approved for your mortgage before searching for a home. The process is free and doesn’t place you under any obligation. Its simple, you can be pre-approved over the phone! Once a credit application is submitted, you’ll receive a written pre-approval, which will guarantee you to a specific dollar range or mortgage amount. When you have the pre-approved mortgage amount, you’ll know the price range to look in. Make a commitment to break out of the renting rut. Start today!

www.mortgagegrp.com

 

Angela Kroemer, AMP

Mortgage Professional

TMG The Mortgage Group Canada Inc.

TMG Sharie Marie Mortgage Team

Local: 1.250.650.4182

TFP: 1.888.679.0190

Fax: 1.888.679.0192

akroemer@mortgagegroup.com

www.KROEMERmortgages.com

House Debt or Other Consumer Debt -Will The True Villian Please Stand Up

In the last couple of months, there has been several news worthy stories of house debt and other consumer debt. There are 2 groups lobbing the government to curb the other's debt vehicle.  Debt as a whole can be misused if it is not properly maintained. It just takes one or two life events for your debt to get away on you.

So the 2 school of thoughts lately is that house debt will get people into trouble and on the other side is Other Consumer Debt will be the evil debt getting people into trouble.

Lets take a closer look at each school of thought and see which one is the true villain.

1. House Debt interest rate around 3.29%
House Debt is the amount of money that you borrow to pay for your house. Right now the interest rates are at the all time lows, meaning you can buy a more expensive house with the same income dollars.
How can this be a problem in the world of Debt Villains, some of the problems are:
-if you lose your job you may not be able to make the payments (normal in every case)
-when you renew, the interest rate may be substantially higher and you may not be able to afford the payments,
-housing prices may fall and then again you may not qualify on what you owe to renew your mortgage. If you owe more than what the house is worth, no financial institution will loan you an extra amount of money if they cannot recoup it.

2. Other Consumer Debt interest rate around 23%
Other Consumer Debt is credit card, line of credit,vehicle purchases,buy now pay later, etc. This debt is used by the majority of Canadians to basically buy what they want- when they want it. There usually is very little to show for it except high interest payments.
-credit cards especially have a high interest rate. |Most people buy STUFF with no value after the fact.  If you lose your job you would have nothing to sell to help pay off most of the credit cards.
-many Canadians have a few credit cards  and shuffle payments from one to the other
-easy to get, especially if you are a young Canadian wanting to get into the credit game.
-If you do happen to buy items that you can resale- resale value may be 25-50% of actual cost if you are lucky.

While trying to figure out which  debt is the villain, I looked at the amount of debt. A house costs so much more than an average Canadian can put on a few credit cards. But, a house can be sold to recover most of the cost of the loan. Where as credit card debt, there is nothing to recoup. Average loss with a house or credit card debt on a bad case scenario may be around $30,000-$50,000. So that would be the same loss. But, there is one rule in Canada when a house gets sold by the financial institution and the house is sold at a loss, the loss can be recouped. The ex- owners still owe the outstanding bill. In this case the Other Consumer Debt is the Villain.

One fact that cannot be hid under the rug is there is always a resale value on a house, not so for the credit card debt.

 Another fact is  every person who buys a house with less than 20% down, has to buy default insurance, the House Debt becomes a better bargain then the Other Consumer Debt .

If you take it one step further and look to see which group has the most to lose if the Governmnet made changes to either one, you will quickly see the credit card group has the most to lose, with all their profits in their high interest rates. 4% versus 23%. That would be a whole lot of interest profits lost.

The real losers in this issue are the low to middle income bracket. They will have to save yet even more for a downpayment, plus if the amortization years are lowered they will have bigger monthly mortgage payments. These two points will likely take away any chance of being able to get into their own home.

The next time you come across a news story suggesting that rules on mortgages should yet again be tightened up, ask yourself why credit card companies are allowed to give credit out freely, as well as, gouge the average consumer with abusive interest rates.

Angela Kroemer, AMP
Mortgage Professional
TMG The Mortgage Group Canada Inc.
TMG Sharie Marie Mortgage Team
1.250.650.4182
akroemer@mortgagegroup.com
www.KroemerMortgages.com
Your Mobile Mortgage Professional in The Comox Valley

Canadians Realistic About Household Debt

In the past decade consumer confidence in Canada was much higher than what would be expected based on certain household fundamentals including Real Disposable Income Growth, Debt-to-Income Ratios and Consumer Capability Indices. It appears that pre-2008, consumers were confident they could increase and manage their household debt when indicators pointed against this.

Then, since the global financial crisis of 2008, Canadian consumers have become more realistic about their debt. Yes, they continue to borrow; however, the pace of that borrowing has slowed down. This change in mindset is happening during a time when their capacity to manage their debt has increased.

A recent report by economist Benjamin Tal of CIBC, analyzed this new trend on seven household fundamentals. He found that as of the second quarter of 2011, the Consumer Capability Index was back to the level seen before 2008, with the gap between confidence and capability narrowing notably, relative to the wide gap seen during most of the decade. This improvement in the capability index was not due to a strong growth in income but reflects the fact that while the level of the debt-to-income ratio is still rising, the speed at which it is, in fact, slowing.

"The key here", Tal wrote, "is the notable softening in the pace of growth in personal non-mortgage credit which is currently expanding at the slowest pace since the early 1990s. In fact, the ratio of consumer credit to disposable income has been stable over the past year."

According to the report, other factors contributing to the recent improvements include:

1. A higher savings rate which, while easing lately, is still double the rate seen before 2008
2. Personal bankruptcies are down
3. Relatively low and stable debt service costs
4. A stabilizing long-term unemployment rate at a relatively low level

"While consumers will continue to take advantage of historically low borrowing costs," Tal said. "The practical implication of their more realistic approach is that spending in the near future will be slower but more balanced growth as it will be based on fundamentals as opposed to wishful thinking."

as per TMG website

Down Payment not Required

You read the ads. No Down Payment.  What does this mean?

First of all, in most cases to not have a down payment you need a excellent credit history.  Which means you pay your bills on time and have income.

Next step is you need to be able to borrow the down payment.  The ways in which you can borrow are:
personal loans
lines of credit
credit cards
grants as long as not involved property purchase transaction. Example cannot be a builder loan.

The easy step is to call or email so we can set up a time to go through an application and see if you qualify.  This can be done over the phone or person to person.  Which ever is more comfortable for you.
If it is person to person then I usually meet with you at your home, but it can be at the library, coffee shop, your office, restaurant, etc.

If you are an outdoor type of person I enjoy meeting my clients at a park. Especially on a nice day.  I even bring the coffee. 


Angela Kroemer Mortgage Professional
1.888.679.0190
akroemer@mortgagegroup.com
www.comoxvalleymortgagestoday.com