What do lenders want to see? Downpayment… Where is yours coming from?

June 30, 2010

A HUGE part of what we do as mortgage professionals is simplify the home-buying and home refinancing process for all of our clients. During every interaction, we do our best to educate and inform homebuyers and homeowners of the ins and outs of the homebuying process. As a team of 31 Mortgage Specialists, we send in literally dozens of mortgage applications for Canadians on a weekly basis and therefore have an intimate understanding of what the diverse needs of our Canadian mortgage borrowers are, what products exist in the Canadian Mortgage marketplace, and most importantly, in marrying the previous two together, knowing how to structure things properly to give lenders what they want to see as applications come across their desks. With this in mind, we have dissected a mortgage application from the point of view of the lender into four parts. Over the next four days, we will walk through an outline of the most important items that we recommend that mortgage-seekers should take note of to help ensure a smooth mortgage-seeking experience.

RECA Continues To Be Proactive Against Mortgage Fraud

May 14, 2010

Due to the recent Bank of Montreal (BMO) Mortgage Fraud case, RECA is issuing this formal position statement to all Industry Members. Formal Position Statement The Real Estate Council of Alberta (RECA) sets and enforces standards of conduct for industry members in the real estate brokerage, mortgage brokerage and real estate appraisal industry. RECA supports BMO’s [...]

CAAMP releases Spring 2010 consumer report

May 10, 2010

Today, CAAMP released its spring consumer report, Prudence Paying Off For Canadian Mortgage Borrowers. The report, compiled by Will Dunning, CAAMP’s chief economist shows Canadians appear well prepared to face a new phase of the residential mortgage market and includes information on consumer borrowing behavior and an outlook on residential mortgage lending. Significant statistics have been extrapolated [...]

Bank of Canada rates – May 5, 2010 update

May 10, 2010

Keeping you up to date with the rate shifts at the Bank of Canada for this week: V121796: Prime business (‘prime rate’) 2.25% V121764: Conventional mortgage – 5-year 6.25% Source: Bank of Canada **NB** The “Conventional 5-year” rate above is used for qualifying high-ratio mortgages with FIXED 1,2,3,4-year terms in addition to 3- and 5-year VARIABLE [...]

Straw buyers: Taking advantage of your good name (…it’s MORTGAGE FRAUD)

May 5, 2010

From the CBC.ca article published May 5, 2010 You don’t need to use a gun to rob a bank. Criminals can do the same with some falsified documents and a little know-how. In the United States, the government says crooks pocket $4 billion to $6 billion a year through mortgage fraud. The FBI says 80 per [...]

Most Canadians are ‘comfortable’ with mortgage debt: CMHC

May 4, 2010

Picture: Calgary Home, CandelaCanada Archive  Original Source: Financial Post, posted on [url=http://www.canada.com]www.canada.com April 26 2010[/url] TORONTO — One in four Canadians over the age of 50, who have at least $100,000 in assets, retired with some form of debt, according to a Royal Bank of Canada survey released Monday. Nearly one-quarter of the 2,143 respondents [...]

2010 CMHC Mortgage Consumer Survey

April 29, 2010

Earlier this year, CMHC conducted an online survey of over 2,500 recent mortgage consumers and the results were surprising. It found that internet usage is a vital tool for mortgage shoppers, with 9 out of 10 first-time buyers relying on the internet to research mortgages. Below are other key findings of the report: Lender Loyalty [...]

New Government Guarantee Parameters for Mortgage Loan Insurance and CMHC Product Changes

April 6, 2010

From CMHC.ca The Government of Canada has recently announced new parameters regarding the application of the government guarantee supporting the Canadian mortgage insurance industry (view the Department of Finance’s news release). The effective date when the new rules are to come into force is April 19, 2010. CMHC supports the Government of Canada’s on-going efforts to [...]

Mortgage Rates – going up up up!

March 30, 2010

As I’m sure that you’ve heard by now, Canadian mortgage rates are on their way up. The whole team has been working in a frenzy to get our clients’ transactions put together and submitted in time for tonight’s FINAL deadline of midnight (MST) to be able to get clients 3.69% as a 5-year fixed-rate mortgage. [...]

MORE proposed changes to mortgage qualifying by CMHC

March 9, 2010

From the desk of Todd Fralic, current AMBA president: As many of you are aware, CMHC announced 3 pending changes today: 1. The qualifying rate to be used for variable rate mortgages, or terms shorter than 5 years will be a standard benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada. In essence this is the [...]