Kambi's Blog
Using Your RRSP To Help Buy A Home
Did you know that you can use your RRSP to help buy a home? In fact, you can, it’s called the RRSP Home Buyer’s Plan (or HBP for short). Here are a few things you need to know! It needs to be your first home (with some exceptions). Technically, you must not have owned...
What You Should Know About Buying A Home With a Rental Suite
Thinking about buying a home with a rental suite? This can be a great idea if you want to help offset the cost of your home expenses, and it can also potentially help with qualifying for a mortgage on your new purchase, but there are some things you should know up...
TDS? GDS? What Is Income Debt Servicing?
“Debt servicing” is the measure of your ability to meet all of your financial obligations. There are two ratios that are examined by financial institutions to determine whether you can debt service a mortgage. The first one is called the “gross debt service” ratio...
How Can I Pay Down My Mortgage Faster?
Although getting a mortgage is exciting as it allows you to become a homeowner, a mortgage is, in fact, a lot of debt. So if you have a mortgage, your goal should be to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Here are four things you can do to help pay off your mortgage...
Employment Status | How it Impacts Your Mortgage Application
Chances are, if you're applying for a mortgage, you feel confident about the state of your current employment, or your ability to find a similar position if you needed to. However, your actual employment status probably means more to the lender than you might think....
First Time Home Buyer incentive | What we know so far
If you've been hearing about a new incentive for First Time Home Buyers and wondering how it might impact you, look no further, below you will find all relevant information to date. As more information is released, you can expect to find it published here. From the...
How Much Difference Will Extra Payments Make Towards My Mortgage?
Have you ever wondered how much difference extra payments actually make in paying down your mortgage? Let's take a look and maybe do a little math. The first (and largest) factor to look at is the amortization, which is the remainder of your mortgage’s life. A...
7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Building a Home
Building your dream home can sound really exciting, but have you thought about everything that goes into building a new home? Here are 7 Questions you should ask yourself before making any concrete plans! 1. What are my expectations with this new home? Are you looking...
Improving Your Credit Score
Along with employment stability, and downpayment/equity, your credit score and how you manage your credit is a huge factor in qualifying for a mortgage. If you want the best interest rates available on the market, the higher your credit score the better. However, if...
What You Can Expect When Locking in a Variable Rate
If you have a variable rate mortgage, and recent economic news has you thinking about locking into a fixed rate, here is what you can expect will happen. Firstly, your lender will be very happy as they will now make considerably more money off you. Not only will your...
Tips for Homebuying with Family Members
Pooling resources with parents or siblings opens possibilities when it comes to buying a home everyone can afford. Homebuying requires careful planning though, since there’s so much at stake—and money is the least of it; we’re talking love and loyalty here. If you...
Mortgage Post Bankruptcy
This should come as no surprise, but sometimes life throws you a financial curveball. Bankruptcy and consumer proposals happen. It doesn't mean your life is over, and it doesn't mean you won't ever qualify for a mortgage again. The key here is to get a plan in place...
Getting on the Property Ladder
As property prices continue to rise across Canada, the conversation around "how to climb the property ladder" has made a subtle shift to "how to get on the property ladder in the first place." Especially if you're single. Whereas before it was assumed anyone would...
Is Right Now a Good Time to Buy?
If you've been thinking about buying a new home; whether that be your first home, your next home, your forever home, or your retirement home, the doom and gloom of it all might be causing you to question... is right now a good time to buy a home? Well... what if I...
Mortgages – So Much More Than Just the Lowest Rate!
There aren't too many Canadians who are able to save up enough money to pay cash for their home. This is why we have mortgages. A mortgage is a loan made to assist a borrower to purchase a property. The property is held as collateral and interest is charged on the...
Avoid This Mistake When Shopping for a House
No doubt about it, buying a home is an emotional experience. It's a game of balancing needs and wants, while trying to be honest with yourself about those very needs and wants. It's hard to get it right, figuring out what's negotiable and what isn't... what you can...
Top Dollar: How High Can You Go?
Affordability is a major concern for today’s aspiring first-time homebuyers. In hot real estate markets like the Greater Toronto and Greater Vancouver regions, however, the desire for affordability can be challenged by the competitive fervour caused by escalating...
How to Not Qualify for a Mortgage
If you have no desire at all to qualify for a mortgage, here are some great ways to make sure you don't accidentally end up buying a house and taking out a mortgage to do so. One of the best ways to ensure you won't qualify for a mortgage is to be unemployed. Yep,...
Buying A Home, The 30,000 Foot View
Did you know that the average Canadian will spend roughly 11 months actively engaged in the house buying process? However, most of the dreaming (and preparation) happens before then. Buying a home is a big deal, and it's a decision that shouldn't be taken lightly....
In the Middle of a 10 Year Term? You Have Options!
If you bought a house, or had a mortgage renew roughly five years ago, there's a chance the struggling economy and the relatively low interest rate environment (at the time) influenced you to "play it safe" and lock in a mortgage term for the next ten years. Because,...
New Construction Assignment
One of the benefits of working with an independent mortgage professional is having lots of great financing options! Rather than dealing with a single lender who has one set of products, brokers work with multiple lenders who offer a wide selection of mortgage...
You Just Got a Mortgage. Now What?
Mortgages are a funny thing. On the one hand they allow you to become a home owner without saving up enough money to purchase the home outright, which is a really good thing. On the other hand, even at today's really low interest rates, as they are amortized over a...
5 Reasons Why You Should Consider Investing in a Small(er) Home
The larger home is not always the better home. Yes, there still exists a large group of individuals who enjoy owning a grand estate, complete with all the modern conveniences, in addition to everything you could ever want; and of course, there’s nothing inherently...
Can I Get A Mortgage With No Downpayment?
The simple answer to this question is no. In order to secure mortgage financing in Canada you have to come up with at least a 5% downpayment. Now, if you haven't set aside the 5% for a downpayment in your savings account, that is okay. There are still a few ways to...
Finding the Right Home Without Blowing Your Budget
If you have been looking to find the right first home within your budget, it's a matter of mind over money, here's some tips from Genworth Financial that will help you keep perspective! It’s hard to say “goodbye” to your dream home. But if you fall for a house that’s...
7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Building a Home
Building your dream home can sound really exciting, but have you thought about everything that goes into building a new home? Here are 7 Questions you should ask yourself before making any concrete plans! 1. What are my expectations with this new home? Are you looking...
Should You Keep a Small Balance on Your Credit Card?
Recently the good people over at Nest Wealth published an article called "The Worst Money Advice We've Ever Heard". On the list was "Always keep a small balance on your credit card". What they have to say on the subject is spot on: Someone, somewhere, starting telling...
A Conversation About Mortgage Pre-approvals
Thinking of buying a property, but don't know where to start? Well... that's where a mortgage pre-approval comes in. Start here. Just like you wouldn't go into a restaurant without having enough money to buy your meal, so you shouldn't start shopping for a home...
Deposit vs Downpayment
As part of the mortgage and real estate processes, there’s a lot of confusion around the differences between the deposit and the downpayment. It's important to understand what sets them apart so you don’t get confused when it’s time to secure financing on a property...
I Missed a Credit Card Payment… Now What?
If you've missed a payment on your credit card (or line of credit) and you're wondering how this will impact your creditworthiness down the road, this article is for you. But before we get started, if you have an overdue balance on any of your credit cards at this...
5 Things to Help You Survive Your 40s & 50s
You know those days where everything goes wrong and you’re so tired you don’t know what direction’s up? They’re a lot more manageable when you know what you’re working towards. Here’s 5 things that’ll help you survive—and make the most of!—your 40s and 50s. 1. Do work...
Minimum Required Credit Profile
Credit. The ability of a customer to obtain goods or services before payment, based on the trust that payment will be made in the future. When you borrow money to buy a house, you will be required to prove that you have a good history of managing your credit. But what...
Bank of Canada Rate Announcement July 11th, 2018
The Bank of Canada today increased its target for the overnight rate to 1 ½ per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 1 ¾ per cent and the deposit rate is 1 ¼ per cent. The Bank expects the global economy to grow by about 3 ¾ per cent in 2018 and 3 ½ per cent in...
Finding Certainty in Uncertain Times
If you listen to the radio, watch the news on TV, read the newspaper, go on Facebook, browse the internet, or talk with people, even a little, chances are you've been inundated with uncertainty. The uncertainty of it all is what sells papers... or ads on the internet,...
Can I Give Someone The Downpayment to Buy My House?
Although it might not always be this straightforward, the question "Can I give someone the downpayment to buy my house?" presents itself in many different ways. And the answer to all of them is no, well... except in one circumstance, but we will get to that later....
Reasons You Might Need an Emergency Fund
You’ve heard the horror stories: basement floods gone wrong, cars that randomly stop running, or a pal suddenly losing their job. Perhaps you’re the type of person who thinks “that will never happen to me!” when hearing one of these stories, but the cold reality is...
How Interest Rates are Like Gas Prices
Have you ever noticed that just like gas prices, interest rates seem to go up and down for no reason at all? How come it feels like right before you are ready to buy a property, rumours of interest rate changes will start to flood the media? Or why do gas prices...
Online Mortgage Calculators, Can You Trust Them?
You'd think an online calculator is a pretty straight forward device, one that you should be able to place your full confidence in, and for the most part they are. Calculators calculate numbers, the numbers are reliable, but how you interpret those numbers... not so...
Homebuyers: Avoid These Common Mortgage Pitfalls
A home is the largest purchase most people will make in their lives. That should reinforce the importance of planning ahead, doing your research, relying on the advice of experts and not rushing through the process. With nearly 700,000 homes purchased in Canada each...
Kambi Heywood
LET’S WORK TOGETHER
Whether you’re a first time home buyer, looking to refinance or renew your home, or you’re looking at purchasing an investment property, regardless of your circumstance, if you need to arrange mortgage financing, please give me a call or contact me using the form below.
I look forward to working with you! Go ahead, drop me a line, your information is safe with me.
Kambi Heywood
Office Address:
1601 1st St S,
Cranbrook, BC
V1C 1B7
Click for Directions.
LET’S WORK TOGETHER
Whether you’re a first time home buyer, looking to refinance or renew your home, or you’re looking at purchasing an investment property, regardless of your circumstance, if you need to arrange mortgage financing, please give me a call or contact me using the form below.
I look forward to working with you! Go ahead, drop me a line, your information is safe with me.
