First Time Home Buyers typically want to maximize their buying power and are looking to purchase the best home that they can afford. At the core of mortgage qualification is a mathematical formula. Essentially your total debt payments divided by your gross income. If you find yourself not qualifying for the mortgage you want then you might be carrying too much other debt (ie: car loans, credit cards, student loans, etc.) which is limiting your mortgage amount. Keep in mind th...

Mortgage brokers typically get paid a commission from the lender and do not need to charge a broker fee for their services. Though, private lenders do not pay commissions and hence brokers do need to charge a fee for their service. There are no strict rules for what brokers can charge for their service. So, it is up to the individual broker on what they want to charge. However, there are some generally accepted industry fee guidelines that have evolved.

Here is what I see as reasonable...

A good rule of thumb is to allow three to four weeks for the entire mortgage process (including appraisal and lawyer). If you think that you have a more challenging case, please allow more time. It is never too early to start the mortgage conversation. As a rough guideline, the mortgage broker and lender need a week or so to get the approval, straight forward files can take less time and more complicated files can take longer. The appraiser needs about a week to do the site visit and to c...

Canadian mortgage interest rates are currently at an all-time low. For most people, mortgage financing is the cheapest form of financing that you can get. So, it makes sense to take out some of that home equity and pay off other higher interest rate loans.
You can use the money to pay out almost any other type of structured loan. Common debt payouts include: Credit cards Lines of Credits Private mortgages Personal loans Car Loans Student loans You can also us...

" To be or not to be" Hamlet's famous quote. While not as dramatic as Shakespeare, deciding between a fixed rate or a variable rate can weigh heavily on some borrowers.  Which is the right answer for you? As of the date of this post, variable rates are slightly lower than fixed rates. But keep in mind that interest rates have never been this low in history. The current market thinking is that it is unlikely that rates will go down any further in the near future (they ...