We are excited and pleased to announce that we just received news that we are # 1 in Ontario out of some 1,700 mortgage consultants.

Tracy, myself and our assistants Jim and Laurie love making a positive (sometimes huge) impact on people’s lives. Whether it be helping folks buy their first home, moving up to that dream home, helping others save tens of thousands of dollars or helping peopkle get out of dire circumstances with creative solutions, ours is a hugely interesting and rewarding business.

The one thing that stands out after ten years building our business in Wellington and beyond, is the number of referrals and the repeat business that we receive. This is proof positive that we have built a solid reputation as mortgage professionals in the industry, as well as broad recognition through-out the region.

What we hear most often from clients is ‘that we really care’, and in a recent testimonial from Kathy in Kitchener was very gratifying. Kathy wrote us this email in response to our thank you letter for a referral she sent us: “Tracy I can’t thank you enough and will keep referring people as much as I can. I have never met such a fantastic woman as you who does the utmost best for her clients. “You are one in a million”  In addition we placed # 13 in Canada.

Please call us today to discuss your needs. You will be so glad you did!

Jennifer has been a client of ours for ten years. When her marriage broke down and her credit was in the toilet, we were able to help her keep her home by having her father co-sign.

We were there cheering Jennifer on when she landed a good job in sales a nd we helped and guided hervas she re-established credit. In January, we gave Jennifer a call to see how she was doing. Her life was definitely on the upswing. She now had a newcar which replaced the old clunker she used to drive but she now had a lot of debt she felt she needed to amalgamate into her mortgage. It deserves mentioning that Jennifer had listened to our advice to go with a variable rate mortgage at .60 below prime, three years ago., so in fact she had paid a significant amount off her mortgage, so refinancing was now an option.

First thing we looked at was Jennifer’s credit. It was stellar except for a R5(which means 4 payments behind) Jennifer was extremely disheartened because she had worked so diligently at improving her credit. Upon further investigation we learned that her bank had pulled a ‘dirty trick’. They reported her chequing account overdraft of $500 on her credit bureau and through some administration mistake, her account was showing as delinquent. Normally banks don’t report overdraft accounts but we are seeing the odd one now. We encouraged Jennifer to call the credit reporting agency Equifax and her bank to get the mistake rectified. She made numerous calls and didn’t really get anywhere. As consumers, it is very difficult to get mistakes corrected at Equifax, and no wonder people throw their hands in the air and give up. We continued to monitor Jennifer’s credit over the next few months and lo and behold the R5 finally showed up as paid. It was still not correct but the best we could get. So we offered an explanation for the recent blip on the credit bureau when we applied for a new mortgage. when Jennifer found out that we were able to amalgamate her car loan and her Visa into a new mortgage at a rate of 2 percent at the same mortgage payment she had previously, she practically fainted. But she was even more surprised to learn that she didn’t need her father to co-sign anymore and she could now stand on her own two feet based on her income and good credit. Helping people like Jennifer is what we love to do the most. If you are in similar circumstances please give us a call, ande if we can’t help you right now, we’ll show you the path to success.

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‘We gotter done’ as they say in the country. In the past if you were self employed for less than 3 years you had trouble getting a mortgage. But the rules are now changed.

It’s now easier for newly self employeds than a person who has worked years as self-employed. The old rules wanted job stability for self employeds now the federal government in its wisdom says new self employed should have easier access to money

We just had a client who has had a business for less than a year approved through a refinsnce at 90 per cent of their property value. The clients had purchased a house three years ago for $214,000 at a rate 0f 5.3 percent and were paying 1256 dollars a month. Today’s new value came in at $255,000. So they realized about 40 thousand dollars in new money.

They are using that money to pay down debt most of which came as the resultof being laid off for a few months and the start up costs for the new business. The rest of their money will be used to help grow the business.

With amortizations still at 35 years we were able to give them a payment of less than 800 dollars per month. The only documentation needed was a a master business license to prove they had been in business for less than 3 years and last years Notice of Assessment

They did not have to prove any income. The moral of the story is if you are newly self employed and need to refinance or purchase there is a wonderful opportunity now to get a very good mortgage. the client chose a variable rate at 1.75 per cent and their mortgage closes next week.

A certain bank lender(we can’t name them) has an ad saying ‘UNMORTGAGE’ YOURSELF’, trying to compel you to take their five year fixed mortgage rate of 4.49% with the suggestion that you can pay down your mortgage ‘faster’…NOT

Let us give you a better solution. Take our 1.95% mortgage and pay your mortgage payment at ‘their’ rate. then you can ‘REALLY START PAYING OFF YOUR MORTGAGE SOONER. We, not the bank can ‘PUT MONEY IN YOUR POCKET’ Can we be any clearer?

Folks don’t be fooled by these ‘slick’ ads. If it is a bank, then please realize that they are looking for profit, and the deal they are offering you is not nearly as good as the one we can give you.

Why would you go to one institution when we can give you access to over 50 lenders, that’s right. and many of them are way more competitive than your own bank. We have written many times about putting all your ‘eggs in one basket’ Ask yourself, “does my bank deserve my loyalty when I have to fight them every time in order to get the best rate? If you are a long time good customer, your bank should without question give you their absolute best rate. We see it all the time. People get a rate from their bank and then they come to us and ask if we can do any better. We always can. Sometimes we keep the client with their own bank but at a better rate than they were quoted by their own institution. Clients are absolutely shocked.

 As a rule, banks are banking on you not paying attention or caring that you are paying too much interest. That’s how they get their ‘insane profits’ Remember, you are doing them a favor not the other way around.

Folks, we are mortgage experts offering you the absolute best interest rates, terms, products and service. Period

Call us today, especially if you read us in the ‘Welly’ every week. We love to hear from loyal readers and we write our own experiences with the mortgage business and people like you.

It seems that Canadians are talking as much about real estate and interest rates today as they do about the weather, and we love to talk about the weather don’t we…lol.  With mortgage rates still at historical lows and only one way to go but up, it would seem logical to perhaps forget about getting a variable rate tied to prime and simply ‘lock in’ to a fixed rate right? Well if you will lose sleep at night over your rate/payments going up, then fix, fix, fix. However, just know that you are paying a big premium for such ‘peace of mind’. If you are a first time home buyer, adjusting to a new ‘home ownership’ budget, we recommend you take the safe  route by choosing ‘fixed’.

For those of you willing to take a little risk in order to save(perhaps a lot) statistics have proven that from 1950 to 2007 Canadians 88% of the time have saved more by having variable mortgages tied to prime versus taking the fixed rate mortgage. The spread between variable and fixed is a whopping  2.64% which represents very significant savings and there always is a ‘spread’. If the prime rate begins rising this June as expected(as will fixed rates) it would have to climb all the way to4.84% before you stop saving vs fixed rates. Experts predict prime will rise about 1.25% to around 3.5% in late 2011 when it should stabalize. We believe that by then you will be so far ahead of the game, that you then should stay with your subprime mortgage rate to the end of term. Regardless of choosing variable or fixed, we all have to deal with market realities at the end of each term don’t we.

We have received numerous calls from people thinking of renewing early and not waiting until next year when their mortgage matures. We show them that the penalty is insignificant relative to the savings they can realize by going with a subprime mortgage now. Our best is .50% below prime or 1.75%, our best 5 year fixed rate is 4.39%.

If your current mortgage is $200,000 at 5.1% your monthly payment is $1015. If you renew now, your payment would be reduced to only $637/month and if your new variable averages over 3.0% over 5 years, your average payment would be $736/month. For the very astute who plough the savings against the mortgage(called prepayments) they will pay down faster than before, saving even more in interest in the years ahead. Which do you prefer? Call us today and we’ll help you decide. Talk to you soon. would                                                                                                                                            

The Big banks are pushing their hybrid products and their popularity has grown immensely over the years.  This is the mortgage and line of credit products or straight line of credit product.  But these mortgages should come with huge warning labels.  The problem is that most consumers are unaware of what they are signing and the impact it can have on future borrowing.  Basically what the banks are doing is putting a collateral first mortgage on the entire value of your property.  So even if you are borrowing less than that, the mortgage is registered on title for the value of your home.  We see this as anti competitive  and not in the favour of the consumer. 

We recently ran into this when a client purchase another property.  They owed $200,000 on their mortgage statement and their current property was worth $400,000.  They wanted to tap into the equity on their present property in order to purchase the new one.  When the lawyer was doing the title search he found a mortgage registered for $400,000.  The bank refused to allow any mortgage behind their existing mortgage and there was no equity left.  The client was enraged when he found out the dirty trick the bank had pulled on his and he had no idea a mortgage for twice the value which had borrowed was attached to his home. 

Many of these hybrid mortgages are singed up the bank branches and so clients have no idea that their properties have been encumbered for their full value.  We think full disclosure should take place prior to mortgages being put on property.  Often that disclosure comes later in a 30 prage documents called, The Standard Terms and it has a lot of legal jargon which the common person would never understand let alone take time to read.  And we think it is anti competitive it its nature. It forces a client to back to their original bank for any new borrowing ie car loans.  So shop around for the best rate..forget about it…You’ve got one choice.  As well, this practive affects the total amount of debt the client is carrying which can negatively impact future borrowing.  The equity you have built up in your property should be yours not the banks.  That’s why you need us, trusted mortgage professionals who have served this area for ten years.  We take the time to explain what are signing.  We deal with 47 different lenders including all the major banks and we look out for your interests.