REASONS why mortgage brokers should do a lot of planning with clients.

A common misconception among people about taking out a mortgage is that they can’t qualify. Someone who has a job and pays bills on time is likely eligible for home financing.

Part of that is getting pre-approved, which means talking to an independent broker or a bank representative about how large a loan you can get before looking for a dream home.

This saves time for everyone and prevents a lot of frustrations down the road. Along with the loan amount, a pre-approval also guarantees an interest rate for 90 to 120 days.

The mortgage industry generates about $200 billion in loans across the country every year, financing home purchases and other real-estate undertakings.

Independent brokers, who are different from employees of financial institutions like banks and credit unions, have about a 30-percent share of the market. As a sector, the number of independent mortgage brokers, who have access to both institutional and nontraditional lenders, has grown over the years.

Mortgage debt among households nationwide rose 1.4 percent to $1.17 trillion in the second quarter of 2014, according to a Statistics Canada report. The value of household real estate increased at a faster rate than mortgage debt. This is according to a  StatsCan report released on September 12, 2014.

Since 2010, the Bank of Canada has kept interest rates in the country relatively low.

Economic conditions should remain stable for 2015, which means low interest rates will prevail. As to the perpetual question of choosing between a fixed- and variable-rate mortgage, I believe It’s a good time to go for both.

Thinking of Remodelling to Sell Your Home? Not What You Think...

Most people thing of Remodelling their bathrooms and kitchens to get the most bang for the buck on resale but you'd be surprised at these alternatives.

2015 cost vs. value highlights

More often than not, the simpler and less expensive the project, the bigger its cost-value ratio. A replacement steel entry door has topped the ranks of midrange projects in this survey for several years. This year, it is estimated to deliver a cost recouped of 101.8%. Average cost: $1,230.

Here are the top midrange remodeling projects based on their return on investment.

Top 5 midrange remodeling projects

1. Entry door replacement (steel): 101.8% ROI, $1,230 average cost

2. Manufactured stone veneer: 92.2% ROI, $7,150 average cost

3. Garage door replacement: 88.4% ROI, $1,595 average cost

4. Siding replacement (vinyl): 80.7% ROI, $12,013 average cost

5. Deck addition (wood): $80.5% ROI, $10,048 average cost

Of course, your location is a big factor in your home’s value—and the value of your home improvement projects. Out of the 36 remodeling jobs covered, 26 racked up cost-value ratios over 100% in at least one market. 

Vancouver Brings Out the Best and the Worst Sometimes

When the North False Creek Business and Residents Association filed a petition on change.org asking the City of Vancouver to remove the homeless shelters at 900 Pacific and 1335 Howe Street, they likely did not expect a counter-petition to surface, asking their residents to get out of town.

A petition posted on December 9 titled “Remove the Selfish Yuppies from the City of Vancouver” by Megan Speers is asking Mayor Gregor Robertson to “get this dysfunctional, self-interested “community” out of our city before they destroy the whole thing.”

Read more here. 
This definitely put a little smile on my face.

Working Around the High Cost of Living in Vancouver

Buying a home in Vancouver can be a heavy option at first and many first-time homebuyers are being priced out of the market and unable to save the huge down payment or even qualify for a mortgage. So more people are resorting to other ways to living where they want and how they want, including co-buying with friends or family. 
I'm one of those people and I think it was one of the best moves we could make. Living outside of Vancouver and driving everywhere was just not an option for my family and I so we made it work.

Couple of key features to make sure a partnership or joint venture agreement should cover : 

• Who pays for the purchase and maintenance of the house. 
• Sales agreement in case one side wants to sell their share.
• How the property will be divided if the friends/family decide to separate or if one person dies.
• Enclose a first right of refusal clause into the agreement so whoever wants to stay has the ability to own the entire place first.
• Regardless of who you’re buying with, whether a friend or sibling or parent, seriously consider consulting a lawyer and drafting legal papers.
• Pay attention to unbalanced arrangements at the outset. For example, if you’re contributing 100% of the down payment but the two parties will be splitting the expenses, you might want to be clear in your agreement that your down payment should be returned to you upon sale before profits are split.

In the end if there is a will, there is a way. Just cover your bases to avoid a confrontation in the future. I wouldn't have done it any other way.

Booming Real Estate Markets are Producing Another Kind of Bubble

Booming real estate markets are producing another kind of bubble: An expansion of authors writing about a looming crash. Writers. One word. Geography.

A lot of writers subject matter, concerning the housing bubble bursting is based on housing prices rising faster than the rate of inflation, when they should be merely keeping pace.

Up until 2000, housing prices kept pace with inflation and lately they’ve gone up twice the rate of inflation. It’s the biggest deviation in the world from the long-term price trend. Adding prices must drop by half to get us back to the trend line where we were in 1975. This is the attitude of a lot of doomsayers out there, the difference here in Vancity... Geography.

Bubbles bursting on our housing prices are a concern for many of us because we all live in one and for a lot of us it is one of the largest investments you will make in your lifetime. Writers more and more are capitalizing on Real Estate Investment Doom. Fortunately for Vancouverites as well as similar geographically laid out cities (Hong Kong, NYC, Sydney), there is no where else to go and this anomaly is where the theories may not apply. 

It doesn’t matter in a recession or the time of a boom, you always have these books coming out. They keep making all these calls every year and maybe they’ll be right in 2020 or 2022. Big surprise. Prices will fall at some point but not always due to "Bubbles Bursting" 

One thing is for sure: Mountains move slowly and the oceans are only getting bigger. Land is a premium and here in Vancity, there is not a lot of it left to build on.

Cheap and Easy in Vancity

Looking for a night out this summer and want to keep some cash in your pocket. This is a real winner.
Free outdoor movies in Stanley Park. Summer fun at it's finest.

For a schedule of this summers movies with dates and times hit the link: Summer Series.