The best mortgage deals available on the market are often ones that go unnoticed by a majority of potential customers. With a mortgage market as wide as it is – even in the financial difficulties that have become a global issue at this point – there is not only an increased level of competition for the few customers who feel brave enough to go out and borrow to buy a house, but also a real sense of being spoiled for choice. Invariably, even those potential borrowers who see fit to shop around for the best deal will find themselves getting a kind of “variety fatigue” which leaves them wondering whether they shouldn’t just take the best of the several potential deals they have already seen – even if it means missing out on an unseen gem.

Reaching for the best available deal on the market means really looking for one that satisfies all your needs, one for which you will not find it problematic to meet payments on a monthly basis, and ideally one that moves to take account of changing realities so that you do not become tied to a deal which looked good three or four weeks ago, but will leave you out of pocket in three of four years. There are various ways of going about this. Some people would say that you shouldn’t spend too long looking – just find a deal that you are happy with, which looks strong today and will maintain that strength, and not worry too much about whether you’ve missed a better deal. Others disagree.

The message from the latter group is that you owe it to yourself to get the best deal possible. Sure, a good mortgage deal will be beneficial for you, but a great one will continue to benefit you, will benefit your family and will continue to serve you well for the life of the account. You may well find at the end of it that you are able to pay it off in full earlier than you had expected. How do you find such a deal, though, if you do not know what it is or where to find it? How do you look for something which you don’t even know exists?

The first port of call is to check mortgage calculators and comparison sites. The Internet has seen a rapid rise in both of these over the course of recent years. The Internet is truly a consumer paradise in many ways because of the vast range that it covers. If you look closely enough in enough places, there is virtually no financial deal that is not covered on the World Wide Web. Trawling a number of comparison sites – ideally two or three, or even more – will give you an appreciation of what kind of deals are being offered. If all of the deals you see are from banks you are fully aware of, however, it may also be worth hitting the streets to see what is on offer from the smaller, more independent banks. With greater freedom to set their own rates, they may just throw up the great deal you were looking for.

Mortgage Calculators and Comparison Sites:

Mortgage Archive

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

30 Free Canadian Financial Tools and Calculators

10 Free Canadian Personal Finance Tools

13 Free Canadian Personal Finance eBooks

Mortgage Insurance-Always Read The Small Print

Borrowing to pay for a house is something that can raise the hairs on the back of anyone’s neck. With a likely 25+ years’ term on the loan, there is plenty of scope for anything to go wrong and for the mortgage to end up posing you some real problems. Yet people keep doing it because, short of having substantial savings or a large windfall, there is no other way for most of us to own our own home – even if it belongs at least partly to the bank for the first quarter of a century. At the point where the mortgage is paid off in full, that house is 100% yours – something which a lot of people consider one of their proudest moments.

The twenty five years (or more) between taking out the loan and paying it off, though, is undoubtedly a long time. In that time any number of things can happen, which is why most mortgages come with an insurance package on top of the other options. Insurance works the same on a mortgage as it does with most other personal insurance packages. If death, illness or unemployment leave you struggling to pay off the mortgage, the insurance is there for the purposes of paying off the loan (or meeting monthly payments for a period) and freeing you from the financial burden on top of an already undesirable situation. Depending on the nature of the insurance and the contents of the terms and conditions, you could find that the mortgage is a god-send. The key matter as far as this goes is liability.

There are probably no insurance packages available in the world today that do not come with a list of terms and conditions that apply caveats to the insurance you are offered. If you claim on the insurance, it will pay out on the condition that none of the “small print” terms and conditions are violated. Your insurance package is likely to pay out if you can prove that you could not reasonably have foreseen the set of circumstances that necessitate the claim, and that it wasn’t your fault. In case of death, the insurance company may well ask for a medical report. Cases of suicide, or death from a long standing condition that the mortgage holder kept to themselves, can invalidate the insurance.

If health problems make it difficult or impossible for you to bring in enough money to meet the mortgage payments, it is possible that the insurance will come to your aid. Again, though, it is essential that you read the small print because if you suffered from this condition before you took out the insurance, the policy will not pay out in most cases.

Unemployment is another common reason for claiming on mortgage insurance, but this is perhaps the most laden with stipulations. Did you resign from your job? Insurance won’t cover you. Did you get fired for performance reasons? No cover there either. Were you sacked as a result of participation in industrial action? You’re not covered. The list of reasons for unemployment which actually do qualify is shorter than those which do not. If the insurance company judges you to be liable for the situation that has left you in this mess, they will not pay.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

How To Manage A Mortgage

What Is A Mortgage Payment Schedule?

Consequences Of Lying On Mortgage Application

What To Do When Your Home Is Being Repossessed?

New Changes To Mortgage Rules

Canadian Finance minister Jim Flaherty announced new mortgage rules Tuesday, February 16, 2010 to discourage homebuyers from taking out mortgage they can’t afford. Unlike the U.S., Canada has not seen any housing market turmoil and the mortgage crisis has not been able to filter into Canada. There is no evidence of a housing bubble and these prudent steps are being taken to prevent one – according to Flaherty. Let’s look at the three major elements that have changed of these new mortgage rules:

- All borrowers will have to meet a five year fixed rate standards (even if you are taking a variable rate mortgage lesser than five year)

- Canadians can withdraw maximum 90 per cent of the home value when refinancing mortgages ( from 95 per cent)

- From now on, real estate investors will have to come up with a minimum 20 percent down payment (from 5 per cent)

Elements That Have Not Changed

- Minimum down payment requirement is still 5 per cent

- Amortization period is still 35 years

New mortgage rules will become effective April 19, 2010. Bank of Canada is expected to raise the record low interest rate shortly, and now along with these new rules, it is hard to predict how the housing market and economy will react. Only time will tell.

More Posts:

Canada/Toronto Archive

Canada Exceeds Economic Expectations

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

Managing A Mortgage To Your Advantage

If you are looking for a worthwhile mortgage in today’s market, it is advisable to be ready for some difficult years ahead, as the real estate market searches for stability in the wake of two years of severe turmoil. Mortgage management is more important now than it has ever been before, as there is a tendency among banks to become very nervous and panicky when customers exhibit any sign of the feckless borrowing habits that played such a large part in triggering the current global financial crisis. It is not necessarily more likely that you will be the victim of a repossession – banks are still reluctant to do this where there is any other option – but it will affect what kind of deal you can get, if you happen to be caught up in a situation where you are unable to pay.

Mortgage management begins right at the start of the mortgage period, when you first apply for the loan. The first part of a good process of mortgage management is to tell the truth on your application. There are some situations where it is possible to successfully apply for a mortgage by lying on your application and qualifying for preferential rates. Depending on the level of due diligence carried out by the lending bank, you may get away with it. If you do, however, it is important to remember that mortgage loans are frequently renegotiated, and that any information you give on your application can be checked at the source. If you lied on your initial application it is an option for the bank to sue you.

Another reason why it is simply common sense to tell the truth on your application is that although the lie may give you a preferential rate, you may still find it difficult to make the monthly payments on a big loan. If you struggle with these payments, you may be asked to provide evidence for why this has happened, and if you expose the lie at that point you are again liable to be sued.

By far and away the main aspects of sound mortgage management come, though, when you have been awarded the mortgage and are paying monthly to the account. Budgeting plays a huge part in mortgage management, and making sure that the first deduction you make from any month’s pay check is your mortgage payment should mean that you can prioritize your financial commitments – of which keeping a roof over your head must be considered the most important.

If you ever fall into financial difficulties that make the monthly payments to your mortgage difficult to maintain, it is essential that you discuss the matter with your mortgage lender. Early reporting of any problems makes for a much better chance of solving them than late reporting.

Finally, and quite literally so, if you find yourself in with a chance of paying off your mortgage in full you should take into account what the most economic way of doing this will be. Some lenders charge a surcharge for early payment, although this can be on a sliding scale and may also be negotiable. Check your terms and conditions, and discuss matters with your lender.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

Beware Of Mortgage Fraud Scams

What Is A Mortgage Payment Schedule?

Consequences Of Lying On Mortgage Application

What To Do When Your Home Is Being Repossessed?

Notice Periods – Time To Run Through Your Options

When you are having trouble paying your mortgage, the inevitable spectre of repossession emerges. Financial hardship is awful for anyone. The knowledge that you could be unemployed and not knowing where the next month’s groceries are coming from is bad enough, but when you have to deal with the idea that the roof over your head could be taken away from you things become worse still. Nobody who has experienced the situation of being repossessed, or even under threat of repossession, can ever take the payment of their mortgage lightly. The mere thought of having to move out of a home that you have made your own is too much.

However, there is a process that needs to run its course before a house can be repossessed, and if you work together with the bank who supply your mortgage then there are still options which could mean that you can escape the danger of repossession. The important thing of which you must take account is that banks generally do not want to foreclose on a house. As valuable as a house may be, and as keen as they are to protect their investment, banks set a lot of store by customer co-operation. With other forms of debt, specifically unsecured debts, one of the banks’ main fears is that customers will duck and run, leaving no trace of their whereabouts. With a mortgage, the loan is tied to the house, so the chance of a customer sneaking off with the proceeds of their non-payment is removed.

A policy of co-operation with the bank will serve you well in this respect. Rather than take the house off you, renovate any part that they consider not to be up to scratch and put it back on the market at a lower price to force a sale – all of which leaves them out of pocket – they would rather agree with a customer to refinance the mortgage to a more manageable level, creating in effect a new mortgage with a full term. You may stay indebted to the bank for longer, but you also stay in the house. If you cannot agree a remortgage or fail to make the payments, then the bank will be more likely to repossess. If they do this, they must however give a notice period.

During the course of your notice period, you have two options of any real substance. You can start looking for rental properties in preparation for the house being repossessed by the bank at the end of the stipulated period (either 35 or 45 days) or you can look for one last way to make the situation good. This may include looking elsewhere for a mortgage – which you will then use to pay off the old mortgage in full and begin to pay off anew. If you are able to demonstrate either the completion of this process or its reaching an advanced stage, the notice period can be extended or quashed, allowing you to make a new start and remain in the home you have made.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

Beware Of Mortgage Fraud Scams

What Is A Mortgage Payment Schedule?

Consequences Of Lying On Mortgage Application

Mortgage fraud Scams

With a mortgage being a simple transaction between an individual and an institution, with so much of the information locked in for both parties, it would seem difficult for mortgages to be open to fraud. And yet, it clearly is because there are an increasing number of potential mortgage scams that are putting householders out of pocket and in some cases out of their homes. The difficulty of targeting mortgage fraud is that fraud, to be successful, needs to be carried out by individuals with a large degree of cunning. If they are cunning enough to pull off a successful mortgage scam, they are certainly clever enough to operate undetected for a considerable period of time. There are other reasons that a fraudster may pass undetected, though.

For one thing, there appears to be a lack of due diligence taking place when it comes to mortgage applications, and this is allowing all sorts of initiatives by the fraudsters to take place. In one example half a decade ago, a couple living in a condo in Toronto found that they had been the victims of a scam which had seemingly resulted in their condo being mortgaged in their name and then sold out from beneath them. This had been achieved because the scam artists had managed to gather together enough real-looking fake documents to back up their story. A cursory check of the documents and a few questions later, and the fraudsters were walking away with a million dollars.

In many cases the fraud which is committed – and which the individuals have escaped from scot free – could be prevented with something as simple as a visit from the bank to the people whose name and address is on the documentation. Someone showing up at their door saying “I’m here to value your house for the remortgage you have applied for” would raise alarm bells instantly that the householders had been victims of identity theft. Mortgage scams, and any other mode of fraud, however, are probably crimes to which their will never be a complete antidote, as fraudsters are generally resourceful, resilient individuals. As soon as a loophole is closed, another opens.

Mortgage fraud never used to be such a problem, due in no small part to the fact that to take out a mortgage it was once necessary to attend the lending bank in person in order to sign the necessary documents and supply all the identification needed. These days, with the Internet and telephone playing such a large part in application processes, this is no longer the case, and it has ironically made mortgage fraud easier to commit in a supposedly security-conscious age.

Of course, there are other cases where the person taking out the mortgage really is who they say they are, and they do intend to use the money to buy a house. The problem is that they use incorrect information and occasionally direct lies in order to secure better terms on a loan – a loan which, due to their income, they generally cannot afford to pay off.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

Canada’s Personal Finance Blog

How To Get The Best Mortgage Quotes?

What Is A Mortgage Payment Schedule?

Consequences Of Lying On Mortgage Application

Lying On Mortgage Application

Buying a new house, selling a house, or staying in a house all require some level of co-operation between yourself and others. Obviously this includes your family and others close to you, but it also requires collaboration between you and the lending institutions who furnish you with a mortgage as well as a range of others who may be able to help you if you are finding it difficult to maintain payments on your mortgage. Any homeowner, especially one in their first house, will be keen to do things correctly, so it is important to be aware of the importance of doing things in the right way. Maintaining communication with the relevant companies and organizations is the soundest way of doing this.

It has become the accepted wisdom that people lie on forms. Job applications and resumes, insurance claims and credit applications are all examples of forms where people have been known to be “economical with the truth”. While the practice of lying on a job application has come to be the norm and is even tacitly encouraged, it can still get you fired if it is a) serious enough and b) found out. Where finance is concerned, though, it can be a criminal matter if you knowingly withhold information or give false information. A policy of total disclosure – while it may cause you to have narrower options in the short term – will not only work better for your conscience, but it will make the long-term maintenance of the mortgage all the more comfortable.

The reason this is beneficial is that mortgage lenders offer deals on the basis of a large amount of information given to them. If you lie about your salary in order to have greater borrowing power, it could work. At the time, you will want it to work. However, after some time you will begin to feel the pinch of repayments and the financial situation can very swiftly spiral out of control, affecting not only your ability to make mortgage payments but also your financial position overall. Telling a “little white lie” on the mortgage insurance may help you lower the premium, but if you then try to claim on the insurance it could stop you receiving anything.

Aside from mortgage lenders there are other organizations who you would do well to bear in mind. If you are finding payments difficult to make, a debt counselling organization may well be the life-saver you are looking for. In this respect, a word of advice that may well be to your benefit: always look for a non-profit debt management or counselling company. Although the profitable organizations can generally afford a high advertising budget, remember that they are doing that with people’s money, money which has been sent for the purposes of debt management. By going with a non-profit company, more money goes towards paying down your debt, and helping you stay in your home. You may even be able to get the interest payments on your mortgage stopped for a period.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

What Moves Mortgage Rates?

How To Get The Best Mortgage Quotes?

What Is A Mortgage Payment Schedule?

Amortization Schedules – Always Keep Your Eyes Open

On taking out a loan, it is not uncommon to get a momentary buzz of excitement on seeing the temporary balance of your bank account, showing as it does a few extra digits above and beyond the usual. It is perfectly common in such a situation to forget the small details, such as the fact that all that money needs to be paid back over time and that, generally, that money will pretty much all be accounted for in the very near future. These details come back to mind very quickly, though, in most cases, as we set about the arduous task of paying back the money we have borrowed. This is something we have to do in accordance with a schedule, and deviation from that schedule is likely to see us hit with a penalty.

A copy of your payment schedule will be one of the documents given to you on finalising your mortgage. It will tell you what you have to pay and when you have to pay it, any payments that are above normal and any that are below. Sticking to the schedule is your way of knowing that you are doing your bit under the mortgage agreement and should see you avoid any fees for non-payment being added to your account. Having a payment schedule should also put to the back of your mind any ideas about taking the money and spending it unwisely. The figures can make very sobering reading.

With a normal bank loan, taken out to pay for consumer goods, you will generally come to the end of your term while you are not much older than you are today. Looking at a mortgage payment schedule reminds you that you are locked into paying a certain amount of money for a certain length of time – and that this can add up to an awful lot of money and seem like an awful lot of time. It adds seriousness to a situation that is quite serious enough already. In short, if you borrow to pay for a house you are making a large commitment. Seeing that commitment outlined in black and white is the final proof that you’re making a step you cannot easily take back.

A payment schedule will often detail how much of your monthly mortgage payment is going towards paying down the balance of your loan, and how much is paying off interest. It is worth getting a breakdown of these figures, because there are numerous deals available which allow you to cut down how much interest you pay every month, and allow you to save money overall. It is worth shopping around for the best deals, and having your current mortgage payment schedule to hand may well enable you to research where you might get a better deal. Some deals have special terms and conditions written into them which allow you to renegotiate your deal after a certain period of time – if you feel as though your principal owing is not reduced every month, you can check around to see what other offers you might get.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

What Moves Mortgage Rates?

How To Get The Best Mortgage Quotes?

What is Refinancing a Mortgage?

Mortgage Risk – What You Should Be Aware Of

Best Mortgage Rates

Before you get a mortgage it is imperative to have a look around for the best deals. There are so many variables which come into the question when you are looking for the right deal, and it is possible to lose sight of something important when you see what appears to be an excellent deal. Taking that initial deal may work in your favour, but there is a possibility that you will be looking back in a few years’ time regretting your haste. In order to avoid this situation, it is advisable to get as many quotes as you can before proceeding with the one that looks best to you. It used to be the case that to get a mortgage sorted out would require trips to a number of banks to find out what their best offers were. Now, the whole process can be a lot quicker.

The Internet has been the most important innovation in this world in the last fifty years. It has enabled the speedy movement of information from place to place, meaning that wherever you are in the world, if you are near to a PC with an internet connection, or can get reception on a cell phone, you can lay your hands on information that once upon a time would have cost you a great deal of money and time. For financial services, the Internet has been an indispensable tool both for spenders and savers, as well as borrowers and lenders. Instead of hitting the high street to go into as many banks as you can bear, now shopping around can legitimately be done on a single website, if you know where to look.

It is genuinely the case that for anyone looking to find out information on the best mortgage for them, a visit to Google.com or Google.ca will give them just about all they need. Entering a search term such as “best mortgage” and then adding your home town will possibly give you a little bit of information about the best mortgages, but will also feed you a lot of sales talk. A better search term would be “quick mortgage calculator”. By entering the correct details in the available sections on screen, it is possible to find out not only how much you can reasonably borrow, but how long you may have to pay it back, as well as the level of interest you should expect to pay.

Many of these calculators are connected to independent comparison sites which will track down the deals which are closest to what you have searched for on the mortgage calculator. The more of these deals you check out, the better, because you may well find that some of them are not all that they seem. Comparison shopping – and then some negotiation if you feel up to it – could well be your guide to the mortgage you need and the house of your dreams. The more quotes you get, and the quicker you get them, the sooner you will be living in that house.

More Articles:

Mortgage Archive

What Moves Mortgage Rates?

What is Refinancing a Mortgage?

Mortgage Risk – What You Should Be Aware Of

Mortgage Rates – What Drives Them?

One of the most frequently used words in the mortgage business is “rates”. Actually, to be entirely fair, it is one of the most frequently used words in the mortgage advertisement business – in no small part because the word “interest” is known to terrify a large number of people, even those who do not know why it does. Interest rates are one of the financial indicators that draw quick and decisive reactions from financial experts presenting specialised programs about money which always seem to be on when you are stuck in front of the television. It may be hard to pay attention, but it is worth it – you could just save yourself a lot of money.

When interest rates are high, it is a sign that the economy is in one of its periodic “boom” phases, and the government and banks are placing more interest on transactions essentially in order to discourage excessive and overly-optimistic consumer behaviour. Unsurprisingly, then, when interest rates are low it tends to be a sign of just the opposite. The economy is in poor shape, the banks are reluctant to lend and businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water.

While these periods are traditionally poor for business and considered to be bad financial times, they can be advantageous periods for people with borrowing power, who will find that the lower interest rates increase the range of properties which they can buy. Governments encourage people to spend in these times as they feel it stimulates the economy, but only those customers who have built up good credit scores over the years need apply – bad credit ratings mean limited access to credit, and financial recession means the same. Limiting access to credit this much more or less guarantees that only those with the top credit ratings are entitled to expect a mortgage.

This balancing act by the banks is one of the more interesting elements of the lending business. On the one hand they have deals with low interest rates, which any borrower would covet at any time. On the other hand, they are unwilling to give mortgage deals to any customer who does not have a positive credit rating. This is a situation which, if allowed to persist, would mean a lot fewer homeowners in any society, and would have grave implications for the economy. The typical upshot of this is that governments will step in to inject some capital into the banks and persuade them to lend to consumers. Compared with times gone past when banks were occasionally too ready to lend even to high-risk customers, this situation is one that offers different challenges.

One situation that has arisen in the past, and which banks are keen to prevent from happening again, is the sub-prime mortgage crisis. In that crisis, people who had little or no credit rating were given mortgages anyway, with high interest rates to reflect their high level of risk. Unsurprisingly this led to a lot of people defaulting on their mortgages, and partially triggered the worst financial crisis this world has seen in over sixty years – a crisis we are still dealing with, so it remains to be seen what lessons have been learned.

More Articles:

Personal Finance Software Review by Financial Author A. Dawn

ADJ Picks Canada’s Best High Interest Savings Accounts

How To Use Canada Revenue Agency Website

Mortgage Archive