Renewal provides an opportunity to reassess your financial situation and needs. Don’t blindly renew (although your present lender would love that). Take this opportunity to work with me to take advantage of better terms and rates based on current market conditions, your financial standing, or your future plans.

Mortgage renewal allows you to make changes to get a new mortgage based on your current needs, like switching lenders, changing the type of interest rate (from fixed to variable or vice versa), or adjusting the amortization period.

Most people don’t pay off their entire mortgage balance during the initial term. Therefore, renewal is necessary to continue financing the remaining balance. Legally, a mortgage agreement is bound to the term specified. Once this term expires, a new agreement must be made, either with the same lender or a new one, to continue the mortgage. Time to do better!

If interest rates have decreased since the original mortgage was obtained, refinancing can allow homeowners to secure a new loan at a lower rate, potentially reducing monthly payments and overall interest costs.

Refinancing offers the opportunity to change the length of the loan term. For example, you may choose to switch from a 30-year mortgage to lower your payments or switch to a 15-year mortgage to pay off the loan sooner and save on interest.

Refinance to access the equity you’ve built up in your home through a cash-out refinance, where the new loan amount exceeds the existing mortgage balance, and the you receive the difference in cash.

When you get a mortgage, everyone who is on title is on the mortgage. Refinancing is necessary to remove a spouse or partner from the mortgage after the breakdown of a relationship (divorce/separation). separation. Refinancing is also required to remove a parent or another party who no longer will be on title.

Different lenders offer different products each with a different rate hold guarantee that can range from 30 to 120 days from the date of approval but 90 days and 120 days are the most common rate hold periods.

Great news! If the rate increases during this time, my lenders will honour your pre-approval rate, guaranteed! Even better, if rates go down, you’ll get the new, lower rate.

No. Pre-qualification is normally used when people are simply curious about what they may qualify for. A pre-qualification should not be relied upon to make an offer. Call me for your pre-approval and lock in your best rate!

For many affluent retirees, incremental withdrawals from registered plans such as a RRIF can come with a prohibitive 58% effective tax rate. A withdraw of $105,000 extra from a RRIF is necessary just to get just $50,000 to spend after tax. A Reverse Mortgage with a low interest rate would allow an affluent retiree to keep the entire $105,000 and earn higher returns than the amount paid to borrow funds through a Reverse Mortgage, and be able to write off the interest of the Reverse Mortgage as applicable. Contact Allen Ehlert for details.

See: Reverse Mortgages and the Affluent Retiree

Royal LePage predicts house prices to increase 10% this year. Interest on a Reverse Mortgage is substantially less.

You can get a Reverse Mortgage on your home and you will not have to make any monthly payments, allowing you to buy a second home near your kids and grandchildren. Depending on the purchase price and potential renovations, you may even have enough to buy a condo in Arizona or Florida as well.

See: Reverse Mortgage to a Second Dream Home

The cost of living is soaring, rent and property taxes are at all-time highs and going higher, and inflation is everywhere. Most Canadians do not have the kind of pension, if they have any pension at all, to avoid struggling financially.

But you made the best financial decision of a life-time, you bought a house and that house built wealth.

Have your house and money too! Live comfortably, travel, and renovate so you can live in the home you love while still being able to provide an inheritance to your children.  Without a Reverse Mortgage, many Canadians would be living in poverty and without dignity. Make your senior years your best years through a Reverse Mortgage.

See: Struggling Financially as a Senior
         Reverse Mortgage: Cushion Against Inflation

• Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) or Refinancing: Let me help you tap into your home equity to fund renovations. This could be through a Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC), which allows you to borrow against the equity in your home, or through refinancing your mortgage to access a lump sum.
• Finding the Best Rates and Terms: Let me shop the market to find the most favourable rates and terms for your financial situation.
• Guidance on Loan Amounts: I can guide you on how much you should borrow based on your renovation needs and your home’s current value.

• Financial Options: Turn a portion of your home equity into a source of cash while maintaining ownership of your home and no monthly payments. Somebody is going to get your money, might as well be you!
• Customized Financial Solutions: Your home may be your largest asset and should be included in your financial strategy. Use funds to help finance your retirement, purchase another property, obtain tax savings on investments, help children purchase a home, and much, much more while you maintain control.

• Improving Credit Utilization: By consolidating debts, you can improve your credit utilization ratio, which is a key factor in your credit score.
• Structured Payment Plan: Let me help you structure your payments in a way that ensures timely repayment, which is crucial for credit repair.
• Advice on Credit Improvement: Beyond debt consolidation, I offer advice on other strategies to improve your credit score, such as avoiding late payments on other loans or credit cards.

• Farming isn’t a ‘straight-line’ business: Bumper crops in good years make up for bad harvests in difficult years. During lean years it can be difficult to show the income to qualify at an institutional lender, leaving farmers struggling for good options; often ignored and misunderstood.
• In Touch with the Farm: It’s important to work with a mortgage agent who understands the challenges of agriculture; one with a little bit of ‘nature’ on his boots and brawn on his shoulders. ‘City’ lenders like to do the ‘clean stuff’ because they have to maintain certain ratios and performance metrics that often don’t align with the realities down on the farm.

• Understanding Farm Financing: Most mortgage agents come from urban centres like Toronto where commercials for second mortgages or private mortgages are to be found everywhere and the dynamics are well understood. Private agricultural lending is different and much less known.
• Customized Solutions: Farmers need financing options as they buy up land and expand their operations. Agents without a rural upbringing may not know a lot about how farms work. Running a farm is a far more subjective process. Farmers always run the risk of drought, and two different farmers might make very different decisions when planting the same plot of land. Unlike residential or commercial deals, a farm deal is almost entirely about the land, not the buildings on it.

• Agricultural Underwriting: Fundamentally, it’s about looking at the farm as a manufacturing business; understanding the financial performance of the enterprise and gaining a complete communicable assessment of the farm’s financial condition through a comprehensive net worth statement and cash flow projection.
• Understanding the Circumstances: There are always broader circumstances to consider to truly fill out the ‘big picture’. There needs to be an understanding of what has gone wrong, what has gone right, and putting in place a strategy to go forward.