When is the Right Time to Hire a Mortgage Broker?

A mortgage broker is a professional widely recognized for services in acquiring a profitable mortgage deal. If you are a first time home buyer, real estate investor or an individual looking for the best mortgage deal in the market, you need the services of a qualified and experienced mortgage broker. They ensure that you land a deal that suits your mortgage requirements precisely.

When to Hire a Mortgage Broker?

A Mortgage Broker Vancouver, BC plays a critical role in bargaining the best mortgage deal in the market. Therefore, the moment you decide to buy your first home or invest in real estate, hire the services of a reputed and professional mortgage consultant in your region. It is important to discuss your financial position, investment criteria, expectations, market analysis along with dissection of the available rates in the market. The association with a mortgage broker right from the beginning till the very end helps in determining the final outcome of the mortgage deal process and in securing a profitable loan.

Mortgage Consultant or Bank

It is always better to hire the services of a mortgage broker in comparison to a bank because of the competency offered by them. They are a lot more dedicated and competent in ensuring that you get the best from the market. They scout the market evaluating the different mortgage offers and securing the best interest rate that suits you right. Another important reason that helps mortgage consultants score over financial institutions such as banks is that they have connections. A mortgage broker or a mortgage consultancy firm is widely networked. They closely work with a wide network of banks and lenders in the market. They stay updated with the latest news related to mortgage deals, real estate etc.

4 Ways to Become Mortgage Free and Pay-off Your Mortgage Faster

For most people, a mortgage is the largest financial obligation they’ll ever have in life. Unfortunately, that means it’s probably also the longest. When you buy a home in your 20’s, you can look forward to paying it off perhaps in your 40’s - perhaps longer if you upgrade your home and renegotiate a higher mortgage. However, there are ways to pay off your mortgage faster, allowing you to attain that coveted “mortgage free” status sooner than you realize.

Here are 4 mortgage-free-sooner strategies by Mortgage Broker in Vancouver:

Ways to Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster #1:

Increase Your Payments

When you set up your mortgage payment, you’re told what the payment amount will be. This isn’t the only payment amount you can make, though. Why not bump it up just a little bit. For example, a monthly payment of $300 bumped up to $350 probably won’t break your bank but, by the end of the year, will have paid back another $600 onto your mortgage more than you were expecting. That’s no drop in the bucket! It adds up. In a decade, that’s $6,000 you’ll pay back sooner.

Ways to Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster #2:

Increase Your Payment Frequency

This strategy is sometimes offered by your lender or mortgage broker when setting up the loan. If it’s not offered, you should definitely ask. Accelerated payment schedules increase the number of mortgage payments you make in a year (i.e., you might make two payments a month instead of one). As you can imagine, this is a quick method to pay down your mortgage sooner – just make sure you can afford the sustained frequency increase.

Ways to Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster #3:

Lower Your Interest Rate

A small change in interest adds up over time and can mean thousands of dollars extra or saved in what you have to pay. Therefore, when it comes time to renew your mortgage, work with your mortgage broker to ensure that you are getting the most favorable interest rates available.

The first three ways are ways to consistently pay down your mortgage faster. Here’s one more:

Ways to Pay Off Your Mortgage Faster #4:

Make an Additional Payment

When you get extra money, put some of it toward your mortgage. For example, if you get a tax return or a bonus at work or even a small inheritance, put some of that money toward your mortgage as a single “lump sum” payment. One or two of these a year may not seem like a lot but they add up.

Your mortgage can take years to pay off… but it doesn’t have to take as long as you expected. Use these ways to pay off your mortgage faster.

Why You Should Get Pre-approved for a Mortgage

More often than not, a home buyer with a pre-approved mortgage stands more to gain than the home buyer without it. 

This is because most home sellers are apt to view purchase offers supported by a pre-approved mortgage more positively. 

In a nut shell, mortgage pre-approval is a great negotiating tool. 

With a mortgage pre-approval, you are sending a signal to sellers that you are serious and that you have the fiscal back-up to make the purchase; summing up, you have more credibility.  

Plus, mortgage pre-approval gives you a realistic idea of how much money you can afford to part with. 

What’s more a seller might be persuaded to sign on a slightly lower offer if it is backed by a sound pre-approval. 

This can be especially handy if you are competing with a buyer who hasn’t applied for a mortgage yet. 

Before getting pre-approved for your mortgage keep in mind that pre-approvals are not full approvals and that you should get acquainted with their many advantages and few disadvantages. 

The best thing about getting your mortgage pre-approval is that it is simple, easy and costs nothing. 

Moreover, if you hire services of a licensed mortgage professional you may qualify for a locked-in interest rate from 60 to 120 days while you are considering your shopping options for the best rate. 

Should interest rates inch down, your locked-in rate will go down too. On the other hand, if interest rates edge up, your locked-in interest rates won’t. 

If you opt for a locked interest rate, you are guaranteed mortgage terms equivalent to that rate or lower. 

Also, you are under no obligation to use the lender who has pre-approved you for a mortgage.

  

What’s not to like about all this?

Don’t procrastinate and get pre-approved for a mortgage to get the best loan terms out there. 

Why Mortgage Refinancing? The In’s and Out’s And What You Need to Know

Your mortgage can seem like a long term commitment – a financial obligation that stretches over many years, even a couple of decades. It may be a long term commitment but you’re not locked in. The economy and the interest rate changes and you build up equity in your home, so being able to adjust your mortgage allows you to optimize your mortgage for your needs. In this blog, I’ll explore the in’s and out’s of mortgage refinancing and why it might be a smart financial move.

Interest Rate Adjustment

The first reason that most people think about refinancing is because the mortgage interest rates have changed. If banks are offering a lower interest rate than what you committed to in your mortgage, it might make sense to refinance (and even pay a small penalty) to take advantage of that lower interest rate.

Tap into Equity

As you pay off your mortgage, and as home values increase in general (which they tend to do, although not always consistently), you build up equity in your home. You can access that value and borrow against it, usually through a home equity line of credit, which is a low-interest revolving loan. Use that money to pay down debts, fix up your home, reinvest in other things – whatever you need.

Mortgages are long term financial obligations… but refinancing makes it possible to adjust our course as necessary. In this short blog post we’ve only been able to cover the in’s and outs of mortgage refinancing and why homeowners love it. Adjusting your mortgage through refinancing allows you to pay less and to tap into the value that is building in your home. It can be a great idea! Talk to a lender or mortgage broker to see if it’s right for you.

The “Backwards” Way Finding the Best Mortgage

Looking for your next home – and the mortgage you’ll use to buy it – is like traveling to a foreign country. The language and customs are different and your head will spin with an overwhelming number of details.

Most people who find themselves in this strange land of mortgages try to find their mortgage as quickly as possible. They race to a mortgage that, at first glance, looks like the right one for them. But that approach doesn’t assure that you’ll get the best mortgage for your needs.

Since your mortgage represents the largest purchase, here’s the way that you should find your best mortgage (and stay sane while doing it).

First, take your time. Don’t rush to find the mortgage. There are plenty of mortgages out there and plenty of lenders. Decide ahead of time that you’ll narrow your choices and evaluate from a position of confidence and patience rather than impatience.

Second, get educated. Yes, there are highly qualified mortgage experts out there who can help you find a great mortgage but the onus is on you to decide what’s best for you. Learn everything you can about the local real estate market, the mortgage industry, and what mortgages are available to you. It’s just like landing a plane:

1. Start at 50,000 feet and develop high-level knowledge about the market in general

2. Then go to 40,000 feet to learn about the market right now

3. Then go to 30,000 feet to learn about real estate and mortgages

4. Then go to 20,000 feet to learn about the most applicable real estate and mortgage options for you

5. Then go to 10,000 feet to narrow your options and learn more deeply about each one

6. Then land that plane and decide on the best mortgage to meet your needs!

Third, find a mortgage broker who can work with you. They’ll not only take away a lot of the guesswork, they can help you through each level of learning and you’ll end up making the best mortgage decision for you!

4 Ways That Vancouver Mortgage Professionals Help Find Flexible Payment Options for Homebuyers With Non-Traditional Mortgage Needs

When I was growing up, my parents moved a couple of times, and each time they did the same thing: My dad would go to the bank (“our bank” my parents would call it) and sit with someone there and then come away with a mortgage. That’s not the way it works anymore. Today, my spouse and I both meet with a local mortgage broker – a Vancouver mortgage professional who helps find flexible payment options for us.

Today, dads are no longer the main breadwinners, nor are mortgages the same financial instrument they once were. Here’s what my mortgage broker did for us:

·         The job market has changed and is far less secure than in dad’s day (no more “jobs for life!) We want to pay less on our mortgage and a mortgage broker helps find mortgages that cost less over the life of the loan as well as on a monthly basis.

·         As freelancers (I’m a photographer and my wife is a graphic designer) our income is pretty good but frankly it’s all over the map – we go from boom to bust and back to boom again. Our bank is still stuck in the Stone Age and didn’t “get” this but our mortgage broker nodded, smiled, and said it wouldn’t be a problem… they even found us a mortgage where we could skip occasional payments or pre-pay without penalty.

·     We were able to select the days of the month we wanted our payments to come out – multiple payments and the frequency of those payments (and our mortgage broker even showed us a trick to pay off our mortgage a little sooner by helping us “sneak in” an extra couple of payments a year).

·         Our favorite: Our Vancouver mortgage professional helped find flexible payment options at zero cost to us. This was a service to us that was essentially free – keeping more money in our pocket while finding the best rate out there.

I learned that mortgages are like complex machines with all kinds of “buttons” – from payments schedules to interest rate and more. And our mortgage broker pushed all the right buttons to find a mortgage that worked for our unique situation.

Should You Renew Your Mortgage? Why a Professional Mortgage Broker Can Help.

If there is one constant in life, it’s that things change – and circumstances have probably changed since you hired a mortgage broker and took out your current home loan.

Perhaps your current mortgage is no longer a good fit for you and your family and you are thinking of talking to a mortgage broker about mortgage renewal.

After all, shouldn’t your mortgage adjust according to your changing circumstances? 

If you are considering renewing your mortgage it is very likely that you are in the process of reevaluating your financial goals and reflecting on the last time you spoke with your broker.  

Is mortgage renewal right for you?

Maybe your income level hasn’t changed significantly but the value of your home has, in which case adjusting your monthly payments might be a wise thing to consider. 

The process of renewing your mortgage in Vancouver boils down to finding a loan that best reflects your new lifestyle. 

This is why it is so important to find a professional mortgage broker who will sit down with you and talk about your interest preferences: are you looking to save through variable rates or seeking the simplicity and security of a fixed rate term?

A good mortgage broker will speak to you about your current mortgage and how your needs have changed since you signed up for it. 

Keep in mind that you don’t have to renew your mortgage through your current lender.

A professional mortgage broker can make a big difference helping you choose from a host of loan terms at competitive and less competitive rates. 

Start shopping

Don’t wait until you get a renewal letter from your lender. 

Get in touch with a mortgage broker a few months before your mortgage term expires to see what’s out there, and if you can find loan terms that are a better fit for you. 

Remember that if you don’t take initiative on time the lender may automatically renew your mortgage for another term.

You may qualify for a lower rate and not even know it. 

Mortgage renewal can save you money, so contact us now to speak to a professional mortgage broker about your options.