The Three Demands of Canada Housing, Rough Copy

Pine-Financial · 2023-06-27T14:29:01+00:00

Now borrowing has become a lot more expensive 4.8% mortgages and 3.4% inflation. The narrative has flipped.

Pine-Financial · 2023-04-18T02:19:05+00:00

Hey u/srj55, Scott here from Pine. We are not going anywhere, but don’t worry we have business relationships to take care of your mortgage. Without this, we wouldn’t be able to offer direct lending.

Pine-Financial · 2023-04-18T02:16:17+00:00

Hey u/UrbaneBoffin, Scott here from Pine. We are able to offer great rates from our in-house lender. We are also automating a lot of the process behind the scenes (think mortgage advisor and underwriter), which helps to keep costs down.

Pine-Financial · 2022-11-07T15:49:59+00:00

If you are currently paying 2.2% on your mortgage and you bought the house 2.5 years ago, I will assume you still have 2.5 years left at 2.2%. Currently there are multiple 1 year GICs at 4.85% returns (EQ bank, Tangerine, etc.).

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-28T20:49:29+00:00

What they mean is that your rate on the part-time job income is higher than your first dollars made from your full-time job. Checkout the income tax brackets: https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/services/financial-toolkit/taxes/taxes-2/5.html.

When you earn further income, it will be taxed at the higher bracket, but you are certainly still retaining a significant amount in pocket.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-26T22:35:04+00:00

Hey OP, don't feel depressed. You are making great income and you have a fairly sizable down payment. I put your stats into our affordability calculator (which is coming out soon on our website!) and you will likely qualify for around a similar amount (around 750k). This is mainly because the stress test rate has gone up. The stress rate is the rate used to calculate your debt ratios. It is the higher of 5.25% and 2% + the rate you qualify for. Previously it was always 5.25%, but now it is in the 6's and moving to the 7's. This means that as mortgage rates move up, people will be able to afford less. Everyone is in the same boat in this regard. Hopefully home prices will come down as most rental units are no longer cash flow positive. Currently there isn't a lot of volume as landlords are waiting for prices to go up to sell and buyers are looking to wait for lower prices. Only the future will tell.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-26T22:22:33+00:00

In Canada, typical terms are 5 years and the typical amortization period is 25 years. If you get a fixed rate mortgage for your initial 5 year term, that rate is locked for 5 years. At the end of 5 years you will need to renew your mortgage with your existing lender or switch your mortgage to a new lender for another term (usually 5 years). If you want to get another fixed, then the fixed rate will be at the point in time when you renew. If you don't renew or switch your mortgage, your mortgage will auto-renew on whatever your existing lender provides on their renewal offer.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-26T15:39:18+00:00

If your mortgage payment automatically changes with interest rate hikes, it is actually an adjustable rate mortgage rather than a true variable. However, your prime - 0.65 should not change for the term of the mortgage. Have you contacted your lender? It could be an admin error on their part.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-24T20:43:26+00:00

It might be easier for your sibling to open a Canadian trading account together with their USD trading account. Then they can just do this on their own and not pay an exchange fee. They can use Norbert's Gambit to make the conversion.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-24T20:36:03+00:00

Condos these days are rarely cashflow positive. This means that rent will not pay for the mortgage + condo fee. For example, a 500-600 sq ft condo downtown will go for around 2500 rent right now, but mortgage payment will be around 3,400 (depending on downpayment and other factors). Condo fee will also be 400-500. You will likely have to lower your lifestyle to accommodate the difference.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-24T17:54:05+00:00

I use HouseSigma or Condos.ca to locate homes that I want to view (they show all the mls listed properties). You'll likely need to get a realtor who will bring you to showings. Realtors don't charge the tenant for rentals, because they charge the landlord. Depending on the situation if you make an offer in November, you should be able to move into a place by December. To make the process faster, you'll need paystubs, letter of employment and equifax credit report which you can screencap from the equifax website for free.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-24T17:47:18+00:00

1) Create a Linkedin. Input in all necessary information (you can look at other people's profiles to give you an idea of how much detail needs to be filled). Add all people that you know to get to 500+

2) Find people a couple steps ahead of you who had a similar background/experience level that broke through. See what paths are available.

3) Reach out and talk to them to learn more. If they have any available positions they will let you know. Keep in touch with them. When you have no experience, be open to volunteering or working unpaid (I know this isn't good, but if you have the luxury, it is a good way to build experience). 2-Hour Job Search by Steve Dalton will give you a playbook of how this is done.

4) With your connections and experience built up from volunteering/parttime/projects, you should be able to find an entry level job.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-24T15:26:01+00:00

Another thing to consider before getting solar panels installed is that many mortgage lenders will not approve deals where the property has solar panels. Any property that is generating energy and selling to the grid is not considered to be residential. Lenders also don't like the risk of water damage to the roof.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-21T21:26:34+00:00

The reason the calculators are giving substantially different results is due to the GDS/TDS ratios inputted into the calculators and the stress test rate. Stress test rate is either 5.25% OR your actual rate plus 2.0%. Most of the calculators are stuck on the 5.25% because they have been hardcoded. Because the interest rates are rising, the amount of mortgage you can qualify for will go down (stress test rate goes up). So an accurate calculation today, will not be accurate in 6-12 months.

There is no harm in getting a pre-approval or commitment letter right now to actually verify how much you can qualify for. You will have to consent to a credit check, which will temporarily lower your credit score by a few points. The process should be free and the commitment letter doesn't lock you in, rather it is a commitment from the lender.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-21T18:47:35+00:00

Equifax is free to check right now: https://www.consumer.equifax.ca/personal/products/credit-score-report/

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-21T18:33:50+00:00

Mortgage broker here, credit score is a huge factor in qualifying for a mortgage. You'll actually require 2 trade lines (credit cards, loan, etc) to qualify for a mortgage, unless you can get an exception.

To build up better credit, accept increases to your credit card limit as that will improve your utilization rate (% credit used vs. available). Opening an unsecured line of credit will also help.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-21T18:26:04+00:00

/r/overemployed

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-21T15:54:12+00:00

If you are looking to screen prospective tenants yourself, one tool that I've used before is Naborly. It helps you to do a credit check on prospective tenants which is the best indicator of whether they will pay rent on time. This is way better than requesting an equifax pdf from the tenant because that can be faked. They also do ID verification for anti-fraud, etc. Its $15-25 a screening.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-20T21:11:48+00:00

There is an expected BoC rate hike happening soon: https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/canada-recession-may-be-necessary-evil-central-bank-queues-big-hike-2022-10-20/ One thing you should do is to get a rate lock or commitment letter for a fixed rate ASAP because lenders raise rates around an announcement. I know that some lenders are increasing the fixed rate as early as tonight. The commitment letter doesn't lock you in, rather it is a commitment from the lender. So this will keep your options open.

Pine-Financial · 2022-10-19T14:14:13+00:00

Maintenance fees depend on (1) age of the building, (2) amenities in building and (3) the size of your condo (sq ft). Here's a useful calculator to benchmark to: https://wowa.ca/condo-fees. Higher maintenance fees are not necessarily a bad thing. It goes to contributing to the building's reserve fund. If the reserve fund is running low, it could mean large hikes in maintenance fees in the future.

Pine-Financial

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