Sammarusich Blog

Mortgage brokers are blossoming in the current environment and are gaining an increasing share of the mortgage market. This is great news because you should consult with a mortgage professional when you’re making one of the most important financial decisions of your life. But, keep in mind, that not all mortgage brokers have the same level of training and experience.

That’s why it’s such great news for Canadians that the mortgage industry now has national accreditation: the Accredited Mortgage Professional (AMP). When you meet with a mortgage broker with an AMP, you’ll be assured that your business is in the hands of a professional.

Canadians are accustomed to purchasing financial products like investments and insurance from an accredited professional. Now they can look for a similar professional designation from their mortgage expert.

Like similar accreditation programs for mutual fund sales people, or stock brokers, the AMP is designed to ensure an appropriate level of training and experience. Mortgage professionals from every field are eligible to acquire the accreditation: from mortgage brokers on the front lines to those who specialize in lending or mortgage insurance, for example.

While the vast majority of Ontario mortgage brokers take seriously the important responsibility that they have to their clients, the designation provides mortgage customers with a tool to help select their mortgage expert. This kind of designation is especially valuable in an industry where provincial regulations vary – and so a variety of practice standards are in place. A single national proficiency standard brings mortgage brokers in line with other financial professionals.

The AMP designation can now offer you confidence that your mortgage broker has industry experience, has taken ethics and industry training, and is committed to a program of ongoing education to retain their designation. In order to qualify for the designation, mortgage professionals must have at least five years experience or successfully complete a recognized mortgage professional proficiency course, and take an ethics training course. They must also commit to a minimum 10 hours of continuing education each year, and agree to be governed by the professional code of the national CIMBL organization.

With a growing number of Canadians now seeking the services of independent mortgage brokers to help them assess their mortgage options – in a $600 billion industry – the timing is perfect. It’s your money, after all, and you should have the tools to make the best possible decision. An independent mortgage broker can offer you the broadest range of mortgage rates and options. Now they can also offer you the added assurance of their newly minted designation: the AMP.

The House Team is commited to providing quality information to help people make informed decisions about their mortgage financing needs.

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Our Saturday Home Finance Tip deals with your savings account.  If you are asking, “what savings account?” this article is for you.  Saving is a financial musts that many people do not do.  It takes a high degree of financial discipline so if you are one of those who has a savings account, take a second to congratulate yourself. 

Financial advisors differ on how much money we need in our emergency funds but they seem to agree on a 6 to 10 month range.  How do you calculate that?  First you have to know how much you spend each month.  You will always estimate low so get your bank and credit card statements out and add it all up.  Take that number and multiply it by 8 months (or somewhere in that 6 to 10 range) and that’s your goal.  Once you’re there, keep it in a savings account.  It can’t be tied up in a CD and you can’t risk losing it in the stock market.  (By the way, I strongly suggest that you add disability insurance to your monthly expenses.  It’s cheap and if you became sick or hurt, the monthly bills will be out of your mind)

Now that we know how much you should save, you brain might be in overdrive thinking about how you will fund your savings account.  It’s going to take discipline but here’s a fun way that will put some big money in your savings account over time.  You can think of it as my Chick-fil-a method.  I love Chick fil a in part because the food is good (hey chick fil a, are you reading?) but also because they give out coupons all the time.  I would have gone to Chick Fil a and paid full price without the coupon but with it, I saved $4.  That $4 goes in to my savings account.  Because I put everything on my credit card and pay it off at the end of the month, I get rewards points.  I always buy $50 gift certificates with those points.  Guess where that $50 goes?  Let’s take it a little further.  Rather than going to Chick Fil a and getting a chicken sandwich and waffle fries and a diet coke for $9, I go to the grocery store and pick up a pack of chicken breasts and a couple of potatoes and drink water.  First, I’m saving calories but I also saved $5 by not eating out.  I ironed my own shirt rather than taking it to the dry cleaner, $2.  So let’s see; in this article alone I saved $70 and have a sizeable amount for my savings account.

Keep a 1 week journal and see what you can do to pay yourself.  It’s fun, it’s a challenge, and you will feel better about getting closer to your financial goal.  We are not in an economy where we can count on having a job tomorrow.  Economists predict that 1 out of every 10 working Americans will not be working before this recession is over.  Don’t forget about this week’s home finance tip.  If you need it, you will be grateful that you have it.

Tim is the author of the blog, elementary-finance.com. The goal of this blog is to educate those who have a desire to learn the basics of finance.

It’s not very often that a borrower takes into heavy consideration what his loan to value is when shopping for a loan.  In fact, if the subject is brought up by the customer, it’s mostly in relation to avoiding paying monthly mortgage insurance.  But sometimes, a loan to value can affect even more aspects of your loan – like pricing and approval!

What is loan to value?  Well, it’s exactly what it says.  The loan amount compared to the value of the home you are buying or refinancing.  For example, if you are buying a $100,000 home, and your loan amount is only $50,000, your loan to value or “LTV” is 50%.  It’s also very common to refinance a home to obtain a lower LTV and drop mortgage insurance that was before required.

Different types of loans have different minimum requirements for LTV’s.   With primary residence purchases, for instance, an FHA loan can have as high as a 97.75% LTV (soon to change to 96.5% in 2009).  A conventional loan can have as high as a 97% LTV (but more common is 95% LTV).  VA and Rural Housing loans can have 100% LTV’s.  People who have cash to put down on the property they are buying and financing with a conventional loan oftentimes try to amass 20% of the purchase price in order to avoid mortgage insurance.  Mortgage insurance is required when your LTV for a primary residence is above 80% and is issued by independent mortgage insuring companies like Genworth Financial or PMI.  Fannie and Freddie, the big purchasers of conventional loans, will require one of these or other approved companies issue mortgage insurance unless the loan has an 80% LTV.  And if you’re refinancing the home you live in?  The whole grid of acceptable LTV’s changes for the most part, with a few exceptions.  And furthermore, if you’re talking about investment properties, it’s another can of worms.

But when else does LTV mean something?  Consider when a loan specialist prices your loan.  Oftentimes there are pricing differentials based upon the loan to value.  For instance, if you carry mortgage insurance and your LTV is 85.01% or higher, you might actually get a better interest rate than if you had an 85% LTV (but don’t get too excited because your monthly mortgage insurance will be higher).  Or if your LTV is 60% or lower, you might also get a better interest rate.  If you are close to tipping the scales on one of these ratios, it may be to your benefit to ask your loan specialist how close you are to a pricing break one way or another.  You’d be surprised to find out it might change your mind as to how much money you decide to put down on your loan. 

And guess what else?  A low loan to value may be the difference between loan approval and loan denial.  Why is that?  Because if you are investing enough of your own money into the equity of a property, chances are you won’t default on the loan.  And if you do, it’s probably a last recourse.  Not to mention, the lender who holds the note won’t lose money because there is enough equity in the property to cover foreclosure costs, re-sale costs and any value loss from an upside down market.  The lender is covered.  So, the lender will consider the loan less risky and a higher debt to income ratio is tolerated when reviewed with a high credit score. 

Let My Experience Work For You!
Email your home loan financing questions to Kristin Abouelata, Home Loan Specialist with Mortgage Investors Group, at question@kristinmortgage.com or call direct: (865) 567-0113 Toll Free: 1-800-489-8910. For more information visit her website at www.kristinmortgage.com Home Loans Plain Talk.

Just think what you could do with all the extra money you would have spare if you didn’t have to meet your mortgage each month! Interested? Well, here are five steps that you could take today to substantially slash your mortgage repayments and the overall cost of your home loan and even speed up your rate of repayment so that the day when you’ve paid off your home finance and are free to live the life you want comes that much sooner.

Step One – Demand Better Service!

As a loyal customer of your mortgage lender isn’t it about time you were rewarded for your financial commitment, for making your regular payments and for being a good, long term customer?

Well, you can rest assured your mortgage lender will not reward you unless you ask for a better deal on your mortgage!

So get on the phone, call up your lender, ask to speak to someone in customer services or the customer retention department and explain that you’re looking around for a better mortgage deal. Ask them for an evaluation of how much you have left to pay so that you can give it to any one of the hundreds of other mortgage lenders out there all willing to give you a better deal.

If you are indeed a valued customer you should receive favourable feedback to your demands and receive details of better offers currently available to you from your current lender.

Remember, if you don’t ask you don’t get and be adamant about what you want!

Step Two – Shop Around.

If step one doesn’t get you the deal you deserve, shop around. There really are well in excess of a hundred lenders out there all seeking new customers who will offer you incentives to take up their mortgage product.

Use the internet to get an idea of rates being offered and special deals available to you. Do remember that lenders will do everything they can to make their deal seem like the most attractive one available and do everything within their power to attract new customers so you need to be shrewd.

Read more on

http://myfreeinfo4u.com/finance/five_tips_to_slash_your_home_finance_costs.html

Providing free information about several topics. Checkout my free tips on www.myfreeinfo4u.com

Copyright (c) 2007 Dennis Ng

There are more than 112 different Housing Loan packages in the market. What are the things you should watch out for in shopping for the Best and most suitable Home Loan for yourself? Fret not, below we share with you some Useful Tips on Home Loan Shopping

What is the penalty period of the loan package? For instance if you’re likely to sell this property within the next 2 years, you might want to choose a Housing Loan package with a short lock-in period of say, 1 year or no lock-in period at all.

What is the chance of selling the property before the property receives Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP) or before the loan is fully disbursed? If you may sell off the property before the loan is fully disbursed, you might want to look for a Housing Loan package with a lower cancellation fee. Low cancellation fee is a especially important feature to property speculators who typically sell the property within a short holding period.

What is your view on Interest Rate trend in the next 2 years?

If you’re of the view that interest rates have peaked and are unlikely to go up in the next 2 years and may even drop, you may want to choose a Floating Rate Housing Loan package rather than a Fixed Rate Housing Loan package. You can also consider choosing a package whereby interest rates are tied to Swap Offer rate or Inter-bank Offer Rate, whereby any drop in interest rates would be translated into lower interest rates on your Housing Loan. Because sometimes even when inter-bank offer rates drop, bank might not adjust the interest rates on their Housing Loan downwards.

Any flexibility on partial repayment?

Some packages impose penalty charges on any partial repayment within the lock-in period. If you’re likely to make partial repayment in the next 2 years, you may want to choose a package that allows partial repayment without penalty fee.

What is the best duration for home loan?

Typically, the longer the loan period, the more interest you end up paying. As a general guide, do not stretch loan period to more than 25 years. For loan period that stretches beyond 25 years, say 35 years, you would end up paying much more interest compared to a loan of 25 years.

Let us illustrate with an example, whereby loan amount is S$300,000 and average annual interest rate of 4% on the Housing Loan:

In this example, if the loan period is 20 years, monthly instalment is S$1,817.94. On the other hand, if the loan period is stretched to 25 years, monthly instalment is reduced by $234.43 to $1,583.51, and total interest paid increased by about $42,240.93. However, when loan period is stretched a further 10 years to 35 years, loan instalment is only reduced by S$255.19 only, while total interest paid increased by $75,600.27.

Loan Period 20 25 30 35

Monthly instalment $1,817.94 $1,583.51 $1,432.25 $1,328.32

Total interest over loan period $138,529.77 $177,770.70 $218,895.28 $253,370.97

Another way to plan the duration of a Home Loan is not to stretch loan period beyond your retirement age. For instance, if you plan to retire at age 60, you should not be taking a loan period that stretches till you’re age 65 or 70.

What is the difference in interest rates for mortgages for property under construction vs completed property?

Currently, there is not much difference in interest rates for Housing Loans whether for completed property vis-a-vis property under construction. In fact, some banks offer the same packages whether for completed or properties under construction.

What are the refinancing penalities and costs, and under what circumstances should a borrower consider refinancing?

If your Home Loan is out of the lock-in period, the only cost of refinancing is only possibly legal cost of refinancing. Typically, Banks provide legal subsidy. Thus, depending on the loan amount outstanding, the full legal cost of refinancing maybe fully subsidized by bank and cost of refinancing can be zero!

If your Home Loan is still within the lock-in period, we will help you to calculate whether the interest savings by refinancing into another Housing Loan package which offers lower interest rates is more than enough to offset cost of refinancing, which may include repayment penalty and refund of legal subsidy.

The interest savings you enjoy on refinancing can work out to a tidy sum of tens of thousands of dollars. Thus, it really pays to choose a Home Loan right. With the above tips we share on choosing a Home Loan, you are almost assured of choosing the right Housing Loan package that suits your needs and helps you save money.

Dennis is a Certified Financial Planner and has 15 years of bank lending experience. He founded http://www.HousingLoanSG.com – a Leading Mortgage Consultancy Portal in Singapore. He is known as a Housing Loan Expert and is often quoted in newspapers for comments on Housing Loans. Please send your comments to dennis@housingloansg.com or call him at +65 6737 8801