PURCHASING YOUR FIRST HOME CAN BE ONE OF THE MOST EXCITING MOMENTS IN YOUR LIFE AND ALSO ONE OF THE BIGGEST INVESTMENT’S YOU WILL EVER MAKE!
The determination most prospective buyers pour into finding their desired abode is likened to a quest of almost epic proportions. The search is time-consuming, stressful, and adventurous.
When it comes to clinching the deal on that firstHome, heed the phrase; a stitch in time saves nine. All that time and effort invested into searching the marketplace for just the right home can unravel before your eyes simply because you’re financing fell through.
This is especially true and appropriate in these tumultuous times. In a very short period of time over the past six months many lender requirements have changed and have become more stringent. Many lenders are now tailoring & customizing their “best” offered products to be able to cherry pick the “cream of the crop” of borrowers.
The end result is, the majority of borrower’s are left savoring and wishing they had access to the mortgage finance products they know are available in the market place but do not qualify under the new stringent requirements. Leaving borrowers to settle for the bread & butter 5yr Fixed Rates which are the Lenders cash cow.
Never has there been a time in history when it has been more critical to seek the advice of an Independent Mortgage Professional. This is the most important first step to the largest financial transaction of your life. It is far too important to place into the hands of someone who is not capable of advising you properly, without bias and to help navigate through the issues that may arise along the way.
New home buyers want to proceed with confidence when purchasing their new home, yet they tend to skip this critical step and then encounter many pitfalls once they find the home they want to purchase. Barely half of all home buyers plan ahead and make sure they’ve got their financing in place before embarking on their exhaustive exploration of the real estate market.
Ever more it’s prudent to seek this advice well in advance, at least three to six months. This will allow you’re Professional Mortgage Planner the time needed to re-structure your credit worthiness and finances which will allow you to obtain access to the “cream of the crop” mortgage products offered only to the privileged few.
Many ask, why seek the advice of a Professional Mortgage Planner when they can just visit their Bank with whom they have a relationship?
We encourage our clients to due their due diligence, this will help illustrate and crystallize that working with a Professional Mortgage Planner is essential. Being ill prepared and choosing the wrong mortgage strategy can cost thousands of extra dollars. Attempting to manage this process on your own is extremely difficult, especially in today’s times as lender are more stringent, there is a myriad of multi tier options based on your credit worthiness, a myriad of different types of products such as capped variable, interest only, fixed terms, cash backs, line of credit, Heloc & Matrix mortgages.
Each Bank / Lender has their own variations of this myriad of products. Who’s options & rates are better or more restrictive and why? Which fits your short & long term financial and personal goals and why? The answers cannot be found at your local bank as obviously they are bias towards their own products that they can ONLY offer. The true answer’s can only be found with a Professional Mortgage Planner who can access all Lender’s products
The Professional Mortgage Planner’s role in the home buying process is as a Consultant who creates a proactive & strategic planning process to ensure that the first time home buyer receives the absolute best possible advantage when seeking home financing options. Exhaustively searching the Canadian marketplace for a suitable lender with the most favorable options according to your customized strategic plan. The Mortgage Planner will clearly and concisely articulate all the critical details and nuances of your selected mortgage strategy.
Over 50 financial institutions are potentially given your information and depending on whether it suits their criteria for lending, a decision is made for your mortgage. Enlisting the services of a Professional Mortgage Planner costs homebuyer’s nothing. The Lender that gets your business, compensating the Mortgage Planner directly.
Once an expert has been selected
the first part of the Mortgage Planning process is to evaluate your credit worthiness, debt ratios, budget requirements and short & long term personal and professional goals. This pro-active planning and strategy process will ensure that you will obtain the best possible probability to access all Lenders “cream of the crop” products & services for your home financing.
Once a plan is put in place and achieved the next step is to obtain a pre-qualification.
Pre-qualification is different from a pre-approval. The first is a far more detailed process of information gathering such as providing employment details (T-4 slips, tax returns), bank statements, credit check approval, proof of down payment resources and a list of liabilities.
Along with the standard documentation that is required as part of a mortgage application you will be required to provide your Professional Mortgage Planner with a copy of the complete purchase and sale agreement, sales sheet (new home) or MLS listing (resale home). As well, you will need to give to your solicitor a copy of the Purchase & Sale agreement in advance to provide them with ample time to review this document and provide a legal opinion.
While the application and pre-approval process takes 15 minutes, the whole pre-qualification process takes only a few days. The difference is at the end of the process not only will home buyers receive a guaranteed interest rate for 120 days but will also know exactly how much they can afford to spend on their new mortgage, the monthly payments they’ll face, and will be certain that they can meet the documentation and condition requirements of the Lender.