Here are two great ways to crunch the mortgage numbers.

1. Use our free  Online Calculators.  We have eight handy calculators designed to help you figure out just about anything related to mortgages.

Mortgage Loan Calculator  : This calculator generates an amortization schedule for your current mortgage.

Morgage Refinance Calculator :  How much interest can you save if you refinance your mortgage?

Mortgage Qualifier Calculator : This calculator steps you through the process of finding out how much you can borrow.

Home Budget Analysis : Entering your income and monthly expenditures to find out where your money is being spent, and how much you have left to save, or purchase a new home.

Bi-weekly Mortgage Calculator:  This calculator shows you the possible savings by using an accelerated bi-weekly mortgage payment.

Mortgage Comparison Calculator: This calculator helps you sort through the monthly payments, fees and other costs associated with getting a new mortgage.

Mortgage Payoff Calculator: How much interest can you save by increasing your mortgage payment?

Rent vs. Buy Calculator: Should you continue to rent, or can you afford to get a new home? This calculator helps you weed through the fees, taxes, and monthly payments to help you make a good financial decision.

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2. Use our Cell Phone App

This app really comes in handy when you are visiting properties with your real estate agent.  You can immediately figure out what your mortgage payments will be.

Download this app directly from your Blackberry or iPhone for quick access to our current rates and mortgage calculator.

Download the app from here: http://www.workingbusinesscard.com/download.php
Enter code: 6425010677 to access.

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Here’s a market update from our friends at Macdonald Realty; Simon Clayton, Jason Low, Sandra Ens, Jason Feinstadt, and Jenny Stephanson.

September 2011 Market Update

With the problems in the US and Europe and the resulting economic turmoil, it is hard not to think of how these factors influence our housing market. And while it’s true that consumer confidence plays a big role in the overall health of housing, it’s important to remember that Canada continues to look like an economic oasis in a desert of bad financial news.

As you know, the US housing market has been in a severe recession for the past several years. And while there’s been talk of a possible correction in the Canadian housing market, it is unlikely we will experience anything near as painful as our neighbours to the south.

There are 3 main reasons for this.

(1) Government Tax Policies
(2) Loan Qualification Policies
(3) Bank Lending Policies

Government Tax Policies

The US Government has long had a policy of encouraging home-ownership. Government-sponsored entities Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac have been getting most of the headlines recently for agreeing to purchase mortgage loans that encouraged unsound lending. However, the US Government’s tax policy of allowing homeowners to deduct mortgage interest payments may be more significant, as it has encouraged Americans to maximize their debt-loads in order to minimize their tax burdens.

Canada, of course, has no mortgage tax break for homeowners, with interest payment deductions only applying to investment properties.

Loan Qualification Policies

The secondary mortgage market in the US allowed the originators of mortgages to pass on the mortgage notes to investors throughout the world. Because of this, lenders and mortgage brokers were incentivized to originate as many mortgages as possible, with little-to-no regard for risk. These perverse incentives led to ‘liar loans’ – where individuals would simply lie to their mortgage broker about their income or employment knowing that there would be no incentive to conduct a background check – and ‘NINJA loans’ – where mortgage brokers offered mortgages to individuals with No Income, No Job or Assets.

In Canada, the originators of loans (typically the Big Banks) tend to hold on to them. Because of this, the correct incentives are in place to ensure that only individuals who can afford the mortgage receive them.

Bank Lending Policies

Another unintended consequence of the secondary mortgage market in the US has been the creation of extensive Adjustable-Rate Mortgage products with attractive ‘teaser’ rates. These products allowed mortgage-holders to pay an unrealistically low rate for a period of time before ‘resetting’ to a much higher, unaffordable, rate.

In addition to this, loans in the US tend to be ‘non-recourse’ meaning that the only collateral that a lender would have on a mortgage is the house itself. In Canada, mortgages tend to be ‘full-recourse’, with many banks demanding personal guarantees. This difference has resulted in people walking away from their homes in the US at a much higher rate than in Canada.

In the end, the result of all of these policy differences means that Canada is fairly well-insulated from the carnage that is occurring south of the border. Interestingly, our conservative, low-competition banking environment may have saved our housing market from a painful downturn.

September 2011 Market Update

If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact us by phone or by clicking on one of the links below:

Simon Clayton 604-764-0711

Jason Low 604-790-5276

Sandra Ens 604-263-1911

Jenny Stephanson 604-675-6214

Jason Feinstadt 604-263-1911

MacDonald Realty 604-263-1911

No matter where you go, the media is buzzing with stories and opinions on the US debt crisis and how it may affect Canada.

While most people feel powerless over what governments at all levels may do in an attempt to avert an even bigger mess … there is something YOU can do. You can take the steps necessary to avoid your own personal debt crisis.

In the next few blog posts, we will share some of the best financial solvency tips we found while doing research on the Internet.

CreditDonkey is a credit card comparison site that publishes credit card research, informed opinions and related news/trends.  Here are a few tips CreditDonkey published in a recent press release.

• Keep track of your debt—Knowledge is power; especially when it comes to debt. When consumers don’t know what they owe, it’s easy for them to slowly slip more and more into debt.

There are several free financial management websites now available to consumers to help combat this problem. These sites help consumers keep track of what’s coming in and what’s going out of their banking accounts. By enrolling in one of these free programs, consumers are able to see exactly what they owe each month.

• Pay on time every time—Making payments on time each and every month is critical when it comes to managing debt. Being late not only damages a consumer’s credit score, which makes it more difficult to qualify for future loans, but it also results in late fees. These fees can really add up and will just add to the amount that is owed. Being late on credit card payments can also result in a higher annual percentage rate (APR). The higher the rate, the more a consumer will have to pay in interest.
• Take advantage of refinance offers—Refinancing an auto or home loan can help decrease monthly payments. When auto and home loan payments are lower each month, consumers are able to put more money toward their credit card debt.

If a consumer isn’t receiving preapproval offers in the mail, it doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t qualify for a refinance loan. Credit unions typically have less strict lending policies, so if a consumer is looking to save money on their monthly payments, they can contact their local credit union to see if they would qualify for a refinance loan.

• Be responsible with credit card usage—Credit cards are great tools… when used responsibly. With the advent of credit card rewards, many consumers are using the rewards as an excuse to charge an increasing amount of purchases to credit. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem. However, it can be easy to go overboard, charging more to the credit card than can be paid at the end of the month.

The best rule of thumb when it comes to credit cards is for cardholders to limit their purchases to an amount they can easily pay off at the end of the month. If a cardholder wants to make the most out of their rewards program, they can use their credit card to pay their monthly bills instead of using rewards as a validation to go on a shopping spree.

• Look for credit cards with balance transfer offers—Consumers who have existing credit card balances can help lighten their debt load by completing a balance transfer to a credit card with a lower rate. No, this won’t eliminate the total amount owed but it will decrease the amount they will ultimately pay in interest, potentially saving them hundreds of dollars over the life of the outstanding balance.

There is additional information at CreditDonkey.com … but be careful, they are trying to sell credit cards AND a lot of their information is aimed at US consumers.

Here’s a market update from our friends at Macdonald Realty; Simon Clayton, Jason Low, Sandra Ens, Jason Feinstadt, and Jenny Stephanson.

August 2011 Market Update

“There are 3 kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics”

- Mark Twain

There’s no doubt that real estate is an interesting topic of conversation for the public. The media, in an attempt to feed this appetite for real estate news, often publishes interesting pieces of real estate information that help sell papers. Due to this heavy dose of constant real estate news, it’s important to understand how the data is collected and how to interpret the information.

Below are the 3 most commonly misunderstood statistics in the media:

1) Housing starts rise 1.9%!
(http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Housing+starts+cent+June/5083165/story.html)

This shouldn’t really matter to buyers or sellers out there. While this is related to the real estate market, it is more relevant for the construction industry than it is to the resale housing market.

Remember, these are new home construction figures: not sales or pricing numbers. Unless you’re a construction worker or materials’ supplier, this type of information is largely irrelevant to your real estate decision-making process.

2) Home sales drop 42%!
(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/02/bc-real-estate-values-vancouver-september.html)

This kind of information is important for buyers and sellers to know and also helpful for realtors to use. A drop in home sales is sometimes a precursor to lower prices down the road. That said, there are a multitude of reasons that home sales could slow that wouldn’t also result in a corresponding drop in prices.

It is therefore important to remember that these are unit sale figures, not price figures. These statistics are generally also seasonally adjusted to reflect the fact that sales tend to be slower in the winter and summer as opposed to the spring and fall. You should talk to a professional to see whether a drop in sales velocity is because of a slowing market or because of some other extraneous event.

3) Average House Prices Expected to Rise 13% this year!
(http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Home+prices+rise+cent+this+year+report/5030251/story.html)

This is the most misunderstood of the media reports that come out. Yes, it is true that Average Canadian Home Prices in 2011 will likely show a significant increase over 2010; however, as we’re already half way through the year, much of the increase has already occurred.

Many real estate boards also release data that shows the Benchmark price of a home. This is a much more accurate look at the current state of the real estate market than the average price. The Benchmark price is the current price of an average home in a given market area rather than the average price of all of the homes in a given market area. The difference is subtle, but substantive. The average price simply takes the price of all units sold in a given market area and divides it by the number of units sold. It therefore can be skewed by a strong luxury market, like the one currently being experienced in many Metro Vancouver markets.

Remember to always read real estate statistics with an eye to these issues and you’ll become a more accurate analyst of the market.

August 2011 Market Update

If you would like to learn more, please feel free to contact us by phone or by clicking on one of the links below:

Simon Clayton 604-764-0711

Jason Low 604-790-5276

Sandra Ens 604-263-1911

Jenny Stephanson 604-675-6214

Jason Feinstadt 604-263-1911

MacDonald Realty 604-263-1911

We are just thrilled to announce that Justin has made the Top 50 Canadian Mortgage Brokers List.  He is right in the middle at number 28.

The Top 50 Brokers List was created by a partnership of Canadian Mortgage Professionals (CMP) and FirstLine Mortgages.  This is the fourth year that the list has been published.

The rules for submitting were straightforward: you must be employed as a mortgage professional able to write loans and the deals must have been personally originated by you (back-office support in processing the loans is acceptable, but no other parties have been paid commissions on the deals).

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The figures submitted by brokers are confirmed by brokerage head offices and lender underwriters.

Here’s what Canadian BrokerNews says differentiates the Top 50 brokers:

A high volume and a large number of deals can indicate that you are doing something right to stand out from the crowd, be it launching a clever marketing campaign, tapping into new referral sources, building a list of “niche” clients or simply providing top-notch customer service. It also, in many cases, speaks to a mortgage professional’s hard work over his or her years in the industry.

Good Work Buddy!  We are proud of you!!

Mike

Averbach Mortgages has been featured in the latest edition of  CMP’s (Canadian Mortgage Professionals) Mortgage Broker News.

We were pretty certain we’d be mentioned in the magazine because they interviewed us rather extensively … but we were thrilled to see that we got a three page spread.

The reason we were chosen for the article was because we were first place winners of the Merix Financial Customer Service Award … for two years in a row.  This is a pretty good accomplishment because we are the only company to win the award two times and the only company to win a back-to-back award.

The article is fairly comprehensive and tells the story of how we (Michael and Justin) partnered up to create an unstoppable mortgage brokerage company.  If any of you were ever curious as to how two such different guys got together … now is the time to find out!

The article also digs into our philosophy of customer service. One of the reasons we won the award is because of our
underlying belief  that customers are individuals and need to be treated as such. It is not a numbers game … it is treating everyone with the respect they deserve by listening to what they are saying and understanding their needs.  In the article we talk about the results we get because we go over the moon for our customers.

We’d love for you to read the article and get to know us a bit better.  We’d love for you to find out why Justin not only dot’s all the I’s  and crosses all the T’s, but makes sure you — our clients know what all the I’s and T’s mean and why they are necessary!

Read the article here (it is a PDF file that should automatically launch) … and let us know what you think!

Mike and Justin

PS.  Here’s a photo from the article:

(Left to Right): Justin Blacklock and Mike Averbach receiving their 2010 Canadian Mortgage Award from Boris Bozic of Merix Financial.

PPSS   If you are purchasing a home in the next few months, be sure to give us a call and find out what customer service is all about.   Justin will pre-qualify you for a mortgage and will make the process as simple as possible! 604-736-1855