Toys and buying a home

In 2005, I was asked to do a pre-approval by a couple hoping to buy a home. I went through the application with them and pre-approved them for $320,000. They were astounded. They told me that their bank told them that they were qualified to a maximum of $260,000. They wanted to know how I could get them more money. I looked at their credit reports and quickly found the answer.

I pointed out to them that they both had $10,000 unsecured lines of credit. They said that the bank had offered this to them several years ago but they had not used them. The zero balances confirmed their story. What they didn’t know was according to the bank’s rules, they had to consider these lines of credit as being fully utilized. The bank considered them as each carrying $300 in monthly payments that did not exist. My lenders took a zero balance as being a zero balance and I was able to get them more money and more house.

Last year I had a young man who wanted to buy a new home. He was very surprised when I told him he couldn’t afford it according to the new stress test rules. The reason being, he had a $950 a month truck payment. The only solutions available were to sell the truck, or negotiate a new payment plan by stretching out the payments for another year.

The moral of the story is that it’s important to let clients know that other debts outside of their mortgage can affect how much house they can qualify for, and that buying a vehicle or new toys like a trailer or boat before going to see their local mortgage broker, can be a costly mistake. Your Dominion Lending Centres mortgage broker can help you through the whole home buying process but you need to have them involved early in the process. Our job is to make people’s dreams come true and we do it a lot better than the banks.

David Cooke

Dominion Lending Centres – Accredited Mortgage Professional
David is part of DLC Clarity Mortgages in Calgary, AB.

GREAT article below…GREAT news for my BFS friends …. have a read of this blog below from my colleague

CMHC Changes to Assist Self-Employed Borrowers

As a self-employed person myself, I was happy to hear that CMHC is willing to make some changes that will make it easier for us to qualify for a mortgage.
In an announcement on July 19, 2018, the CMHC has said “Self-employed Canadians represent a significant part of the Canadian workforce. These policy changes respond to that reality by making it easier for self-employed borrowers to obtain CMHC mortgage loan insurance and benefit from competitive interest rates.” — Romy Bowers, Chief Commercial Officer, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. These policy changes are to take effect Oct. 1, 2018.

Traditionally self-employed borrowers will write as many expenses as they can to minimize the income tax they pay each year. While this is a good tax-saving technique it means that often a realistic annual income can not be established high enough to meet mortgage qualification guidelines.
Plain speak, we don’t look good on paper.

Normally CMHC wants to see two years established business history to be able to determine an average income. But the agency said it will now make allowances for people who acquire existing businesses, can demonstrate sufficient cash reserves, who will be expecting predictable earnings and have previous training and education.
Take for example a borrower that has been an interior designer with a firm for the past eight years and in the same industry for the past 30 years, but just struck out on his own last year. His main work contract is with the firm he used to work for, but now he has the ability to pick up additional contracts from the industry in which he has vast connections.
Where previously he would have had to entertain a mortgage with an interest rate at least 1% higher than the best on the market and have to pay a fee, now he would be able to meet insurance requirements and get preferred rates.

The other change that CMHC has made is to allow for more flexible documentation of income and the ability to look at Statements of Business Professional Activity from a sole-proprietor’s income tax submission to support Add Backs of certain write-offs to support a grossing-up of income. Basically, recognizing that many write-offs are simply for tax-saving purposes and are not a reduction of actual income. This could mean a significant increase in income and buying power.

It is refreshing after years of government claw-backs and conservative policy changes to finally see the swing back in the other direction. Self-employed Canadians have taken on the burden of an often fluctuating income and responsible income tax management all for the ability to work for themselves. These measures will help them with the reward of being able to own their own home as well.

Kristin Woolard

Dominion Lending Centres – Accredited Mortgage Professional

Dominion Lending Centres launches new app My Mortgage Toolbox

For Immediate release

August 8th, 2018

Vancouver, B.C. – The nation’s leading mortgage company is making it easier for consumers to navigate the Canadian mortgage landscape.

My Mortgage Toolbox is a new mobile app from Dominion Lending Centres designed to be a pocket-sized mortgage guide for everyday Canadians.

A first-of-its-kind for the industry, the app makes it easy for consumers to find a mortgage broker nearest them and get the best mortgage product at the lowest rate available.

“We’re really excited to launch what we see as a game-changing app for the mortgage industry,” said Gary Mauris, President and CEO of Dominion Lending Centres. “The idea behind My Mortgage Toolbox was to make it simple for Canadians to manage the mortgage process by putting all the information they need in the palm of their hand.

My Mortgage Toolbox guides the users while taking away all the stress of getting a mortgage.

Some of the feature of the app include:

• Affordability Calculator
• Minimum Down Payment Calculator
• Total Monthly Ownership Calculator
• Closing Cost Calculator
• A Stress Test Tool to calculate affordability
• Beautiful graphs and illustrations

“We’ve listened to our mortgage professionals who are always looking for better ways to serve their clients, and again we are delivering industry leading tools and technology,” said Dave Teixeira, DLC’s VP of Operations.

The app has also been translated into several languages including English, French, Spanish Chinese and Hindi.

The My Mortgage Toolbox app is available for Apple and Android devices starting today, or by clicking the “My Mortgage Tool” box link on the DLC website www.dominionlending.ca.

For more information about Dominion Lending Centres visit www.dominionlending.ca.

Jeremy Deutsch

Communications Advisor