January 2012
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First Time Homebuyers save on a Personal Income...
I came across a great tip from our neighbourhood law firm Cassady & Company today. Many people are searching for new ways to save, benefits for buying a home, incentive programs and tax credits for first time homebuyers. Well this is one tax credit that is overlooked probably a lot of the time, and that is due to it’s relatively new presence in our market. This might not mean that it...
November 2011
3 posts
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MONTHLY INDICATOR RECAPS - October 2011 from...
It’s already near the end of November, Black Friday is here and from the looks of the snowy covered mountains out my office window…the Winter season is officially upon us! See the full gallery on Posterous I’ve been getting ready to do a year end recap, where we are now, where we came from and where we are going…however this has been an incredibly bizarre year let...
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Mortgage Penalties
Mortgage Penalties Today I am here to chat about mortgage penalties. Why I’m getting a lot more questions about mortgage penalties from clients in the past couple of months? What is the normal mortgage penalty range you could expect? Also, will it be worth it for you to cancel your current mortgage, pay the penalty, and get something at today’s lower rate? 1. How come mortgage penalties...
6 tags
You're Invited - Upcoming Meetup: Financial...
Meetup! You’re Invited: Thursday, November 17th, 2011 Today I’m here to invite you for our next upcoming meetup. We are going to be meeting up on November 17th in Burnaby, BC. We’re going to be chatting about financial planning. This has always been an interesting topic for us. We’ve got a great guest speaker lined up and we’ll share with you those details if you go to meetup page....
October 2011
1 post
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Bank of Canada Benchmark Rate Drop!
SMP: Theresa’s Soap Box – Bank of Canada Benchmark Rate Drop Welcome to the Sutton Member Program booth at the Sutton National Conference in Las Vegas at The Mirage! I just wanted to invite you here and give you a glimpse of what we’re doing with Finder Financial Services. We’ll put clips of the different booths that are going on. There’s lots of fun to be had and it’s really quite...
September 2011
3 posts
3 tags
RRSP Home Buyer Plan Credit
SMP: Theresa’s Soap Box: RRSP home buyer plan credit Today we are here to talk about the RRSP home buyer plan credit that you can apply for. If you are looking for a property, it’s your first time buying a house, or you’ve owned a house in the past and you’re waiting to see how long you have to wait until you can use these credits again. RRSP is one of the more popular home buyer plan...
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Home Inspections and Appraisals
SMP: Theresa’s Soap Box: Home Inspections and Appraisals Today I’m here to chat about a question I received from a client recently: how do home inspection and appraisal relate to a mortgage? Are they required, can you skip one if you have the other…basically, what’s involved there? Home inspection: Home inspection is pretty self explanatory. This is when you hire a licensed inspector to...
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You’re Invited – Upcoming Meetup: First Time Home...
SMP: Theresa’s Soap Box – Meetup! You’re Invited: Thursday, September 15, 2011 Today I am here to invite you to our next meet-up. We’re coming up to September 15, which is our next meet-up date. We will be chatting about the first time home buyer process. As you know in the past, we’ve been chatting about things like leaky condos, condominium developments, landlord highs and lows if you are...
July 2011
3 posts
4 tags
Meetup! You're Invited: Landlord Highs 'n Lows,...
Come join us in this Meetup as we look at the highs and lows of being a landlord. This evening will be a great chance to share experiences and stories. We will go through what things you should watch out for when dealing with tenanted properties! RSVP on Meetup.com or Facebook – in order to be eligible for the prize draws at the end of the evening! Through our discussion on the highs and lows...
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How Can I Figure Out if I Qualify for a Mortgage?...
Today we’re going to be talking about “How can I figure out if I qualify for a mortgage?” Part II. Today’s focus is more on pre-qualification and pre-approvals and I just wanted to let you know that there’s a lot of lingo and no standard definition for each of these things, so a pre-approval from a bank may mean something different than a pre-qualification or a pre-approval from me. So I’ll let...
How Can I Figure Out if I Qualify for a Mortgage?...
Today we’re going to get a quick overview into “How can I figure out if I qualify for a mortgage?” A lot of you out there might not be sure what it is that we, mortgage coordinators, are looking for when we ask all these questions on your mortgage application; how much money you make, all of your past credit, credit cards, and all that stuff. These questions seem very invasive, but I’ll let you...
June 2011
2 posts
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What affects changes in interest rates?
Theresa’s Soapbox Today I’m here to talk about interest rates and what makes them move up or down. So you might have noticed that the fixed mortgage rates recently have been going up and down like crazy while the variable rates have just stayed the same, no big change since the beginning of the year. Many of you might be thinking what’s the difference? Aren’t all interest rates at...
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Meetup! You're Invited: Why NOT to buy a presale...
Theresa’s Soapbox Today I’m here to invite you to our next meetup! We will be discussing presale developments in particular why not buy a presale development and also when you should buy a presale development. We’ll be meeting up on Wednesday, not Thursday this time, June 22nd at 6:30 PM. The reason for the change is we were lucky enough to invite Vic Jang, our special guest, who...
May 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Financial Literacy for Youth (F.L.Y.) Conference...
I was at the FLY conference this last Saturday and I had such a great time I wanted to try and spread the word about the amazing work these kids are doing. Yes that’s right, I’m showing my age here but this amazing organization and conference were put on by university students and recent graduates! FLY started as a student association out of U.B.C. and grew to include an annual...
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Mortgage Planning to Save Your Penalty!
SMP Online | Theresa’s Soap Box Today I’m going to talk a little bit about mortgage planning. In particular how identifying your long and short term goals can save you money on your mortgage in the long run. What brought this up was that there were a bunch of articles lately about some unfortunate people that had been hit with really hefty mortgage penalties, in some cases...
April 2011
3 posts
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Super-Sized Mortgage Penalties
Large mortgage penalties are the focus of much media attention lately with people wanting to know how can they avoid this catastrophe? I am drawn to this story of Movahed whom, after finding his mortgage unaffordable, went back to his bank 3 times. Each time his mortgage penalty increased until he finally caved in and sold the property giving up a ~$34,000 penalty. Check out the full CBC...
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You're Invited - Upcoming Meetup: Rent vs. Buy
SMP Online | Theresa’s Soap Box Hi everyone, we want to take the time to invite all of you to our next Meetup which is happening on Thursday April 14, 2011 at 6:00 PM. The topic for this upcoming meetup is about Rent vs. Buy, so we’re going to have a little bit of a debate for those of you who are homeowners and for those of you who are renters who want to come out. We are going to have...
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Locking-in Your Mortgage Rate Might Not Save the...
http://youtu.be/nq_LRABXhHc SMP Online | Theresa’s Soap Box Today we’re going to quickly go over variable rate mortgages and the convertibility or “lock-in” feature that you get with most variable rate mortgages. I personally am a huge fan of variable rates and I would take a variable mortgage myself, however I find that a lot of people who are considering a variable are actually...
March 2011
3 posts
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Good-bye 35 Year Amortization?
SMP Online | Theresa’s Soap Box Today we’re going to talk about the 35 year amortization; the end of it and where you might be able to still find it. March 18th is officially the end of the 35 year amortization. For those who have watched our previous blogs, this is for people who have less than 20% downpayment, you will now be unable to get a 35 year amortization. This means you might...
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The 35 Year Amortization Advantage
By now you all should know about the mortgage rule changes which will happen next week - one of which is the end of 35 year high ratio amortizations. What this means is that if you have a small down payment, you will have to make a monthly payment which will be higher and in the long run you would end up paying off your mortgage in full by 30 years, not 35. There are definite pros and cons to...
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Trade-off: Rising Mortgage Rates and Falling Home...
SMP Online | Theresa’s Soap Box Today we are going to discuss the trade-off between rising mortgage rates and falling home prices. We know a lot of you want to buy a home, and have dreams of home ownership, maybe a year down the line or maybe more than that. You are hoping home prices will fall so you can afford to buy a bigger place, so you get more value for your money. We came...
February 2011
4 posts
Meetup! You're Invited - How to Avoid Lemon...
You’re invited! Today I’m just updating our blog to extend everyone an invitation to a new event that we are hosting next month. On March 10th we will be hosting a gathering of people - a meetup - who are interested in purchasing a property in Vancouver, whether you are a first time homebuyer, a repeat homebuyer, or property investor and you wanted to hear updates and research on the...
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BOC Benchmark Rate Watch!
Benchmark Qualification Rate may increase to 5.44% next week!Following the Fixed rate increases announced earlier this week, we also have the following benchmark rate alert that you should watch out for. TD Canada Trust and RBC Royal Bank have already increased their 5 yr Fixed Posted Rate to 5.44%. This means that the Bank of Canada will most likely increase their Benchmark Rate to 5.44% on...
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Important Dates for Tax Season!
Important Dates for Tax Season! Deadline to make RSP contributions for 2010 is March 1st, 2011 Deadline for filing 2010 tax returns is April 30th, 2011 __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 5854 (20110207) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus.http://www.eset.com
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CMHC Rule Changes - Refinancing Limit
Theresa’s Soap Box – CMHC Rule Changes – Refinancing Limit Today we’re going to finish up our series about the CMHC rule changes. The last topic we are going to cover is the refiniancing limit. You may know that the refinancing limit will be decreased from 90% to 85% of your home’s value and that takes place March 18, 2011. What this means for you is that if you are considering refinancing...
January 2011
4 posts
1 tag
New Mortgage Rules
Deadline March 18, 2011 Hi Everyone, A quick news recap for you - you may have seen my video blogs going in depth on each of the items which were affected by the previous weeks New Mortgage Rules annoucement. For those of you who aren’t sure what those mortgage rules were, or where to find the information from the Finance Minister or CMHC, I’ll recap it all here. Details in the...
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BC Property Assessment
Your Assessment, FAQ and Information on Appeals Individual Tax Notices have been mailed out to homeowners already! The B.C. Assessment Authority has completed its 2011 Assessment Roll for properties. Deadline to File for Review 31st January 2011 If you have concerns regarding your assessment you can find more information at the BC Assessment Authority – or contact your realtor and mortgage...
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CMHC Rule Changes - Home Equity Line of Credit
Theresa’s Soap Box – CMHC Rule Changes – Home Equity Line of Credit Today we’re here to talk about home equity lines of credit and the new CMHC changes announced earlier this week. A home equity credit is a credit line, think of something similar to your credit card, but secured to your property. What this means is that you can borrow a very large sum of money because your property itself is...
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CMHC Rule Changes - Item 1 Shorter Amortization...
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Today we’re going to talk about the CMHC mortgage rule changes which were announced yesterday. The first item on the list was amortization periods. For higher ratio mortgages the maximum amortization you use to be able to get 35 years mortgages, and now they are going to limit down to 30 year mortgages. So we thought we’d break this down for you guys and let you...
December 2010
2 posts
2 tags
What Grade is Your Credit Score?
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Today we’re going to chat about credit scores and what letter grade we would assign to each range of credit scores. This will help you gauge if you are in a good range or a poor range or somewhere in-between with your credit score. A – Credit Score 726 +: You’re doing everything well you have no problem applying or getting approved for credit so keep...
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How to Pay Off Your Mortgage Quicker Part II
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Today we have part 2 in our series of how to pay off your mortgage faster. If you caught us last time we were chatting about how to use your mortgage as a savings account. Today we’re going to chat about a graduated approach in case you’re worried about saving a huge lump sum of money and paying it into your mortgage. We’ve got a better option for you that...
November 2010
1 post
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Difference Between a Notary and a Lawyer
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Today we want to tackle a very common question that we get asked all the time. What is the difference between using a lawyer or a notary public in a real estate transaction? Most real estate deals are fairly straightforward and both a lawyer and notary will prepare the documents for you. If you are buying a home, they will: conduct a title search obtain...
October 2010
3 posts
2 tags
Things You Should Know About HST
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online HST has caused quite the disturbance recently. A lot of people are really worried and very concerned about this issue. Since HST has been around for a while now, we thought we’d take the time to address some popular concerns that we’ve come across regarding the HST. We’re going to begin by clearing up some concerns of HST without going into too many details,...
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How Employment History Affects Your Mortgage
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online You might be thinking I’ve got a job I can make my mortgage payments who cares beyond that? That’s not true, there are things about employment you should be looking out for that could affect your mortgage application. Here are a couple of things you should be looking at: 1. Employment History The longer you’re working at one place of employment the better it...
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Refinancing to Renovate. Is it a Good Idea?
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online A common reason why people refinance their homes is to renovate, but is it always a good idea? We’ve found many instances where people are refinancing to upgrade their homes, add more features in, or fix the roof that’s falling in. It seems like a NO BRAINER – you take money out of the house to put value back in your home. You can’t really go wrong...
September 2010
1 post
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Establishing a Good Credit History
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Why is it important to establish a good credit history? - Obvious answer is to get mortgages, car loans, or any types of loans - Some people may not know that if you don’t have good credit, it can deter you from getting things like: Cell phone contracts A lease on an apartment Or even a job If you don’t have credit history, lenders will not know if you can...
August 2010
5 posts
2 tags
Mortgages and Student Loans
Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online Let’s take a few minutes to talk about refinancing… The obvious reasons to refinance are to get a lower interest rate or consolidate your debt. However, we want to spend a few minutes today to talk about refinancing your mortgage to help pay for your kids post secondary education. On average, it costs up to $80,000 to complete an...
Mortgage Tips
Check Your Credit Without Affecting Your Credit Score Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online There are 2 major credit reporting agencies in Canada: Equifax and Transunion. Usually you would have to pay to check your credit score, and when you check it through a bank/mortgage broker or apply for a credit card, there is a record of this check. If you do many credit checks over time, this will eventually...
Mortgage Tips
Check Your Credit Without Affecting Your Credit Score Theresa’s Soap Box | SMP Online There are 2 major credit reporting agencies in Canada: Equifax and Transunion. Usually you would have to pay to check your credit score, and when you check it through a bank/mortgage broker or apply for a credit card, there is a record of this check. If you do many credit checks over time, this will eventually...
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July 2010
1 post
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June 2010
2 posts
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Finding volunteer trips that actually help
I saw this CNN feature the other day on volunteer travel and I thought it really helped to spotlight this wave of volunteerism that is now becoming popular.
It’s amusing that our non-profit society has been doing this for many years, but suddenly with a couple big corporates and news franchises on the bandwagon it is now the “in” thing to do. But no matter, publicity is...
3 tags
The sinkhole in Guatemala City: You have to see to...
Can you imagine if you were the guy living here?…
I saw this photo in the Georgia Straight and at first thought “nuh uh, there’s no way that can be real”. Well turns out that it’s real alright, and posing some real questions I’m sure.
First comment I saw on a youtube video of the sinkhole was, “how do you fix something like that”? Yes indeed,...
May 2010
15 posts
WatchBuild a Tower Build a Team - Tom Wujec What problems could a Marshmallow have you say? In what scenarios do Kindergartners consistently perform better than most adult groups?
Specialized Skills + Facilitation Skills = Success
Teams of CEO’s plus an Executive Assistant perform above the average of teams with CEO’s alone.
This is fascinating stuff - I’m always looking for that...
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How can you have 10,000 NGO's in a country that... →
Island Life - Listen to the Podcast from This American Life
“Unprecedented amounts of money have been pledged to Haitian relief in the last few months. American households have given over $1 billion and in March, 120 countries pledged over $9 billion(!) to rebuild. The only problem is that - historically - blanketing a country in aid and money has never really worked so well. Is there...
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WatchThe Owl Box on Ustream - Hisses to lull you to sleep by…
Join in on the SocialStream chatter above! We found Ustream just in time as soon we will have chirping to make you smile…we have a bird nesting in our porch whom we will be spying on!
You Can't Tell The King What To Do →