Mortgage Tips

For first-time home buyers (and homeowners renewing or refinancing an existing mortgage), knowing your personal financial situation and utilizing the services of a knowledgeable and well-resourced mortgage broker are keys to securing the best home mortgage terms and rates.

“Leave no stone unturned in your hunt for the perfect rate,” advises James Kwantes of the Vancouver Sun, in an article bearing this sage advise as its headline. Nearly one-third of British Columbian homebuyers negotiated the best deal on mortgage rates by utilizing the services of a B.C. mortgage broker, he notes.

Mr. Kwantes advises potential homebuyers to use the mortgage calculator and tools available on moneytools.ca (a website set up by the federal Financial Consumer Agency of Canada) to gain an understanding and working knowledge of the mortgage terms and rates that are a fit with their financial circumstances.

The next step, Mr. Kwantes advises, is to hook-up with a well-resourced and reputable mortgage broker.

“Thirty-two per cent of B.C. mortgages have been negotiated through a mortgage broker, the highest rate of any province,” writes Mr. Kwantes. Nationally, he observes, only 25 per cent of mortgages are negotiated through a mortgage broker, which makes professional mortgage brokers a much-underutilized resource.

However, it appears that more and more savvy first-time homebuyers – particularly in the pricey B.C. housing market – are utilizing a mortgage broker to negotiate their first mortgage. “Of new mortgages,” the Vancouver Sun reporter notes, “40 per cent were obtained through mortgage brokers, 39 per cent directly from major banks, 10 per cent from credit unions and 11 per cent from other sources, including life insurance firms and trust/loan companies, according to the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals.”

Unlike the mortgage professional at a local bank or credit union branch who is restricted to offering only the mortgage terms and rates that are available from their own particular financial institution, an independent mortgage broker has the ability to negotiate the best term and rates available from a wide network of bank, non-bank and private lenders offering a wide variety of mortgage products.