Trevor Hickey, B.A. - Calgary Mortgage Brokers | Mortgage Brokers Calgary | Calgary 2nd Mortgages

Don’t worry about how much the bank or lender says you can afford – YOU need to decide how much you can afford.  There are a few reasons why this is important:

1) Only you truly know your income and debts.  Not all your debts are on your credit report and not all your income is claimed on your taxes.  Therefore – the banks/lenders will never truly know your financial situation like you do.

2) There are different comfort levels with certain people:

a) There are those that like to have conservative payments and have lots of money left over each month.

b) And then there are those that don’t mind having every penny spoken for at the end of the day – just as long as they love their home. 

Don’t let the bank/lender determine which one you are.  Now – the bank may limit how much they think you can afford, and there isn’t really anything you can do about that – but its even worse to get into your dream house and then be kicked out within a few months because you couldn’t make your payments.

If you need any free advice from Calgary mortgage brokers – let me know – thanks!

Popularity: 2% [?]

Is it okay to accept your 1st offer? – Yes!  There is this idea out there that if you accept your 1st offer that you are impatient and foolish.  Since we don’t have a crystal ball we don’t know what the best offer will be.  In my opinion, if you have listed your house and you have done your research and you know how much your house is worth – and the 1st offer is reasonable – Take it! 

Another reason why there is this stigma attached to taking the 1st offer is Realtors.  Since Realtors are paid commission on the sale of your house – as soon as they advise you to take an offer they look greedy.  Realtors work on the same business laws that everyone else does – if they trick you into taking a low offer just so that they can get paid – they’ll never get your business again (and they know that). 

It’s okay to take the 1st offer!

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Popularity: 2% [?]

NO!  If you love the house, and you can afford it – buy it!  The asking price is just that – an ASKING PRICE.  It isn’t called the “recommended price” or the “maximum” or “minimum price” – if you are one of several people making an offer on a house – you may want to bid higher than asking price.  If you are the only one who is making an offer and the house has been on the market for an unusual length of time, consider bidding lower than the asking price.  That’s what I did with my house – we had 4 other people making an offer at the same time – and we bid more than the asking price and we got the house – I’m glad we did, we love it!

If you need advice from calgary mortgage brokers – call me.  Thanks!

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Popularity: 5% [?]

Isn’t my mortgage broker suppost to shop for me?  NO! Should I be shopping? Sure.
If you want the absolute lowest rates – shop around, just be aware that your credit will be dropping every time it is hit.  Also, low rates aren’t everything – there are other factors to consider ie:
- Prepayment privlidges
- Amortization
- Income proof
- Number of documents required
- If you need an appraisal or not
If you work with a good broker you’ll get good service and competative rates.  In my opinion the interest rate is not going to make or break you – simply decide on what broker to use and keep moving forward!

Popularity: 2% [?]

The big question – should I use a whole market mortgage broker? 
Answer: YOU CAN’T THEY DON’T EXIST!

I am far – far from a “whole market mortgage broker”.  I typically use a maximum of 3-4 lenders.
No broker can ever advertize that they have the lowest rates or have all the products or lenders – the market is too big and changes too fast!
Not only that – but each application is unique and lenders all price transactions differently – by the time you went to all the lenders to see about their rates – the rates will have already changed several times – making your work useless.
The next question is “should a mortgage broker shop my deal at more than one lender?” NO! NO! NO!

The benefits of shopping:
- finding really low rates

Disadvantages of shopping:
- You annoy all of those that quoted you and that you didn’t go with.
- It takes FOREVER!
- Your lenders don’t want to work with you in the future because you’re a “shopper”

The benefits of going to one lender consistently:
- You get to know their products, programs and niches very well – this helps speed things up and save clients money (ie no appraisals in some cases)
- You get a dedicated underwriter who works exclusively with you and you have consistency when dealing with the same lender on all files.
- Your underwriter works fast because they know you are not shopping.
- Your underwriter gives you perks ie. pre-approvals and rate holds, which they don’t give for shoppers.

The disadvantages of not shopping:
- May not have the lowest rates in the market – but if you work with a lender who consistently has competative rates, the pros far outweigh the cons!

Popularity: 5% [?]

Should I pay mortgage broker fees – this post is simply a reiteration of a link to another forum that I commented on. 
See what you think:

Original post (http://www.canadianmortgagetrends.com/canadian_mortgage_trends/2008/02/mortgage-brok-1.html):
A client called us this week upset that his broker charged him a $5000 broker fee.  So we asked where the broker got him approved.  Much to our amazement, it was at a major “A”-lender.  More surprisingly, the client’s credit was excellent.

My response:
Trevor Hickey said…
I am a mortgage associate in Calgary – I disagree with the claim that a broker should not charge for an “a” mortgage when the client has good rates – AS LONG AS THEY ARE CONSISTENT. What I mean by this is the broker should not just charge one person $5k and then charge a different customer $0.00 (if they are both in the same situation). If the broker wants $5k for their services – they can charge it (it’s a free market) BUT you won’t get many clients agreeing to it and therefore the fees charged on an “a” mortgage should be close to none (or nothing).
There are many many other variables than just the type of lender and credit. There is time needed to close, debt servicing, equity remaining etc. One other good thing about a broker who charges lots is that they are willing to work extremely hard to make any deal work because they are being paid so much – also these brokers (since they charge so much) will not have an abundance of clients and can therefore work extremely fast for clients that need it.
Lastly – it is unfair to criticize this broker for charging $5k simply because it was with an “a” lender – with that logic you are penalizing the broker for outstanding work – should he have taken the client to a private lender instead? Perhaps the broker was simply ta magician and got it done at an “a” lender when no one else could.

Feel free to put in your two cents by going here —> http://www.canadianmortgagetrends.com/canadian_mortgage_trends/2008/02/mortgage-brok-1.html

Popularity: 25% [?]

I wrote an article called “Subprime mortgage melt-down: a definition” and in it I explained what the mortgage melt-down was and house there were several mortgage companies that were foreclosing on houses that were worth less than what the mortgage balances were.  The interesting part was that the companies that were foreclosing were rarely the same company that approved the mortgage.  What I mean by this is that company “abc” would approve the loan, take their fee, then sell it to company “xyz”.  The interesting thing is that company “xyz” happend to usually be in India, China or some other overseas country.  So, since many of these mortgages are still being held by “xyz” China, India and these other countries effectively own our country.

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Top desired search term for this blog: Calgary Mortgage Brokers

Popularity: 12% [?]

The sub-prime mortgage crash was good because our population has an abundance of baby boomers and a lack of “generation X” to support them when they go into retirement. 
The reason why the sub-prime crash was good is it forced alot of baby boomers to lose their investments, and therefore increased the average age of retirement.  Considering that no-one has any money to retire anymore, we won’t be plighted with the problem of a majority of our population retiring.

I know this sounds grim, but, we needed the crash.

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Top desired search term for this post: Calgary Mortgage Brokers

Popularity: 12% [?]

You’ve heard the term “sub-prime mortgage melt-down”, but I bet you have never been told what it means.  Basically (about 3-4 years ago) there were a number of banks that developed “b” or “sub-prime” lending divisions.  They thought it would be a great way to get a larger share of the mortgage market, while mitigating their risk and making lots of money.  The theory was this – banks are picky, they choose guarenteed loans and they don’t charge much for interest, so they can’t afford to take on risky loans.  But, if you charge lots in terms of rates and fees you can afford to have the odd loan not repaid because your profits will be so high.  Anyways, the banks weren’t the only ones jumping into this market.  There were alot of other private companies doing this too. 

Great, how does this affect you?  This affects you because you are funding these companies.  You see, many companies were started with their primary source of funds being from pension funds.  The idea was to take the money that everyone pays into their pension programs with, invest in mortgages, make a killing and pay the pension funds back with loads of cash. 

Now, not everyone is willing to take a mortgage at 10%, which means that those who were borrowing these funds weren’t exactly “bank worthy”.  Most of them were self employed (often very recently), many had no income proof, many did not file taxes, and many did not have any net worth or down payment.  What this meant was that these people were borrowing funds based on the hope that they would make enough money to pay their mortgages.  And, to make matters worse, there were often large fees charged to the borrowers since the loan was running on hope.

So, naturally, everyone that thought they were going to strike it rich (as a self-employed person) did not end up doing so well and were having trouble paying their mortgages.  Not only this, but when you buy a house with no down payment, and your mortgage is more than house value because the lender fee is added on to the mortgage there is not a really high incentive to spend your last dollar on your mortgage payments.  Needless to say the whole system crumbled, houses were being foreclosed on all over the place. 
So, that is what the mortgage melt-down was, and how it affects you is that there are likely going to be alot of pension funds that are a little short on cash after this event. 

See http://www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info/november-8-14-2010/why-the-sub-prime-mortgage-crash-was-good/ to see why the mortgage melt-down was actually good.

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Top desired search term for this post: Calgary Mortgage Brokers

Popularity: 2% [?]

You’ve likely heard that the overall savings rate of Canadians and American’s have a low (or negative) savings rate. Why is this bad?  Well, banks lend out money that you put in the bank – so if there is no money in the bank, then there is no money to lend out, no money to buy houses with, no money to employ workers with etc. 
I know this post was short, but (I think) informative.

Trevor Hickey, B.A.

Mortgage Associate

Concord Mortgage Group Ltd.

#107 – 1905 Centre Street NW

Calgary, Alberta

T2E 2S7

Bus: (403) 290-1990

Cell: (403) 860-8738

Fax: 1-888-587-1426

Email: trevor@concordmortgage.ca

Website: www.mortgagebrokercalgary.info

Top desired search term for this post: Calgary Mortgage Brokers

Popularity: 2% [?]