Ian Leverington's Blog

One of the most frustrating things I hear about in the mortgage industry is learning about people who have been 'pre-approved' at their bank branch only to find out later they actually can't qualify for a mortgage when the time comes. 'What?! How can that happen?!' you might ask. I'll explain... First, the bank branch (for some very odd reason) doesn't actually review an applicant's credit bureau when they're applying for a mortgage (again, this is odd and I can't imagine why). Instead, only their history as a client with that particular bank is reviewed. Now, even if the bank never cared to check a person's credit bureau before actually providing them a mortgage (which would be silly), an applicant buying a home with less than 20% down (which is most home buyers) also needs to be approved by one of the 3 mortgage default insurers (CMHC, Genworth or Canada Guaranty) who have many strict credit bureau requirements. Again, why they d

News for  you ... Just 8 weeks after the last national rate increase comes another .25% benchmark rate increase by the  Bank of Canada . This is due to the increasing strength of the Canadian economy and this is good news for everyone for a number of reasons but, it also means interest rates for borrows will be increasing again. As I noted 2 months ago regarding the last rate increase in July, you can expect your variable rate mortgage to increase by 1/4 of a percent as well. At this point or at any point in your mortgage term,  you  have the option to opt for a fixed interest  rate  if  you  no longer wish to continue with a variable  rate  mortgage. Your fixed  rate  option will be based on either a new 5 year term or a term that is at least as long as the time remaining on your current agreement (3.5 years left = 4 year term). This will depend on your lender and the interest rates available to 'lock-in' at will depend on what your lender is currently offering for th