CURRENT MORTGAGE RATES Last updated:  April 28, 2008 Term Bank Rate Our Rate 6 month 6.20% 6.20% 1 year 6.95% 5.00% 2 years 7.00% 5.85% 3 years 7.00% 5.85% 4 years 6.85% 5.69% 5 years 6.99% 5.35% 7 years 7.40% 6.15% 10 years 7.75% 6.40% Variable Prime - 0.6% 4.15% Prime: 4.75% * rates subject to change without notice    .

The Process - There are certain procedures to take if you are going through the process of purchasing a new home. You are going to want to have your “team” assembled. This will include your mortgage broker, your realtor, and your lawyer. But before you go and research all of your partnerships, you should first have a good idea as to what exactly you can feasibly afford. Below is a typical mortgage process.

The Pre-approval
First fill out an online application form to get a pre approval.  What this will do is tell you how much of a purchase price you will need for a new house and it will also tell you how much you will have to pay for a monthly payment. It also gets you a rate hold while you are looking for the perfect house to purchase for your family. 

Documentation for the pre approval will have to be sent to us to forward on to the lender we find for you.  The documents are:

• Current job letter
• current pay stubs (2 if you are on a bi weekly pay schedule)
• last years Notice of Assessments to prove your personal taxes are paid and up to date
• Proof of your down payment (gift letter, from your account)
• Please not if you are business for self – please click here

The Transition from the Pre-approval to Approval process
**This is a very important part of every transaction**
Your pre-approval is a hard copy agreement from the bank, or lender, stating that you will be financed for a mortgage once you show the necessary documentation to them. Documentation usually required are items such as your; Income verification, and down payment verification. There may be other items needed to provide dependant on the situation.

You now go looking for your new house purchase with your realtor or on your own. When it is time to make an offer on the new home you will have to provide a “condition of financing date”. This is Very Important that you know that all your documentation has to be providing to the lender before this date so all the conditions can be removed and you have a final approval.  Therefore when you are discussing this with your realtor and you have to get documents that may be hard to provide, you have to account for this in the date you are putting down for financing. You also must know that an appraisal in some areas take up to 5 business days to get from an appraiser.  As well, you must provide enough time for the lender to review and approve the documentation (and appraisal if necessary) before the end of the day on your Condition date. This condition of finance date is very important to you as a buyer. If your conditions are not lifted by the end of that day, the seller can refuse the right to proceed with you as a buyer, or can refuse to keep the conditions the same, i.e. the price of the home. Once the bank has approved your documentation, you may remove your conditions to finance.

Now if you are putting down 25% or more down as down payment on a home, then this is considered a “conventional” mortgage deal. Conventional mortgages require the buyer to provide an appraisal of the subject property to the lender or the bank that is providing the mortgage.  This is when the broker or lender calls for an appraiser to go and do a full appraisal on the property you have placed an offer.  Now if your down payment is less than 25% and the mortgage insurer (CMHC, GE, or AIG) the insurer will provide the bank a value of your new home. When your mortgage is going through a self insured lender than and appraisal is required no matter what the down payment.

After the conditions have been removed from the subject property you are purchasing, it is up to you the buyer, the broker, the financial institution, and the lawyer to co-ordinate the necessary paperwork to finish the process, and close your mortgage on time. If you do not already have a lawyer to handle the disbursements of funds, your realtor will likely have a referral for you, or you can take it upon yourself to shop around for one or ask your broker.

If you are an existing homeowner that is purchasing a new home, you may find yourself in a position to arrange “Interim Financing”. Interim financing happens when the possession of your new home arrives BEFORE the sale of your existing home has gone through. You must have a firm sale on your current home for bridge financing to go through. Usually, the lender will be able to finance a short term loan to cover the deficiencies in the time gap. You do not need Interim Financing if your possession is AFTER the sale of your current home has gone through.

Between the “lifting of conditions” on the home and the actual closing of the mortgage, the following should have been completed:

• Provided the necessary documents to us for the purposes of lifting conditions (i.e. – letter of employment, pay stub, Notice of Assessment (if applicable), Appraisal (if applicable), down payment verification (which can include 3 months bank statements, gift letter(s), investment statements, or a combination of anyone of those), current mortgage statement (if applicable), and supplied your offer to purchase for the new home and a sale agreement for your existing home (if applicable).
• Chosen your payment frequencies offered through the lending institution (i.e. – monthly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, etc.)& Signed a Pre authorized debt form provided by the lender
• Signed mortgage application and mortgage commitment – We will provide.
• Provided the lawyer’s name, address, phone and fax#.

Once we have all the documents to the lender, the lender will then package the mortgage instructions (your file), and send it off to the lawyers office where they will arrange for a meeting time with you. When you receive this call, your mortgage process is close to being through. The lawyer will go over the legal mortgage documents one last time with you at this meeting, and arrange for your name(s) to be registered through land titles for your new property. Your lawyer will release the keys to you so that you can arrive to your new home on time. The moving and unpacking should be your next move!