Learning your needs 

The initial leap in the mortgage process should be unearthing your needs. During our work together, we will lay out the foundation for your success by establishing primary and secondary objectives. Do you want to consolidate debt? Purchase a new home? Buy an investment property? AND, what are your plans in the future - where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Remember, a mortgage plan is also a life plan. 

Unlike the banks, I don't just skim through your mortgage application.   I take extensive time reviewing your credit history and financial picture and I make highly personalized recommendations.  I will also provide you with a detailed record summarizing what we concluded. 

Planning 

Are you buying your first home?

Congratulations on your accepted offer to purchase! 
One of the benefits of completing a pre-approval first is that your information is already stored in my database. When your offer to purchase is accepted, we can move extremely fast and get you financing immediately. All I have to do is finalize what we discussed previously. Because time is always of the essence, especially with financing conditions, having everything prepared is crucial! 

Refinancing

If you've contacted me to refinance your home, we'll take a detailed look at your mortgage options. We'll calculate your expected savings and find ways to optimize your mortgage terms.

This includes: 
  • Finding the lowest interest rates 
  • Determining what debts to consolidate
  • Maximizing mortgage payments and pre-payments privileges
  • Creating a 5-year plan.

Home Improvements

If you're using equity from your house to lower your costs of renovating,  many options await you. For example, you can refinance into one mortgage or arrange a Home Equity Line of Credit that you can draw from. As the project's bills come due, you can use your line of credit, which will remain open. In other words, you can borrow money and pay it back whenever you choose without penalty.

Documentation 

It's important that we review your income documentation before we submit your application. This is to ensure our application is accurate.  For a list of what documentation you may need for financing, click HERE.

Final Approval

Once we have obtained the final approval, also called a Mortgage Commitment, we will review and sign the documentation. This can be completed two different ways: 
  1. For your convenience, we can complete the paperwork through a secure online signature platform. This will give you the chance to review the documents in great detail at your own leisure and ask any questions you may have.
  2. Alternatively, we can meet in person. ​

Appraisal 

Appraisals are becoming mandatory by more and more lenders. Your property's value will most likely need to be confirmed. An appraisal determines what the current value of your home is. The appraiser will compare data from other recent sales. 

If you're purchasing as a high-ratio borrower (less than 20% down) an appraisal is usually not required. An appraisal report is available 1-2 days after it is completed. 

Final closing

Once the approval is accepted and all supporting documentation has been delivered to your lender, your lawyer will be provided a set of mortgage instructions. Mortgage instructions detail the terms of your mortgage and how they are to be registered on title to your property. You will have to sign similar paperwork directly with your lawyer prior to closing. 

Most lawyers can close a refinance transaction within 1-2 weeks from the date the mortgage instructions are received.