Tips To Make Your Home A Better Place To Live

Article Source: http://bestmortgagebrokers.net/

Updating your current home is a better choice than trying to sell your old one and buying a new one in a sluggish market. Here are some tips that you might want to utilize when it comes to starting a major remodeling project. The more information you have, the fewer mistakes you will make.

An easy and cost effective way to spruce up your home is by painting the interior. To estimate the amount of paint you need, you have to calculate the square footage of the walls. Simply multiply the length of the wall by its height. One gallon of paint will cover approximately 350 square feet. Bear in mind that you may need two coats of paint, depending on what color you are painting over.

You should consider purchasing a combo unit if you reside in a condo, apartment, or small house that does not have the room for your washer and dryer. There are different types and styles of combination washer/dryers, but most types will fit in about the same space as a dishwasher. You can use the machine to both wash and dry your clothes.

You can find many articles and web pages online that can give you tips when remodeling your home. A quick search on the internet can go a long way, and it doesn't hurt to gain more knowledge. You want to make sure you tackle each project with confidence before you start it. You might finish the job quicker too, if you do just a little research.

When considering what home improvement project to do, stay away from home repairs unless they are absolutely necessary. Things like painting the interior or exterior of your home have no impact on the value of your residence. Spend your time on other projects that will give you a better return for the money you spend.

Choose wallpaper patterns carefully. Avoid using overpowering patterns in small spaces; conversely, using a bold design in a very large room will make it appear cozier. Never use a patterned wallpaper if you have patterned carpet or window coverings. For a room full of awkward corners and recesses, pick a wallpaper with a random design that the eye doesn't tend to follow. This will help to disguise any imperfections in the walls.

Your house is a great way to showcase your personality. Instead of moving to a new home, it has become more popular to renovate and remodel the current home. Use the information supplied to your above, and you have a starting point to plan and begin your home improvement projects.

What to Do When Your Credit Card Debt Has Been Charged Off

One of our readers, Ashok, sent us this question:

Sir, I am a credit card defaulter. I changed my address and likelihood of bank finding me is almost zero. But I feel guilty to do this and want to settle my account with bank, However, i am not in a condition to pay the full amount, but would like to get my name written off from bank’s defaulter list. How do I settle my account with bank? What kind of rebate i can expect? Is there any agency to help me out in this?

Thanks for your question Ashok!

You are wise to want to settle the account out for several reasons:
Credit card companies employ entire departments of people they call “skip trace”. Which basically means when someone skips out, they harass everyone you know until they find you.
The credit card company will keep reporting the debt to all three credit bureaus until they write it off. When they write it off, they will sell your debt to a new collection company, who will also report your debt to all three credit bureaus. When they give up on trying to find you, they will simply sell your debt to another company.
If anyone ever does catch up to you, you can expect them to sue you, and garnish your wages.

Now, assuming that they do not ever find you, you will still have to deal with the damage that delinquent account is doing to your credit score. So, you are exactly right to want to make good on the debt. It will begin the process of repairing your credit.

There is one thing you need to be aware of before you begin. Now, I do not know how old your debt is, but I can tell you that if your credit card company has written off your debt already, calling them will “re-open” it, and they will begin collections all over again. This could actually cause you to have multiple negative accounts on your credit report over the same debt – so do a couple of things first.

If you want to make good on your debt what you have to do is pull all three of your credit reports, and find out who currently owns your debt. From that point, you have two options:
Call the collection company who owns your debt now, and offer a settlement for a reduced amount.
Send a certified letter to the collection company that currently owns the debt telling them that you refuse to deal with anyone but the original owner of the account (the bank that issued the card.) This is your right by law.

There are pros and cons to both of these:

Collection companies are used to making settlements, and they will likely settle for less than your original bank will. However, they may have tacked on quite a few additional fees to your account that would not be charged to you if you deal directly with the bank that gave you the card.

The best way to know if fees have been added is to look at your credit report. Look at the amount your bank charged off, and then compare it to the amount the new collection company says you owe.

Settling the debt with the original bank will look better on your credit score because it will show a paid charge off. If you pay your original bank you can wait a few months, and challenge any negative information on your reports that resulted from the collection companies (not the original bank.)

As far as what kind of a settlement you can expect: it depends on how much you are willing to negotiate. In situations like yours, you should easily be able to cut the total by 50% if you are dealing with a collection company. If you deal with the original bank, upwards of 30% is a reasonable expectation.

As far as organizations that can help, yes, you will get the help you need from a credit counseling agency. Just be careful which one you choose, because not all of them do a good job. They will negotiate with your creditors on your behalf, and get the account settled for you.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

B.C. Property Market Hazy After 'Millionaire Visa' Scrapped

Real estate agents in Vancouver say property prices could take a hit, after Canada scrapped a program which allowed wealthy immigrants to fast-track the visa process.

The Immigrant Investor Program, launched in 1986, offered visas to business people with a net worth of at least $1.6 million who were willing to lend $800,000 to the Canadian government — for investment across Canada — for a term of five years.

By 2012, the scheme had to be temporarily frozen due to a huge backlog of applications from wealthy mainland Chinese hoping to come to B.C. Now, the government has announced it will end the program for good and scrap all 59,000 applications backlogged worldwide.

The decision came less than a week after the South China Morning Post published a series of exclusive investigative reports into the controversial scheme.

Property prices could take a hit

In West Vancouver, real estate agent Clarence Debelle is still receiving offers from mainland China for luxury property, but he's concerned the end of the investor program will have an impact on the local economy and the high-end housing market.

"I deal directly with these people who bring a lot of wealth, who are creating lots of jobs for local Canadians — builders, trades, architects, realtors like myself," said Debelle.

"Most of the buying is coming from Chinese immigrants who are wealthy, so if we make it difficult for them to come into this country, we have killed 80 to 90 per cent of the buying in West Vancouver."

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland agrees.

"When you suddenly stave off the intake of literally hundreds of millionaires in the Vancouver property market, prices can only go one way and that's down," said Kurland.

Market impacted by more than investors

Others aren't so sure. Even with the investor program frozen, housing prices continued to rise.

Tom Davidoff with UBC's Sauder School of Business says the market is driven by other things like low interest rates and the local and global economies.

"Given that in the last couple of years, we haven't seen the market cool off, it's hard to believe that freezing the investor market is going to kill even the high-end in Vancouver," said Davidoff.

The government has also announced the end of the Entrepreneur Program, a smaller scheme for business people who plan to own and manage a business in Canada.

However, wealthy investors can still come to Canada through the Start-up Visa Program, which encourages immigrant entrepreneurs to partner with private sector organizations to invest in local start-ups.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

Toronto House Prices Could Slip In 2015, TD Bank Predicts

Report estimates Toronto, Vancouver real estate markets are 10 to 15 per cent overvalued, compared to 10 per cent for rest of country
Barely has the year — and a whole new round of bidding wars — begun and the first of the big banks has weighed in with a warning that Toronto’s housing market is 10 to 15 per cent overvalued.

So is Vancouver’s, says TD Economics in a report released Monday, noting that both cities have been seeing “frothier conditions” than the rest of the country, where house prices remain about 10 per cent overvalued, largely because of low interest rates.

“Toronto and Vancouver make up 40 per cent of the Canadian housing market, so that’s what’s really driving the overvaluation measure,” said TD economist Diana Petramala in an interview.

A spike in interest rates or a “negative economic shock” could potentially send resale home prices tumbling by 25 per cent, Petramala notes. But it’s far more likely there will be a “gradual unwinding of excesses” in the Canadian market as interest rates slowly rise, along with incomes, over the next few years.

It’s likely to be 2015 until Toronto, and much of the country, start to see any real downturn in sales and prices, according to TD.

While Toronto home prices jumped 6.8 per cent in 2012 and 5.4 per cent in 2013, they could rise just 2.7 per cent this year and slip by 1.2 per cent in 2015, when interest rates are expected to start climbing, the report forecasts.

Petramala notes that “prices ended 2013 on a much higher note than we had been expecting as households faced an unusually low level of homes for sale.”

That has played out in the old City of Toronto, in particular, in an unexpectedly feverish start to 2014, with a simple Junction Triangle row house going for $210,000 over asking price in a flurry of 32 bids.

“The one concern we have is that we’re seeing more strength in Toronto’s house prices than expected,” says Sal Guatieri, senior economist with BMO Capital Markets.

Even all those new condos coming on the market haven’t been enough to hold down housing prices, says Guatieri, noting that resale condo prices were up almost 4 per cent in December, year over year.

“We thought, if anything, Toronto house prices would fall somewhat last year. But underlying demand is pretty strong, net migration is pretty healthy and the number of echo boomers aged 30 to 34 is growing quite rapidly at the moment and they are a prime homebuying cohort, especially for condos.”

The housing market is “overshooting,” but “it’s not a market that is crashing,” says Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets.

He continues to believe that the market will slow to a soft landing and that real estate numbers to be released this week detailing January sales and prices (those from the Toronto Real Estate Board are due out Wednesday) could start to provide a more “realistic” picture of the health of the housing sector.

“This market will be tested when interest rates start rising, and that means it won’t be tested for a while.”

The Canadian housing market and worries about a real estate bubble have been key concerns for policy-makers for several years.

Recent indicators have suggested the market may be headed for a soft landing instead of a bubble bursting, but concerns have persisted.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

How Canadians Budgeting For Higher Mortgages? Don’t Know or Care?

I haven’t been blogging much, nearly everything I do is on Twitter now. It’s pretty amazing how writing in 140 character intervals forces you to the core of your argument. Nevertheless I occasionally want to have a long rant so here we are.

How are Canadians budgeting these days? Like many countries there is a huge culture of home ownership in Canada. It makes for a great new facebook pic that unofficially says you’ve ‘made-it’.

There are two issues that are very concerning for home buyers. First off, you have what I’m very confident is a real estate bubble in Canada. This has been discussed on this site since it was started and more recently in the media. That being said, the media focuses mainly on the condo bubble. Indeed I agree that condos are the most overvalued but much like the real estate bubble in the US which started with ‘just sub-prime borrowers’ a large correction in real estate prices will effect the entire sector.

We’ve all heard this argument a million times and I’m not going to bring it any further today. Its my opinion, I’ve presented my facts and if you disagree with my conclusion that’s cool.

But back to the story, maybe you don’t care about what your house is worth in 2, 10 or 20 years, you are just buying it for pride of ownership. Again, that’s cool, not my cup of tea when it comes to your biggest investment, but my question is; how are people budgeting this?

There is a huge difference between the US and Canada in terms of mortgages. In the US, the standard government backed mortgage is a 30 year fixed. You can perfectly budget your mortgage expense over 3 decades. I won’t even mention other benefits such as writing off part of the payments. In Canada, our government backed mortgage is traditionally a 25 year mortgage, fixed for 5 years.

So Canadians really have no clue what their mortgage payment will be in 5 years. With record low interest rates, it’s not hard to imagine them reverting to a more normalized level. What happens if your mortgage payment doubles? (or worse), let alone if we have a recession and a big jump in unemployment. This is the problem with the ‘no bubble crowd’ which cite the current relatively low debt service ratios as evidence of appropriate real estate prices. Yes, service ratios are good now, with today’s economy and low interest rates. The problem is a mortgage lasts for 25 years and credit conditions shouldn’t be judged on today’s economic variables remaining constant for decades to come.

So How Are Canadians Budgeting For Higher Mortgage Costs? Well I did some boots on the ground research. I’m 28 and more and more of my friends are making the big switch from renting to buying. I’ve asked them about this and I get very similar responses on Canadian real estate.
Real estate will always go up (recency bias).

Renting is wasting your money (they need to factor in potential capital losses and hidden costs of home ownership).

The bank approved me for this mortgage, therefore I can afford it (don’t let the bank’s poor decision making determine your own).

And in terms of what happens when they have to renew their mortgage in 5 years? Well I usually get a blank look and then something like “I never really thought about that”.

So there is your answer, Canadians don’t know and and don’t really care about future mortgage payments and housing prices. They are budgeting based on today’s current rates and happy to have their own place.  They are busy with work and the every day problems that come with life. They are not economists and don’t spend their day thinking about income ratios and where interest rates will be in 5 years. I understand this way of thinking, but given the magnitude of the financial commitment, I’m nervous for them.

End of story, Canadians are extremely exposed to higher interest rates and its low on their list of worries.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

Calls For Greater Transparency In Canadian Real Estate Market

Despite the fact that Canada is attracting more than its fair share of real estate investors, both domestic and international, you may be astounded to learn that there is no public data available on investment ownership of Canadian real estate. Yes, the Canadian authorities are not aware of the split between domestic and overseas investors and are therefore unable to see what is really driving the market.

A number of prominent figures have now stepped forward to voice their concerns at an apparent lack of transparency. When you bear in mind that international investors are now having a major impact upon relatively large real estate markets, London is one which springs to mind, this is something which the Canadian authorities need to address sooner rather than later.

Identifying trends in the Canadian property market
Those who follow the Canadian property market will be well aware that prices have pushed higher over the last few years due to a lack of supply, a relatively strong economy, well-managed government budget and demand from overseas investors. While we are not able to specify the exact levels of overseas investment across the Canadian real estate market, it is significant and it is moving markets.

Quote from PropertyForum.com : “It will come as no surprise to those who follow the worldwide real estate market to learn that Canadian investors seemingly cannot get enough of US commercial real estate.”

Only recently we covered an article on Canadian real estate investors looking towards the US with funding in excess of $20 billion pouring out of Canadian real estate investor coffers into the US market over the last 12 months. The US market is transparent, domestic and overseas investor figures are available so why is Canada not operating on a similar basis?

Rightly or wrongly there have been suspicions for many years now that overseas investors in London have been looking for a place to “park their money” with so far unsubstantiated claims of potential money-laundering issues. This is in a market which is highly transparent and is able to monitor both domestic and overseas investment at a glance. If there are potential money-laundering issues under this transparent and strict regime then what about the Canadian situation?

Nobody is for one moment suggesting there are widespread money-laundering issues within the Canadian real estate market but the fact that there are no public figures available differentiating between domestic and overseas investors leaves room for doubt. When you also bear in mind that property markets, and indeed any investment market, are based upon confidence in the regime running the market, could we be storing up problems for the future?

Conclusion

It seems highly likely that the Canadian authorities will eventually look towards a system which will differentiate between domestic and overseas investors. It would be very useful if this information was made public so that particular trends and influences can be monitored on an ongoing basis. Whether we see such a move this year, next year or in 10 years’ time it seems almost inevitable that ongoing pressure will force the government’s hand.

As a side note, this is a system which has worked very well for the authorities in the UK who are now able to differentiate between overseas and domestic investors in the London property market and potentially look to introduce specific taxes. Now, would the Canadian government turn down a new tax income stream from overseas investors?

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.

Consumer Mortgage Tips Canada! How to Pay Your Mortgage Off Faster?

10 Tips for Paying Off Your Home Mortgage Faster

For most the Canadian homeowners, paying off their mortgage as early as possible has a top priority. Paying down extra principal in the early years of your mortgage loan by whatever means possible can reduce the life of your mortgage, and dramatically lower the interest you’ll pay throughout your mortgage loan life.

Any additional payment you make on your mortgage (also known as a pre-payment) will save you a lot of money in interest. The interest portion of your payment is determined by the outstanding balance of your mortgage (principal and interest). As the outstanding balance diminishes, less of your payment goes towards interest and more comes off the balance. Here are a few home mortgage tips and ways on how to pay off sooner while minimize your mortgage costs:

1.Increasing the amount of your payments annually to the maximum you can afford
The upside is that most lenders will allow you to reduce it again to the previous level if it turns out to be too great a burden or your circumstances change.

2.Prepayments provide you great return over your investmentIf you pay an average 6.5% mortgage interest rate towards your mortgage payment, for each $1,000 reduction of your mortgage principal results in $65 savings after tax cash annually.

3.Utilize your RRSP driven tax rebate as a mortgage prepayment methodEven if you can only prepay annually, make sure tax refunds are set aside for paying down your mortgage. Many Canadians borrow (at prime) to buy an RRSP to ensure the maximum rebate. When applied to the mortgage principal, this refund is a “gift that keeps on giving”. Combining the refund with the tax-free interest earned on the RRSP over the subsequent years will quickly outpace the short-term interest costs of the RRSP loan.

4.Accelerated bi-weekly payment optionIncrease the frequency of your mortgage payments; make accelerated bi-weekly payments to get a free principal reduction equivalent to one full mortgage payment every year.

5.Make use of double-up privileges wherever possibleTell yourself that you will “skip-a-payment” whenever necessary.. then skip only when you absolutely must.

6.Round your mortgage payments upBy adding even a nominal amount of dollar value, say $10 per payment, the amount of interest you are saving will be unbelievable, and the extra money is relatively painless to part with.

7.Making lump-sum payments whenever possibleBy decreasing the principal of the mortgage, your payments will not be allocated as much to interest, thereby accelerating the end of your mortgage.

8.Keeping the same payments when mortgage rates have fallen downIf the payment amount has not been a problem so far, then keep it the same, thereby paying down the principal faster.

9.Raise the mortgage payments in line with increased income on an after-tax basisIf your income increases, don’t keep your mortgage payments the same. Although the disposable income may be fun to spend on unnecessary luxuries in the short-term, the long-term benefits of being mortgage free faster a far outweighs the short-term sacrifice.

10.Paying extra on your payment datesMost lenders will allow you to make additional payments on your mortgage, sometimes referred to as “double-up” payments. These extra amounts are applied to the principal only and reduce your mortgage balance, which helps you pay your mortgage off faster.

The faster you reduce the outstanding balance on your mortgage, the more you will save in interest charges. Since pre-payment policies vary between institutions to institutions and types of mortgages, you should consult your mortgage agreement for complete knowledge about the availability of the pre-payment options for you. These are some of the consumer mortgage tips specifically written for theCanadian home mortgage market but could be equally workable for any other country in general as well.

Visit Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village to consult a mortgage professional.