Open House: The Real Estate & Mortgage Show- January 27, 2018
On this week’s edition of The Real Estate & Mortgage Show, the group discusses the busy Ottawa real estate and mortgage rate environment.
The real estate market is still very active in the beginning of this year as homes are moving very quickly. Paul recommends ensuring that your home is priced well. If clients think they need to improve certain areas, they can always price the home accordingly to make up for those aspects.
Frank mentions the mortgage market is still very busy for January. Some lenders have allowed grandfathered pre-approvals but people seem to wanting to take advantage of rates before potential increases later in the year. He notes that many people are now proactively searching out information on their renewals.
Frank discusses the new rate environment and the different levels of rates for certain circumstances and the challenge in conveying this to clients and real estate agents. Frank and Steve discuss a firm pre-preapprovals and how to be certain, documents and underwriting is required. There is a big difference between locking in a rate (soft pre-approval) and having a firm pre-approval (hard pre-approval). Frank also notes that just because you are approved as a client, the home also needs to be approved as well by the lenders and insurers. Paul recommends having a longer financing clause as opposed to have to extend the period. Frank and Paul agree, if you have a firm pre-approval, depending on the homes, a 5 day financing clause should suffice. If you have a rate hold, or soft pre-approval, a 7 day financing clause would be better to ensure your Mortgage Broker has enough time to ensure the conditions are approved.
The group talks about credit and how to work to fix your credit scores if you find yours is on the lower side.
Your Mortgage Broker should be your first call when looking at your home financing.