Mortgage Articles
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Understanding Bank Posted Rates
Understanding Bank Posted Rates. You can’t calculate your bank’s mortgage penalty without knowing your bank’s posted rates.
Breaking Your Mortgage: Canada vs United States
Discover the big difference between the costs Canadians pay to refinance their homes compared to the costs paid by Americans and why such a big difference.
Is Fixed or Variable Best for You?
Discover the differences between a fixed rate mortgage and a variable rate mortgage, when one is better than the other, and which is right for you.
PMB Professional Mortgage Brokers
PMB Professional Mortgage Brokers: The Small Eastern Ontario Mortgage Investment Entity with the big heart.
Difference Between Variable Rate and Adjustable Rate Mortgages
Discover the differences between an adjustable and a variable rate mortgage. Who is which type of mortgage best for and is one of these best for you.
Applying with Disability Income
Learn about the difference between taxable and non-taxable disability income and the impact each can have on your mortgage application.
Understanding Bond Sector Consideration Premium
Learn how The Bond Sector Consideration Premium accounts for sector-specific risks or other unique factors affecting particular bonds.
Fixed vs Variable: Doing the Math
To really know if a fixed-rate or a variable-rate mortgage is best you have to do the math and know the unknown gotchas. Discover how to determine which mortgage is right for you!
How Are Mortgages Priced?
Learn how mortgages are priced by lenders and see how complex these financial instruments are.
Commission Income and Alt Lending
The real question is when a commission income borrower should consider an alternative lender instead of trying to force a file into prime lending guidelines that simply don’t fit the situation.
Mortgages: Including Support Payments to Income
Understand how support payments can be factored into your mortgage affordability in Canada with our expert guidance.
Buy, Reno, Rent, Refinance, and Repeat
BRRRR Analyzer: BRRRR stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat.
It’s one of the most powerful real estate investing strategies available—but only when each step is executed with insight. The problem is, most people focus on the buy and the rent… and gloss over the refinance, which is where the entire strategy either succeeds or collapses.
Don’t Move Without Bridge Financing
Considering a move? Bridge financing can help you buy your dream home before selling your current property. Learn how to secure this short-term loan in Canada.
Do Better At Mortgage Renewal
Unlock better terms on your Mortgage Renewal in Canada. Explore top rates and savvy renewal options to secure your financial future.
Credit Card Limit Carnage
Credit Card Limit Carnage: How good credit can kill your mortgage application.
Switching Lenders Mid-Term to Consolidate Debt
Switching Lenders Mid-Term to Consolidate Debt: Switching lenders mid-term to consolidate debt is one of the most misunderstood strategies in Canadian mortgage planning. In many cases, switching lenders mid-term isn’t the flashy option—it’s the necessary one.
Refinancing to Consolidate Debt
Refinance to Consolidate Debt: Debt rarely shows up as one big bad decision. More often, it’s a slow buildup—credit cards used during a tight year, a car loan layered on top, maybe a line of credit that never quite goes back to zero. Before long, a noticeable chunk of your monthly income is going toward interest, not progress.
Meet Maple Financial
Meet Maple Financial: Deliberately trying to make alternative lending feel more predictable and consistent.
When to Use Community Trust
Community Trust:When to use Community Trust, it isn’t a private lender; it’s a structured alternative lender designed for borrwers who are viable, responsible and real.
Canada’s Missing Housing-Enabled Infrastructure
Explore how Canada’s gap in housing-enabled infrastructure impacts urban development and transportation networks for better city living.
Using Blend and Extend to Consolidate Debt
Using Blend and Extend to Consolidate Debt: For the right borrower, a blend and extend can be a practical, lower-friction way to restructure debt, access equity, and improve cash flow without fully blowing up your existing mortgage. It’s not a magic fix, and it’s not available in every situation
Using the Reverse Mortgage Budgeting Planner
Using the Reverse Mortgage Budgeting Planner: the real question isn’t whether you can get the money—it’s whether the plan holds together over 10, 15, or 25 years once interest compounds, life gets more expensive, and the house still needs constant upkeep.
Climbing the Mortgage Ladder
Mortgage Ladder: Life doesn’t always unfold in neat, predictable steps. Sometimes you get bruised credit after a divorce, sometimes your business income doesn’t show well on paper, and sometimes the bank just flat-out says “no.” That’s when the mortgage ladder comes into play: starting where you are, even if that’s at the bottom rung, and climbing steadily toward prime lending.
On Commission Mortgage Secrets
Commission income isn’t difficult for lenders to approve—but it does require a more thoughtful underwriting strategy.
Second Mortgage Disallowed
Second Mortgage Disallowed: How your mortgage contract determines whether and how a second mortgage is allowed.
Merix Financial
Merix Financial: Buying a home isn’t always a straight line, and Merix Financial is built for the detours. Merix is a monoline mortgage lender – meaning they only do home loans, and they focus on doing them really well.
Everything You Need to Know About The Risk-Free Rate (Base Rate)
Explore the intricacies of the risk-free rate (base rate), a crucial concept in finance that serves as a benchmark for assessing risk and determining discount rates.
How to Merge Ownership
How to Merge Ownership: Two people fall in love, their lives start to merge, and eventually the question comes up: What about the house?
Maybe one partner bought the home years earlier. Maybe they built up equity on their own. Now the relationship has grown serious—marriage is on the table or the couple has decided to live common-law—and the other partner wants to contribute financially and build equity too.
Understanding the Credit (Default) Premium
Determining how the Credit (Default) Premium compensates investors for the risk that the bond issuer may default on its payments.
Understanding the Bond Liquidity Premium
Learn how the Bond Liquidity Premium compensates investors for the increased risk associated with longer-term bonds. .
Ultimate First-Time Homebuyer Pre-Approval Calculator
Ultimate First-TIme Homebuyer Pre-Approval Calculator: Most mortgage calculators out there are glorified guess machines. This isn’t a toy. It’s not a marketing gimmick. It’s a full underwriting-style analyzer designed to show you how a lender actually looks at your file—before you ever submit an application.
Exceptions that Bend the Rules
Behind every approval—or decline—is a framework called underwriting policy. These policies give lenders structure and consistency. But they also leave room for exceptions, where a skilled mortgage professional can present a file in a way that helps a lender say yes instead of no.
On Commission Mortgage Mistakes
Commission income is one of the most misunderstood types of income in Canadian mortgage underwriting. The borrower is successful, earns excellent income, and has strong credit—yet the mortgage gets declined.
Manulife Mortgage Protection Plan
Learn about life and disability insurance to cover your mortgage payments and help protect the people you love.
Mortgage Refinance to Pay Debt
Explore how mortgage refinance can be a smart strategy for Debt Consolidation in Canada, turning multiple payments into one manageable bill.
Understanding the Bond Taxability Premium
Learn how the Bond Taxability Premium accounts for the tax status of the bond.
Understanding the Bond Call (Prepayment) Premium
Learn how The Bond Call (Prepayment) Premium compensates investors for the risk that the issuer might repay the bond before its maturity date.
Featured Publications
Articles
- Extended Amortizations and Hypothetical Calculations
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Minimum Qualifying Rate for Uninsured Mortgages
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) - Guideline on Existing Consumer Mortgage Loans in Exceptional Circumstances Financial Consumer Agency of Canada
Book: “The Program”
- Part 1 – Building Your Down Payment
- Part 2 – Mortgage Payoff Strategies
- Part 3 – Building Wealth Through Real Estate