Articles
Mortgage Term: Graduated Rate Estate
Discover the implications of graduated rate estate, how it allows an estate to benefit from graduated income tax rates and the management of an estate’s assets.
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.
Canadian Cash Damming Calculator User Guide
The Canadian Cash Damming Calculator is a visual planning tool built to help you estimate if cash damming may be worthwhile based on your mortgage, HELOC, deductible expenses, tax rate, and professional costs.
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.
First-Time Homebuyer Pre-Approval Calculator User Guide
First Time Homebuyer Pre-APproval Calculator User Guide: The calculator is a multi-borrower first-time home buyer pre-approval tool with tabs for Borrower 1, Borrower 2, Co-Signer, Guarantor, and Summary. It calculates affordability using income, rental income, debts, down payment, property costs, GDS/TDS limits, a stress-test qualifying rate, and a lender-lane recommendation.
BRRRR Analyzer User Guide
BRRRR Analyzer User Guide: The BRRR (Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat) strategy is powerful—but only when the numbers are understood with precision. This advanced BRRR Analyzer is designed to give investors, realtors, and financial professionals a clear, data-driven view of a deal from acquisition through refinance and long-term performance.
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.
Real Estate Makes Canadians Among Wealthiest in the World
Learn how real estate makes Canadians among the wealthiest people in the world.
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.
Understanding the Bond Inflation Premium
Learn how the bond inflation premium compensates investors for the expected loss of purchasing power due to inflation over the bond’s term.
Understanding the Bond Maturity (Term) Premium
Learn how the Bond Maturity (Term) Premium compensates investors for the increased risk associated with longer-term bonds.
The Divorce Financing Ladder
The Divorce Financing Ladder: Divorce financing isn’t a single solution. I consider it to be a ladder. You start with the simplest and least expensive options first, and if those don’t work, we move down the ladder to look for a solution that works for you.
Bond Yield Premiums
Learn about how a bond yield (or the interest rate of a mortgage based on that bond) is composed of several premiums that compensate investors or lenders for various risks and factors associated with holding the bond (or mortgage).
Divorce Alternative Calculator User Guide
Divorce Alternative Calculator User Guide: This guide explains how to use the Divorce Alternative Calculator, what each section means, and how to interpret the results so you can evaluate whether an alternative mortgage solution might allow you to keep the home.
Divorce Refinance Calculator User Guide
Divorce Refinance Calculator User Guide: This guide walks you through how to use the Divorce Refinance Calculator step-by-step, what each section means, and how to interpret the results so you can make informed decisions about keeping the home.
CET1 Ratio Says Canadian Banks Are Strong
Learn how the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio is a crucial metric used to assess the financial strength and stability of a bank.
Debunking “Renting is Good”
Learn why articles saying renting is better than homeownership are just click bait for people struggling with affordable housing.
Mortgages: Grossing Up Income
When applying for a mortgage, to put the applicant in the best light with a lender to get the best rate possible, the question arises, "Can you gross up T4 and dividend income from a corporation?" In Canada, when completing a mortgage application for a client who owns...
Get Down Payment Help Through Ourboro
Unlock your homeownership dreams in Canada with Ourboro’s tailored down payment assistance and resources. Start your journey today.
Real Estate Makes Canadians Wealthy
Unlock the secret to wealth in Canada; learn how your household net worth is bolstered by smart real estate investments.
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
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