Good Afternoon,

Today it was announced there will be changes to the mortgage stress test April 6^th 2020 for insured mortgages. The change will be the contract plus 2%. As an example, that takes the current stress test from some lenders at 5.19% to 4.79% as a qualifying rate once effective.

Below is the full press release and how it will help the average pre approval broken down by The Angela Calla Mortgage Team  is located below

https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/02/minister-morneau-announces-new-benchmark-rate-for-qualifying-insured-mortgages.html

Combined household income $120,000.00 with the current stress test is a $580,000.00 purchase price

New stress test, this applicant potentially qualifies for a purchase price of $607,500.00

Change in amount $27,500 subject to approval

1. While this is a change in the right direction, please note this will heat up what is already shaping up to be a busy spring market.
2. To increase your purchase price, you must also increase the down payment (in the example above an extra $2,500.00)
3. This will also increase your closing costs slightly.  Also note, the strata fees and property taxes may also be increased at this point and impact the qualification.

If you or someone you care about is looking to get pre- approved or revisit there existing pre approval please reach out to us directly or introduce us in an email to callateam@dominionlending.ca  and also our app is a very helpful tool we recommend to utilize download it here: https://dlcapp.ca/app/angela-calla

Follow our Facebook page here: for more breaking news as it happens: https://www.facebook.com/angelacallamortgageteam/

Angela Calla is a 16 year award-winning woman of influence mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on The Mortgage Show on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book The Mortgage Code available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from all sales will be donated to Access Youth Outreach Services. Angela can be reached at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

There may be a little relief coming for condo owners who may be affected by the skyrocketing Condo Insurance premiums.

The IBABC is getting involved by proposing two main reforms to provincial legislation:

1. a $50,000 cap on the deductible assessment and non-insured loss assessment
2. a change in standard definition of a strata unit to ensure the basic components of a condo such as walls, ceilings, drywall, sub-floor, basic electrical & plumbing are covered by strata insurance

This may not bring total relief but could ease the pain a bit, pending the insurers agree. Here is a link to the statement fro IBABC:  2020 Strata Insurance Media Release

Angela Calla is a 16 year award-winning woman of influence mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on The Mortgage Show on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book The Mortgage Code available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from all sales will be donated to Access Youth Outreach Services. Angela can be reached at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

Global investors are selling stocks and piling into the safety of bonds in response to fears that the Wuhan coronavirus could disrupt global economic activity. Gold prices, another haven, have also risen. The Government of Canada 5-year bond yield traded this morning at roughly 1.35%, well below its nearly 1.70% level one month ago. The 5-year yield leads fixed mortgage rates, so if this trend persists, we might see widely available fixed-5-year rates in the 2.50% range once again in February. 

Angela Calla is a 16 year award-winning woman of influence mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on The Mortgage Show on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book The Mortgage Code available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from all sales will be donated to Access Youth Outreach Services. Angela can be reached at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

I was invited to Global Morning News to discuss mortgage considerations when going through divorce.

While it is a very multifaceted topic, when it comes to the best unbiased mortgage options, while protecting your credit, and at no cost to you; we can help ensure all the options are considered, simply by the access we have in our profession.

Including:

• What you can afford
• The best structure to keep families in the home
• How to get a mortgage if you are self employed
• A reverse mortgage option for those over 55 or utilizing a co-signer

While your accountant, financial planner and lawyer will all have a significant role as well.

Here is the 9 minute clip: Ask an Expert – with Angela Calla

It was originally inspired for an article I wrote for What’s On Magazine Port Coquiltam which is here on my blog: 4 Mortgage Consideration prior to Divorce

If you or someone you care about personally would like to learn about there options, or you have a friend, family member or associate that is a lawyer, accountant, or financial planner that you would like to ensure has the most up to date options to help those they serve, we are also booking speaking engagements at this time.

Kindly reach out to me directly at acalla@dominionlending.ca

Angela Calla is a 16 year award-winning woman of influence mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on The Mortgage Show on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book The Mortgage Code available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from all sales will go to Access Youth Outreach Services.  Angela can be reached at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983

December 2019 real estate stats are in & your 2019 B.C home assessment has become available. Click this link in order to check yours: https://www.bcassessment.ca

If you have any questions on qualifying for a mortgage to purchase a home, mortgage renewal, debt consolidation or spousal buyout- please reach out.

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning Mortgage Expert, Woman Of Influence & has been awarded Entrepreneur of the year 2019 by the Poco Best Biz Awards. Alongside her team, she passionately assists mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on “The Mortgage Show” on CKNW for over a decade.   She is an international best selling author on Amazon with her book, The Mortgage Code.   Proceeds from her book sales are donated to Access Youth Outreach services, a local charity in our community supporting our youth.  She is magazine contributor, a speaker and co-author of a second book called Dynamic Women ® Success Secrets.  For Media interviews, speaking inquiries or personal mortgage assistance, please contact Angela at acalla@dominionlending.ca.

If you are considering separating from your spouse and you own a home, some considerations will need to be made about how to best move forward financially.   When it comes to getting a mortgage, here are the top 4 considerations to factor in when separating from your partner.

1. Can one spouse afford to pay out another?

In order to determine approximately how much mortgage you would qualify for, you would need to multiply your employment income by 4.  This amount gives you the approximate amount allowable for a mortgage minus any debt or loans.  Ensure you learn what applies to you for your credit and employment with the variety of lenders available.  An independent mortgage professional will be able to protect your credit score by using one application to shop multiple lenders. There are lenders that will allow one spouse to refinance the other spouse out up to 95% of the properties value without a sale.

2. Will there be spousal or child support?

This will impact both parties, the spouse who is paying now will have to include the amount being paid out which will decrease there amount for qualifications.  The person receiving the support will be able to utilize a percentage of the money received in support to assist in getting a mortgage.  Other factors would weigh into the mortgage amount allowable such as credit, the kids ages, and current employment. Its important to know that every lender has a different percentage that they will allow in child support to use as income.

3. Your living arrangements during your separation journey can create different layers to navigate through when assessing your mortgage.

As an example, if both parties have moved out, this will change the occupancy and how the lender views the property, changing the property status from owner occupied to rental. I bring this up as with some divorce’s, a parent may step in as a co signer to help their child keep the home if they can qualify to do so.  Unless its owner occupied, many lenders are not favorable to co signers on rental properties. There are different ways this can be navigated.

4. Who can give me advice on what?

Divorce can be an emotional time.  It is life changing and can be difficult to navigate.  This is a time where you will need to rely on the expertise of your Mortgage Broker, Financial Advisor, Lawyer and Accountant.  Each has their area of expertise so questions about your mortgage and how-to best position yourself and learn your qualifications should be brought to your Mortgage Broker.  We will work together with all your advisors to help you through this difficult journey.  A lawyer or an accountant will not understand what lenders are willing to do are not willing to do with a mortgage.  Each expert will have to stay in their respective lanes while working together on this life transition, all with the view of doing what’s best for you. Every party can only advise based on the current snapshot of information within there related fields.

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning Mortgage Expert, Woman Of Influence & has been awarded Entrepreneur of the year 2019 by the Poco Best Biz Awards. Alongside her team, she passionately assists mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on “The Mortgage Show” on CKNW for over a decade.   She is an international best selling author on Amazon with her book, The Mortgage Code.   Proceeds from her book sales are donated to Access Youth Outreach services, a local charity in our community supporting our youth.  She is magazine contributor, a speaker and recently collaborated with a group of women on her second book called Dynamic Women ® Success Secrets.  For Media interviews, speaking inquiries or personal mortgage assistance, please contact Angela at acalla@dominionlending.ca

Get ahead of your finances, turn the tables and get your equity working for you. We cannot increase the hours in the day and wages can only go up so much. Most people have the desire to have a little more financial freedom and want to get their money working for them, they just don’t know how. Here are the three secrets!

1. Learn how much equity you have in your home.

Take the assessed value of your home and take into consideration that Lenders are very conservative with this number.  Determine how much you still have remaining on your mortgage to pay.   With a $1 million home value (be conservative) you can utilize up to $800,000 minus your mortgage. If your mortgage is $400,000, you would up to $400,000 remaining and available to deploy how you best see fit.

2. Look at breaking your mortgage to add in outside debt

Don’t be afraid of the penalty. Breaking your mortgage is a good thing when you have the advantage of the net benefit.  Also moving forward, look to see if you qualify with a monoline lender. This is the best kept secret for equity building. Consolidating your debt into your mortgage will also improve your credit score and be a significant emotional benefit to you. Some people save $300 to $3,000 a month by doing this.

3. Determine how you can get money available to you and work with your accountant to see how you can free up cash flow.

Maybe you can invest in RRSP’s to minimize your taxes and get a refund to further enhance your wealth, or an RESP to help your kids get started and get the government money that’s available to match it. If you’re going to do renovations that make your home more energy efficient –   there are refunds available and this will increase the value of your home. Maybe now you can purchase a revenue- producing investment like a rental property while making your mortgage tax deductible.

The options are vast when you are focused on yourself and are working together with people who share that same focus. With tax time quickly approaching – this is your time to learn how to get what you already have working in the best position possible. Remember, all it takes is one step forward and you can get the information related to you directly from the source.

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning woman of influence and mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on “The Mortgage Show” on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book “The Mortgage Code” available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from her book sales are donated to local charities helping families in the tri-city community.  For media interviews, speaking inquiries or personal mortgage assistance, please contact Angela at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

With 7/10 Canadians owning a home and 30% of renters hoping to purchase in the next two years, we thought we would break down the following scenarios.

Maybe you wish to buy a home, or you own a home and are interested in refinancing your mortgage. Let’s first talk about purchasing a home.

When Can You Buy A Home After A Consumer Proposal?

First things first: pay off your consumer proposal completely before you take on any new mortgage debt.

If you have at least a 20% down payment, you may even be able to buy as soon as you complete your consumer proposal! As in, immediately.

The lenders that will lend to someone after a proposal offer rates presently around the Bank of Canada’s posted rates and add a lender fee. Most importantly, other than just a matter of having finished your consumer proposal, make sure you have been rebuilding your personal credit history—with new credit facilities and by cleaning up reporting errors. (More often than not there are reporting errors after you file a consumer proposal)

If you have less than 20% down payment, you will be looking for a high-ratio mortgage, which has default insurance, from one of CMHC, Genworth or Canada Guaranty.

In that case, you will need at least two years of clean, new credit since you completed your consumer proposal. But it’s best if you have at least two tradelines (credit card, loan, line of credit, etc.) with limits greater than $2,000.

The worst case scenario, three years after you completed your proposal, or six years after you filed your proposal (whichever comes first) it will fall off your credit report and whether or not you qualify for a mortgage to purchase a home will depend on the usual mortgage qualification criteria we all face.

When Can You Refinance Your Home After A Consumer Proposal?

We have helped numerous homeowners refinance their homes so they could complete their consumer proposal early. In some cases, it was as soon as the terms of their proposal were ratified in court.

This is what we call a lump-sum consumer proposal, and it can be a very attractive way to settle your debts if you are a homeowner.

Should You Pay Off Your Consumer Proposal When You Refinance?

Actually, there are a few private lenders who will allow you to leave your proposal unpaid while you extract equity from your home. But unless there are specific, logical reasons to doing this, it’s not something I recommend.

I prefer refinancing to completely pay off the remaining balance owing on the consumer proposal. There may also be other things you need money for at the same time—like a home improvement project or a child’s higher education, or other family debts. CRA debts crops up quite a lot too, particularly for those who are self-employed. You can take care of all these at the same time, provided you pay off the consumer proposal.

Why Would You Pay off Your Consumer Proposal Early?

1) Fear of the mortgage renewal. This concern is very real if your mortgage lender had a credit card or loan product included in your consumer proposal. They might have no interest in offering you a renewal when your current mortgage matures. So, you need to get in front of this issue as soon as you can, if your situation allows for it.

2) A strong desire to rebuild your personal credit history. Once you file your CP, your credit score is going to take a major beating. All debts included in the proposal will be reporting as R7s on your personal credit report.

Worse than that, some of them will be erroneously reporting as R9s—written off completely.

And some credit cards may say they were included in a bankruptcy, even though that is not true.

A few credit cards even report ongoing late payments after the proposal was filed. And sometimes even after the proposal is completed!

If you want to fix the damage to your personal credit report resulting from your consumer proposal, you are going to have to wait until it is paid in full and you have a completion certificate from your trustee.

3) Wish to be normal. When you have bad credit, everything in life seems tougher and more expensive. Even if you wish to rent a home, not buy one, the landlord will usually ask for a copy of your credit report.

And if you want a new smartphone, or lease or finance a new car, bad credit will make all this that much harder.

If you allow your consumer proposal to run the full five years, that means it could be in your credit history six years altogether. It falls off three years after you complete, so keep that in mind. You can significantly shorten the waiting time by paying the consumer proposal off early.

4) Improve cash flow. In nearly all cases when we refinance a home where the owner is paying off a consumer proposal, they see an improvement in their monthly cash outflows. In a society where half of us are living paycheque to paycheque, this is attractive.

How Do You Refinance To Pay Off A Consumer Proposal?

First, your mortgage broker will do a thorough assessment of whether or not this is even doable. This will consist of an assessment of the marketability of your property, the amount of untapped equity, the reasons behind you filing your consumer proposal, as well as all the normal stuff lenders look at when reviewing a mortgage application.

An important consideration is your current first mortgage. Was it just renewed, or is it nearing maturity? Which lender is it with, and what might the prepayment penalty be if you were to break it and refinance to a new first mortgage with another lender?

Another consideration is whether or not your first mortgage is registered as a collateral charge, and if so, to what amount is it registered— it can make things difficult.

If refinancing the current mortgage makes sense, your broker will present your application and a presentation to lenders to assist. Once you choose to proceed after reviewing the commitment from the lender, most of the time the entire process can be wrapped up in four to six weeks.

We actually see that happen less often than the other approach, which is to first apply for a private second mortgage.

In this scenario, the first mortgage is left intact and a new lender is found who will lend enough money to cover the proposal balance, any other debts and needs, and all the expenses associated with the mortgage.

During the term of the second mortgage (usually one year), we take the opportunity to cleanse all the reporting errors from the credit report, and also to strengthen the borrower’s credit profile with new healthy credit.

After a year, (longer if that makes sense) we then refinance the two mortgages into a single first mortgage.

It would be normal to expect the lender and Bank of Canada posted rates and lender fee in this circumstance.

In Summary

Ultimately, the goal is to take the homeowners back to the world of A-lenders. That is usually possible after three years, but we have seen instances where it happened much sooner.

This happens when the clients first make the decision to pay off the consumer proposal ahead of schedule.

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning woman of influence mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on The Mortgage Show on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book The Mortgage Code available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from a sales will help build a new emergency room at Eagle Ridge Hospital. Angela can be reached at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

Angela Calla on Global Morning News Today!!

I was invited to Global Morning News today to talk about the Top Myths from Homebuyers.

My hope is that this interview provides clarity on how homeownership is still attainable and empowers our youth with the knowledge on what is needed to be saved to own a home and really understand what is applicable to them, right from the source.

Lets make the conversation about “how” can I get in the market instead of “real estate is too expensive” as we sit around our classrooms, family tables, and office lunchrooms.

Please share this with someone you feel could benefit from this message.  If we can help you or someone you care about, please reach out to us directly at callateam@dominionlending.ca

Here is the link to the 5 minute interview:

https://globalnews.ca/video/6229046/top-myths-from-millennial-buyers

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning woman of influence and mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on “The Mortgage Show” on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book “The Mortgage Code” available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from her book sales are donated to local charities helping families in the tri-city community.  For media interviews, speaking inquiries or personal mortgage assistance, please contact Angela at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.

Top 5 Myths from Millennial Buyers

1. I need to save a 20% down payment for a house. – No you don’t! You can buy for your first time or your third time with a 5% down payment (pending purchase price, of course). There are even government matching programs, gifts you can get or deposits you can partially borrow. Don’t get discouraged. Learn how you can work with your rent payment and see what that equates to in qualification. It all starts with a plan.
2. I need to be employed for 2 years or work a regular 9-5 job to qualify to buy a home. No, you can be on the job as little as past your probationary period or be newly self-employed. It’s only one of the components in being approved for a mortgage. Your industry, education, credit and net worth all play a role in the qualification equation, and self-employed people have way better options than paying themselves a huge amount that drains there business. Look at what applies  to you.
3. I have to live in the same property for 30 years to make it worth it to buy a home. No Way. Consider this: With renting, 100% of your payment goes to the landlord. When you make that same payment in the mortgage- you are investing in YOURSELF especially with rates as low as they are today. That benefit alone coupled with the lenders that are available with low exit fees, the tax free equity you are building and the potential of eventual home value appreciation are a HUGE wealth-building tool.
4. I have loans that prevent me from qualifying. All loans outside a mortgage have an impact, each lender looks and uses different payments for each. Perhaps proceeds you were going to use for the down payment are better allocated, or after you own for a few years you can roll that payment in to improve your cash flow.
5. How do I trust I’m getting the right information to buy a home? This is so important. As an unbiased mortgage professional, we will guide you through everything and show you exactly what relates to you and put you on a path for success. The most important advice is to make sure you get information directly from the source, as mortgages and policies are changing rapidly.

Angela Calla is a 15 year award-winning woman of influence and mortgage expert. Alongside her team, passionately assisting mortgage holders get the best mortgage, and educating them on “The Mortgage Show” on CKNW for over a decade and through her best-selling book “The Mortgage Code” available on Amazon. To purchase the book click here: The Mortgage Code. Proceeds from her book sales are donated to local charities helping families in the tri-city community.  For media interviews, speaking inquiries or personal mortgage assistance, please contact Angela at callateam@dominionlending.ca or 604-802-3983.