Mortgage calculators are automated tools that enable users to determine the financial implications of changes in one or more variables in a mortgage financing arrangement. This calculator determines individual mortgage payment and provides property owners or prospective owners with a mortgage payment schedule. The calculator also shows how much money and how many years you can save by making prepayments.

The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive helps people across Canada purchase their first home. The program offers 5 or 10% of the home’s purchase price to put toward a down payment. This addition to your down payment lowers your mortgage carrying costs, making home-ownership more affordable. The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive makes it easier for you to buy a home and lower your monthly mortgage payments. This program is a shared equity mortgage. This means that the government shares in the upside and downside of the property value. It allows you to borrow 5 or 10% of the purchase price of a home. You pay back the same percentage of the value of your home when you sell it or within a 25-year window.
It works like this:

• You receive a 5% incentive of the home’s purchase price of $200,000, or $10,000. If your home value increases to $300,000 your payback would be 5% of the current value or $15,000.
• You receive a 10% incentive of the home’s purchase price of $200,000, or $20,000 and your home value decreases to $150,000, your repayment value will be 10% of the current value or $15,000

Just as the name implies, this incentive is for first-time home-buyers. You’re considered a first-time home-buyer if:

• you have never purchased a home before
• you did not occupy a home that you or your current spouse or common-law partner owned in the last 4 years (the 4-year period begins on January 1 of the fourth year before the Incentive is funded and ends 31 days before the date the Incentive is funded)
• you have recently experienced the breakdown of a marriage or common-law partnership (even if you don’t meet the other first-time home buyer requirements)

Refinancing is when an individual replaces an existing mortgage with a new one that typically extends more-favorable terms to the borrower. By refinancing your mortgage, you may be able to decrease your monthly mortgage payments, negotiate a lower interest rate, renegotiate the number of years or term of the loan, remove other borrowers from the loan obligation, or access cash through home equity that has built up over time.

Loan refinancing refers to the process of taking out a new loan to pay off one or more outstanding loans. Refinancing your mortgage can be a good or bad idea, depending on your motivation and goals.

The local bank, can only offer you a mortgage (and mortgage rate) from their suite of products, mortgage brokers have access to many different lenders. When you make an appointment with a mortgage broker, it’s like you’re making an appointment with the major banks, credit unions, and trust companies, except you only need to meet with one person. A mortgage broker has access to products from multiple lenders of different shapes and sizes, which means you have access to these products as well.

Brokers are paid by the lender in most cases and thats similar to the bank but banks only offer their own products and not rates and products from other lenders. The broker gives consumers the opportunity to compare multiple rates and options from different lenders. Mortgage brokers have more exposure than the service providers in the bank. A good broker should focus on the lender that provides the best rates and terms, not the one who offers them must money for bringing a transaction their way.

A private lender is a person or organization that lends money to people who are having difficulty getting loans, usually at a higher rate than a bank would charge: Many people are turning to small private lenders when the bank turns them down for a loan.

Banks typically have a lower cost of funds than other lenders. Private lenders on the other hand either have to get funds from investors who are looking for decent returns or from other banks and financial institutions who lend these private lenders funds at higher rates then it costs them to acquire that money.

Pre-qualification vs. Pre-approval: A mortgage pre-qualification is a basic estimate of how much someone can afford to spend on a property, while a pre-approval is when the lender has checked the potential buyer’s credit and verified the documentation to approve a specific loan amount (the approval usually lasts for a particular period, such as 60 to 90 days). 

A serious home-buyer will need to start the process in a lender’s office, not at an open house. Most sellers expect buyers to have a pre-approval before negotiating their home. To get pre-approved you’ll need proof of assets and income, good credit, employment verification, and other types of documentation the lender may require. Usually, it’s all about ensuring you can afford to pay and have little or no debt.

The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive helps qualified first-time home-buyers reduce their monthly mortgage payments without adding to their financial burdens.

The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive is a shared-equity mortgage with the Government of Canada.
It offers:

• 5% or 10% for a first-time buyer’s purchase of a newly constructed home
• 5% for a first-time buyer’s purchase of a resale (existing) home
• 5% for a first-time buyer’s purchase of a new or resale mobile/manufactured home

The Incentive’s shared-equity mortgage is one where the government has a shared investment in the home. As a result, the government shares in both the upside and downside of the property value.