WINMAR Regina's experienced and certified staff provide full-service restoration for all types of loss.Canadians are no strangers to disasters. Both natural and accidental. Fire. Flood. Wind. When your life has been turned upside-down by a catastrophe, you can count on WINMAR®. We are the Property Restoration Specialists. WINMAR IS A TRUSTED REGINA DISASTER SERVICES & REGINA GENERAL CONTRACTOR

Here they share a great Testimonial from Vince Garland

"Around January my elderly mother fell at home,at this time I didn’t realize how bad her house had become with black mould ,I called Chris at the time he came out and saw how bad the situation was Winmar came in gutted the outside walls insulated with foam re dry walled house also at this time the shower downstairs spring a leak and again Winmar took care of all the problems we did major renovations in the house new flooring drywall kitchen cupboards led lighting and I can tell you they worked with the budget we had I can’t thank Chris Steve and mike for all the work they did 
My mom couldn’t be happier thanks so much Winmar Regina they are the only company I would ever call on an emergency first rate guys." Vince Garland

WINMAR® Regina's experienced and certified staff provide full-disaster service restoration for all types of loss:

• Flood/water damage, 
• Fire damage repair & restoration
• Asbestos Abatement
• Wind, Hail and Disaster
• General Disaster Services 
• Mould Removal

With their 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year service they always come through for you. See more services by clicking on the show more info button below. They also offer full general contracting services to Regina and surrounding area.

General Contractor Services include:

• Renovations
• New Constructions

WINMAR® knows what it takes to satisfy its customers.

'WINMAR® Coming Through For You!'

WINMAR IS A TRUSTED REGINA DISASTER SERVICES & REGINA GENERAL CONTRACTOR

Get free expert mortgage advice from a multi-award-winning Regina mortgage broker. Skott Enns is a Trusted Regina Mortgage Broker and he is fully committed to helping clients find the best option that suits their financial goals. His mission isn’t to simply help you get a mortgage with the best mortgage rates, he wants to help you figure out a plan to pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible! In his latest Regina mortgage tip, he shares some great advice on mortgage renewal! 

Mortgage Renewal Time?

If you have a mortgage, at some point it will come up for renewal (unless of course, you are really close to paying it off, and in that case – congratulations!!!). When this happens, it is important for you to know your options, so that you are not leaving money on the table or putting yourself in a situation that could cost you money down the road.

There are two primary reasons that you may want to leave your existing lender: rate being the primary one, and sometimes you may simply be unhappy with the service (or lack of) that your existing lender is providing to you.

Approximately 65% of clients will simply sign the first mortgage renewal form offered to them by their existing lender when. No questions asked. That is a mistake, and often a costly one. Don’t get me wrong, the easiest thing for you to do is to sign that form. No requalification, no additional questions, things just keep humming right along… but here is the thing: the banks are also aware of the fact that two-thirds of clients will ‘just sign’, and guess what… the higher the interest rate they can get you to pay, the more money they make.

How often do you think they will have your best interests at heart when renewing your mortgage?

Negotiating a Better Offer Upon Your Mortgage Renewal

The reality is that at the end of that term, you are indeed a free agent! Get out there and play the field. Here is how I would recommend doing that.

Ask Your Existing Lender To Come To The Table With Their Best Rate

Again, there is no doubt that the easiest thing to do IS to stick with your existing lender, and if they are offering a competitive rate, then my advice will always be to stay there. However until you know what they are willing to do for you, it is difficult to determine what the best course of action is.

Call A Mortgage Broker

As a Mortgage Broker, we work with an array of lenders: big banks, credit unions, mortgage finance companies, private lenders etc. Once you have a rate from your existing lender, your Mortgage Broker will be able to run through the mortgage products that the various lenders are offering, and figure out whether or not you would save money by switching lenders. Once we are within 120 days of your mortgage coming up for renewal, if there is a better rate out there for you, we can lock it in. One other reason to avoid signing blindly is that life happens, and situations change… if you just got out of a 5-year fixed term, but have a growing family and recognize that you will likely be upgrading your home in less than two years, perhaps it makes more sense for you to consider a shorter fixed-term or a variable term (where the penalty for breaking that term is only a 3-month interest penalty). A Mortgage Broker will help you to work through all of these scenarios.

A Quick Requalification

In the event that you can save money by switching lenders, it is important to realize that you will need to requalify. However, in most cases, assuming your financial situation is similar or better than what it was when you first obtained the last mortgage, this shouldn’t be a big deal. Typically, you will require the following documentation:

• A letter of employment confirming position, salary, and full-time/part-time status
• A recent paystub
• A copy of a recent mortgage/renewal statement from your existing lender
• A copy of your house insurance policy
• A copy of your property tax bill ensuring payments are up to date
• A void cheque or PAD form for the bank account where you would like your new mortgage to come out of

Other Points to Consider When Renewing Your Mortgage

Please recognize that every mortgage is different, and if you are self-employed, a part-time employee, own rental properties or something a little outside the norm, additional documentation may be requested, but the above list will cover the majority of the paperwork. Clearly, it may take a little bit of time to gather these documents. It is up to you whether or not you believe it is worth it.

If I can save you $5,300 (a recent real-life example) over the next 5 years through lower payments and interest savings, is it worth spending 2-3 hours collecting a little information? In my eyes, you are making $1,766 per hour if it takes you three hours…. Now there are a LOT of things that I would do if I was paid $1,766/hr to do them, even if they are not my favourite! I would teach myself to snowboard. I would eat plates of raw oysters. I would shop at Walmart. And I would definitely collect void cheques and paystubs if it meant I could save that kind of cash.

When switching lenders, there may or may not be fees involved. Discharge fees, appraisal fees, ‘legal’ fees can all be part of the switching process, HOWEVER, in many cases, these fees can be covered by the new lender. Again, best to discuss these options with your Mortgage Broker, and see what they can do to save you money.

One final point about moving lenders… 

Since October 2016 there has been a substantial rule change that has come into effect which does make it more difficult to qualify for purchasing a home today. That is the truth and there is no getting around it. However, if you are simply renewing your mortgage with a different lender, although you DO have to re-qualify, you have grandfathered in under the pre-October 2016 guidelines… which is great news, and ensures that you have a much better chance of being able to move lenders if it makes sense to do so.

If you are looking for honest, unbiased advice from a mortgage broker in Regina Skott Enns would love to talk with you!   

Skott Enns is a Trusted Regina Mortgage 

Skott Enns's goal isn’t to simply help you get a mortgage with the best mortgage rates, it is to help you figure out a plan to pay off your mortgage as quickly as possible!  Has been voted Regina’s best mortgage broker by Prairie Dog Magazine for many years in a row and he has been named to the Summit 20 group, which means that he is in the Top 20% of all TMG Mortgage Brokers in Canada for the last two years.

If you are looking for honest, unbiased advice from a mortgage broker in Regina they would love to talk with you!

TMG The Mortgage Group Skott Enns is a Trusted Regina Mortgage Broker

Understanding Credit

How you manage your credit plays a big part in how a lender looks at your mortgage application. By understanding the makeup of a credit score and working towards establishing a solid credit profile, you can increase your chances of getting approved for a mortgage. This article is part three in a short series that aims to help you understand mortgage qualifications. 

There are four key areas that come under scrutiny when a lender looks at a mortgage application; income, credit, downpayment, and the property. You can find the previous articles in the series here:

Part 1. Understanding the Mind of a Lender
Part 2. Understanding Income

The following is an in-depth look at how your credit is viewed by a lender when assessing your mortgage application. 

Credit Agencies

In Canada, there are two credit reporting agencies, Equifax and Transunion. Typically Transunion is used by consumers as a monitoring service to protect against identity theft, while Equifax is relied on about 90% of the time by lenders looking to determine if you are creditworthy. Every time you borrow money, a history of that loan is sent by the lending institution to both Equifax and Transunion, this makes up what is called your credit report. The information on your credit report is then boiled down into a single three-digit number called your credit score (sometimes called a beacon score).

It’s not uncommon for your credit score to be different between Equifax and Transunion as not all lenders report all information to both agencies at the same time. Although your Equifax credit report will be used for mortgage qualification, lenders may also want to have a look at your Transunion report as well, especially if your Equifax report has some issues with collections or late payments.  

Understanding Credit – Credit Score

Your credit score is a three-digit number between 300 and 900. The higher the score the better. Depending on where you look online, you will find several variations of the ranges that indicate creditworthiness. Although somewhat general, the following is pretty accurate when talking about mortgage financing:

• If you find yourself between 300-600, you have bad credit and won’t have access to the best products and rates available. 
• If your credit score is between 600-680, there is a good chance you have had some issues in the past, you can qualify for mortgage insurance, but it’s gonna be touch and go.
• If your credit score is between 680-720, you have good credit, not incredible, but a check in the right box for sure. 
• If your credit score is over 720, you have excellent credit and lenders will view you as a “good risk”. 

Now, a credit score is both a snapshot in time and a moving target. Your credit score will change as new information is reported to the credit agencies as these new variables impact your score. When applying for a mortgage, we will “pull a credit report” which gives us a picture of where your credit score is at currently. This snapshot is what the lender uses to assess your credit when determining if they want to lend you money or not.

It’s good to note that although your credit score is a single indicator of credit, it certainly does not make up the entire picture. Lenders will also look at the particulars of your credit report and they will most certainly ask for more information if something seems out of place.

Understanding Credit – Calculating a Credit Score

Both Equifax and Transunion consider the following factors when building your credit score: payment history, amount of money owed, length of credit history, new credit, types of credit. Although there is an exact science to their algorithms, that information is not public knowledge. They have however given us the following categories with corresponding percentages of how much weight is being put on each. 

Payment History – 35%

When building your credit score, the most weight is given to how you have dealt with paying your previous debts. And this makes the most sense. If a lender is going to give you money to purchase a property, they might want to see how you repaid your car loan, or your student loans, or your $1,000 Mastercard. If you can’t pay your Rogers cell phone bill on time, what assurance are you giving them that you will pay your mortgage on time? 

Your payment history looks at all your consumer debts or trade lines. A trade line represents a single debt owed to an institution. Tradelines come in many forms, credit card, line of credit, car loan, student loan, and so on. Any time you borrow money, the history of that tradeline shows up on your credit report with the payment history from the last 6-7 years being visible. Obviously, your most recent payment history will have the most impact on your credit score, positive or negative. 

Payment history is all about how you have managed your trade lines. Have you made all your payments perfectly, or have you been 30 days late, 60 days late, 90 days late, or has the trade line been sent to collection or closed for non-payment? These factors contribute to your score but are also visible on your credit report for lenders to review when assessing your mortgage application. 

Amount Owed – 30%

How much you owe on a tradeline compared to the limit of that tradeline impacts your credit score greatly. For example, if you have a limit of $5,000 on your Visa, and you simply use that card to buy gas and groceries every month and pay it off without ever carrying a balance, that is excellent management and this action will increase your credit score. However, if you have a $10,000 Mastercard that you have maxed out and you are making minimum payments, your amount owed compared to the limit is really high, this sends up red flags and will negatively impact your credit score. Not to mention as a lender looks at your credit report, it is a strong indication that you might not be able to handle any more debt. 

Typically you want to use less than 75% of the credit available to you. Going over 75% will negatively impact your score. By staying under 25% of your available credit limit, you demonstrate strong credit management. And that is exactly what lenders want to see, strong credit management. 

Length of Credit History – 15%

How long you have had credit plays a role in determining your credit score. It also plays a role in how a lender looks at your credit. Unlike smaller loans, when applying for a mortgage, lenders want to see that you have had credit for a minimum of 2 years. Regardless of your credit score, if you haven’t had at least 2 trade lines reporting for 2 years, you are going to have a hard time getting a mortgage. 

The length of your credit history shows how responsible you have been long term with your credit. Time is needed to get the real picture of how responsible you are. Each trade line that is reporting on your credit report will show the date it was opened and a monthly history of your management. Although your history of management is only kept 6-7 years, the age of your trade line will always be visible.

It’s a great idea to always keep your oldest trade lines open and active. Even if you don’t need the credit available, keep the card open, and use it once every 3 months so that it stays live on your credit report. Your credit score will thank you! 

New Credit Inquiries – 10%

Frequently applying for new credit can be a sign that you are experiencing some financial difficulty, especially if the amount owed compared to the limit is over 75%. Applying for new credit can temporarily impact your credit score negatively, however if a new trade line is established, once it gets some positive payment history, your credit score will increase. 

As far as the mortgage process is concerned, instead of going to several lending institutions on your own, and having each one of them pull your credit, as a mortgage broker, I pull your credit report once and then use that same report with multiple lenders. This is a win for you. 

Pulling your credit report multiple times can impact your score negatively, but credit inquiries do only make up 10% of your score, so it’s not really anything to be worried about. Multiple credit inquiries won’t make good credit bad, but it can make bad credit worse. 

Types of Credit – 10%

This is the most insignificant factor in determining your credit, however the type of credit you have does impact your score. Trade lines like fixed installment loans show a scheduled repayment and are considered favourable. While deferred payment loans or payday cash loans from Money Mart can be a sign of money struggles.

Understanding Credit – Established Credit Profile

So when you take your credit score and you combine it with your credit report, as the lender sees it, this is called your credit profile. It’s not just about having a score above 720 (although that is really good), lenders will want to see that you have at least 2 active trade lines, reporting for a minimum of 2 years, with a minimum limit of $2,500. This is the bare minimum to make sure that your credit score has been established over enough time. 

So as you can see, the lender has a lot to think about when it comes to looking at your credit profile and deciding if they want to lend money to you for a mortgage. Next in the series, we will take a look at how your downpayment plays a part in the lender’s decision as well.

If you aren’t sure what your credit score looks like, or if you have established enough credit to be considered for a mortgage, please contact me anytime. I would love to talk through the specifics of your credit report with you and put a plan in place to get you to where you want to go. 

If you would like to know more about the mortgage and housing market, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime! 

Finding the shortest and safest route to any of your dreams requires planning and only with a carefully thought out financial plan can you be sure to make the most of your resources and to protect against risks along the way.  At Worby Wealth Management, Chris will do his best to help you achieve those dreams with a plan that is tailored to your specific needs and based on your individual situation.

Expert Financial Advice Regarding Household Finances.

The truth is that financial management is boring. I mean, it sounds interesting when you watch movies and they’re yelling, “Buy, Buy! Sell, sell!” But this behaviour does not make you rich – in fact, it can have the opposite effect.

Smart people understand one thing – tactics do not win the battle, logistics do. And one of my best pieces of advice is the 25% rule.

It essentially breaks down like this: If you want to attain financial security contribute 25% of your net monthly income towards your net worth. It is very important that financial security has very little to do with being ‘rich’ but everything to do with having the resources available to have options throughout your life.

Net worth is composed of two things: Assets and Liabilities. I think of liabilities as the hole requiring filling and think of the assets, as the mountain you build with your resources.

A few notes about each. Paying down credit cards does not fit into the asset/liability described above. Credit cards are consumption. If you have already made errors and are carrying balances, then you need a plan to pay them down and it can be worked into a liability repayment plan. However, further credit card debt becomes consumption rather than a liability.

Big expenses – trips, renovations, etc. should be paid for with funds that have been saved in advance; they should not be financed. The reasons are many. First, once you start down the ‘financing fun’ road, it can be hard to maintain discipline. Second, a trip paid for and fully funded is less stressful. Third, something you pay for as you go tends to be better planned out and fits your budget – and studies show that planning your spending is almost as fun as the actual spending.

Building assets is then the ‘exciting’ part, right? “Buy, buy, sell, sell” and all that. Actually, it is very hard to get rich quickly and fairly easy to get rich slowly. Using pension plans and RRSP, TFSAs and RESPs to accomplish your family’s plans can be done well over time but the ‘get rich quick' schemes rarely work out.

Find a strategy you are comfortable with and run it as a discipline. If you are going to buy and hold, never deviate. If you are going to move with certain market cycles like a momentum system, or act as a value manager, do this and never change it. Make sure you do your homework upfront to get a working system and then never change. Mistakes in investing come from emotion.

But none of that happens without a strategy – and the spending strategy that works best is using 25% of your net, monthly income to build your net worth. Not only do you have funds available to build assets and pay down liabilities but you also create a buffer in case something bad happens. You aren’t living at capacity with your finances, you have options.

And that is financial security.

Some of the services that Worby Wealth Management can help you with: 

• Insurance Advice
• Investments
• Wealth Management Services
• Pay Less Tax With Tax Planning 
• Become Mortgage-Free Faster With Financial Education 
• Estate Planning 
• Retirement Planning 

TRUSTED REGINA FINANCIAL ADVISOR Chris Worby from Worby Wealth Management helps you live your dream!

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