Tips to financing your home

Taking out a mortgage can be stressful: there are many different options available and there’s no way to know whether you’re getting a good deal. Here are some tips to help you along.

• A mortgage broker can probably be very useful to you. Brokers aren’t associated with any banks or lenders – it’s their job to shop around and negotiate for you, and tell you what you’ve been offered.
• There are two big choices that you’ll need to make when it comes to your mortgage:
• A fixed rate mortgage is taken out with an interest rate that remains unchanged for the term of your loan, whereas a variable rate or floating rate will change according to market conditions.
• If your mortgage is open, then you’ll have the option of prepaying before its term without any penalty, but if it’s closed then you must maintain payments as originally agreed until the term is up.
• The larger your down payment the more you’ll save. Putting just $10 000 more on a down payment for a loan with a fixed 5% interest rate over a 25 year term could amount to savings of over $7 000!