I sat there with tears in my eyes and a lump in my stomach and felt like a complete and utter failure.

My husband and I were parents to a beautiful one year old and we had decided for me to stay home since daycare was going to cost more than 3/4 of my income.  We were young and we were in debt. 

The value of our house had risen significantly and we wanted to use some equity to pay off our debt and sleep better at night.  Everything was fine, we were approved without problem, then the bomb was dropped on us …. 

…….we found out that we would have to pay almost $8000 in penalties to break our mortgage! $8000!!!  We didn’t have that kind of money! We were doing our best but had not realized how expensive a baby on one income was (oh, how naive we were). How did this happen? We’re smart people who read all of the paperwork before we signed it (so we thought). 

If we’d had a variable rate mortgage, our penalty and administrative fees would have been less than $1000. We chose a five year fixed rate because “that’s the smart thing to do”, “interest rates are always changing”, and “you don’t know what the rates are going to look like next year”.  

I’ve since found out that interest rates are not as scary as the news portrays them.  The Bank of Canada meets 7 - scheduled in advance -times each year to look at the prime rate.  The prime rate has increased by more than 0.25% only ONE time in the last ten years. We’re Canadian! We don’t like shocks! Slow and steady could be our motto! Thankfully the Bank of Canada likes to be boring, dependable, and stay the course. 

#BoringIsSexyInCanada

I never want anyone to feel like I felt that day.  Understanding your options is a top priority for me.  I translate “industry speak” into regular English so that my clients understand ALL of their options and the possible outcomes of their choices. I’ll ask you lots of questions to fully understand your needs and meet those needs with a loan from one of the many lenders I deal with.

Straight answers, no surprises, an expert on your side.