Although Saskatoon, Prince Albert, Yorkton, Moose Jaw and Lloydminister will also be doing this fundraiser, Dennis Coutts, CEO, Habitat for Humanity Regina, felt that this should not be presented as a competition between Saskatchewan cities, more of a collaboration.   A collaboration with one goal.  To get a local family into a home.

To find out more about Habitat for Humanity Regina’s fundraiser please click below:

http://www.habitatregina.ca/home/news/343-media-release

“Free your pennies from their prisons at home and donate them to charity.” said Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Well, some interesting news from the Federal Government was released yesterday (if you can call a government release either interesting or news).  Although nothing is being done about Canadian lenders ability to arbitrarily charge Interest Rate Differential Penalties (IRD) on fixed rate mortgages, the lenders now have to disclose how those penalties are calculated.  According to the release, any lender that charges an IRD penalty will now have to disclose the outstanding mortgage balance, the mortgage holders current interest rate, the comparison rate used for calculation and the term that was used to compare.

This is a step in the right direction but does not go far enough.  What most mortgage brokers are calling for is a standardization across the board of how all lending institutions in Canada calculate IRD penalties.  Currently, lenders can use whatever figures they want to calculate the IRD and compare numbers that are more in their favour to create SkyHigh Penalties, they just have to explain it better.

IRD Simple Explanation

Lets say you agree to a 5 yr fixed term at 5% but decide to sell your house 2 years later to take a job in Nova Scotia, over the last 2 years, rates have gone down a little.  You will be responsible for an IRD penalty because the lender cannot relend that money for the same amount, so they charge a penalty.  Makes sense. So lets say that after 2 years the 5 yr fixed rate was 4.5% and the 3 yr rate was 3.5% – well, the lender could choose to calculate your IRD penalty based on the 3 yr fixed term which would be 3x the penalty than comparing it to the 5 yr term.  Basically the current structure for IRD penalties allows the lenders to choose whatever situation suits them the best and charge you the highest possible penalty.  As a mortgage professional I believe this is wrong and needs to change, I am actively lobbying to see this happen.

If you have any questions about this or anything else mortgage related, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime!

Fast forward to 2012, my brother Mike Middleton works for Nimbus Water selling water softeners.  Mike, being the good brother that he is, stops by my house one night with a bag of salt for my water softener, he tells me that it will make a huge difference in my life.  After spending some time in the utility room he comes upstairs and gently breaks it to me that the previous owner left the water softener unplugged and stuck in rinse mode.  Basically it is acting like a garden hose turned on full blast aimed at the drain and it has been running constantly for almost 4 years.  After looking at my bills, comparing them with average consumption, we realized that without knowing it, we had literally flushed almost $4500 down the drain.

 Are you treating your mortgage the same way I treated my softener?

Is there a chance that when you bought your house, you set up your mortgage payments on direct-withdrawal and haven’t checked the rate since?  How much extra money are you paying to the bank every month?  With mortgage rates at all time lows, you might currently have a rate that is up to 3% higher than what it should be.

Lets do the math…

On a standard $300k mortgage amount, if one year ago today you fixed in at 4.59% for 5 years, compared to the current 5 year rate of 3.29% – you would now be paying an additional $210.71/month – when you work that out for the remainder of the term, you will pay an extra $10080 over the next 4 years – considerably more than my $4500 water bill.

Here is what you can do.  Please find a current copy of your mortgage statement and give me a call.  Lets get together and go through your mortgage documents, compare the numbers and see if we can save you some money.  Now, you might have a small penalty to pay if you break your existing mortgage, but it is definitely worth a conversation to see if there is money to be saved, even after the penalty.

If you have never used a broker before, it is good to note that we are independent mortgage professionals and Highland Mortgage Partners is not owned in whole or in part by any of the lending institutions we represent.  This means that we provide unbiased advice to you at no charge.  If we are successful in placing a mortgage with one of our lending partners, they pay us a standardized finders fee.

Again, you only know what you know and you really don’t know what you don’t know.  Had I simply looked at my water softener when I suspected something was wrong, I could have saved a lot of money.  Even if you take a look at your current mortgage and there is nothing to be saved now… at least you will know!

Hope to hear from you, I am always up for a coffee.

Jackson Middleton, AMP – The Kilted Broker – Cell 306-596-5656 or jacksonmiddleton@gmail.com

The event sounds like it will be a great time, Keith Andrade and I met the Realtors involved with marketing the condos and were impressed by their presentation.  Apparently there will be a Master Ice Sculptor unveiling a 6 foot replica of the Capital Pointe building and there will be plenty of food and bevy’s on hand.

If you are interested in knowing more about this project, you can check out the website www.capitalpointe.ca.  If you have any questions about the financing, I would love to discuss this with you, please feel free to contact me anytime.

Jackson Middleton, AMP ~ the Kilted Broker