Preparing your home for winter is something every homeowner should consider before the season really takes hold. Here are six quick and easy jobs you can do to help winterize your home. 1. Clear your eaves Clogged eavestroughs can lead to the formation of ice dams, which can tear off gutters, loosen shingles and leave your roof vulnerable to leaks. Use a ladder to carefully climb to the edge of your roof and dig out the debris. It’s not necessary to remove every small item.... [read more]

There is no doubt the pre-construction home has a certain allure to home buyers. Everything is brand new. No one else has ever lived there. You can customize it to create your dream home. But you have to ask yourself if all of these things are maybe a little too good to be true when buying a home. If pre-construction is something you’ve been considering, here’s the 411 to help you decide if it really is for you. What is a Pre-construction Home? A pre-construction home is a... [read more]

The Millennial’s Guide to First-Time Home Buying (It’s Possible!!) What to know about embarking on home ownership, from navigating mortgage rules to finding a real estate representative   Home ownership. Two words that many millennials have been told are out of their reach. Mortgage rules designed to protect Canadians from becoming house poor make the process seem both expensive (it is) and overwhelming (it doesn’t have to be). But there is hope: 39% of... [read more]

Minimum down payment A down payment is the amount of money that you put towards the purchase of a home. The down payment is deducted from the purchase price of your home. Your mortgage loan will cover the rest of the price of the home. The minimum amount you'll need for your down payment depends on the purchase price of the home you'd like to buy. Table 1: The minimum amount you'll need for your down payment based on the purchase price of your... [read more]

Canada’s mortgage market has been turned upside down, and it’s giving borrowers an uncommon advantage, a new report suggests. “With long-term rates lower than short-term rates, home buyers have had a rare opportunity to lock in longer maturity fixed-rate mortgages at lower rates than if they had opted for variable rate mortgages,” writes Scotiabank Deputy Chief Economist Brett House, alongside senior research analyst Raffi Ghazarian, in a Global Economics Scotia Flash... [read more]