Are You Ready To Buy A Home?

Tim Lacroix • July 10, 2024

Buying your first home is a big deal. And while you may feel like you’re ready to take that step, here are 4 things that will prove it out.


1. You have at least 5% available for a downpayment.


To buy your first home, you need to come up with at least 5% for a downpayment. From there, you’ll be expected to have roughly 1.5% of the purchase price set aside for closing costs.


If you’ve saved your downpayment by accumulating your own funds, it means you have a positive cash flow which is a good thing. However, if you don’t quite have enough saved up on your own, but you have a family member who is willing to give you a gift to assist you, that works too. 


2. You have established credit.


Building a credit score takes some time. Before any lender considers you for mortgage financing, they want to see that you have an established history of repaying the money you’ve already borrowed. Typically two trade lines, for a period of two years, with a minimum amount of $2000, should work!

 

Now, if you’ve had some credit issues in the past, it doesn’t mean you aren’t ready to be a homeowner. However, it might mean a little more planning is required! A co-signor can be considered here as well.

 

3. You have the income to make your mortgage payments. And then some.


If you’re going to borrow money to buy a house, the lender wants to make sure that you have the ability to pay it back. Plus interest. The ideal situation is to have a permanent full-time position where you’re past probation. Now, if you rely on any inconsistent forms of income, having a two-year history is required.


A good rule of thumb is to keep the costs of homeownership to under a third of your gross income, leaving you with two-thirds of your income to pay for your life.


4. You’ve discussed mortgage financing with a professional.


Buying your first home can be quite a process. With all the information available online, it’s hard to know where to start. While you might feel ready, there are lots of steps to take; way more than can be outlined in a simple article like this one.


So if you think you’re ready to buy your first home, the best place to start is with a preapproval! Let's discuss your financial situation, talk through your downpayment options, look at your credit score, assess your income and liabilities, and ultimately see what kind of mortgage you can qualify for to become a homeowner!


Please connect anytime; it would be a pleasure to work with you!


Tim Lacroix

Mortgage Broker

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Benefits of Working with an Independent Mortgage Professional

By Tim Lacroix • November 5, 2025
If you need a mortgage, working with an independent mortgage professional will save you money and provide you with better options than dealing with a single financial institution. And if that is the only sentence you read in this entire article, you already know all you need to know. However, if you’d like to dig a little deeper, here are some reasons that outline why working with an independent mortgage professional is in your best interest. The best mortgage is the one that costs you the least over the long term. An independent mortgage professional can help you achieve this. Mortgages aren’t created equally. Oftentimes slick marketing leads us to believe the lowest “sticker price” is the best value. So when it comes to mortgage financing, you might assume the mortgage with the lowest rate is the best option. This isn’t always the case. When considering a mortgage, your goal should be to find the mortgage that will cost you the least amount of money over the total length of the mortgage. There are many factors to consider, such as your specific financial situation, the rate, initial term length, fixed or variable rate structure, amortization, and the penalties incurred should you need to break your mortgage early; the fine print matters. An independent mortgage professional can walk through all these factors with you and will help you find the mortgage that best suits your needs. Sometimes taking a mortgage with a slightly higher rate can make sense if it gives you flexibility down the line or helps you avoid huge payout penalties. Working the numbers with an independent mortgage professional will save you money in the long run instead of just going with what a single lender is offering. Save time by letting an independent mortgage professional find the best mortgage product for you. Let's face it, getting a mortgage can be challenging enough on its own. Everyone’s financial situation is a little different and making sense of lender guidelines is a full-time job in itself. So instead of dealing with multiple lending institutions on your own, when you work with an independent mortgage professional, you submit a single mortgage application that is compared to the lending guidelines of various mortgage lenders. This will save you time as you don’t have to go from bank to bank to ensure you’re getting the best mortgage. Simply put, an independent mortgage professional works for you and has your best interest in mind, while a bank specialist works for the bank and has the bank's best interest in mind. It’s no secret that Canadian banks make a lot of money. It seems every quarter they turn billions of dollars in profit (despite the economic environment). They do this at the expense of their customers by charging as much interest as they can and structuring mortgages to their benefit. It’s all about the alignment of interest. Bank employees work for the bank; the bank pays them to make money for the bank. In contrast, independent mortgage professionals are provincially licensed to work for their clients and are paid a standardized placement or finder’s fee for matching borrowers with lenders. When you work with a single bank, you only have access to the products of that bank. When you work with an independent mortgage professional, you have access to all of the lenders that mortgage professionals have relationships with and all their products. Working with an independent mortgage professional will save you money, time, and provide you with better mortgage options. Plus, you have the added benefit of working with a licensed professional looking out for your best interest, providing you with the best possible advice. If you’d like to know more or to discuss mortgage financing, please connect anytime; it would be a pleasure to work with you.

Bank of Canada Rate Announcement Oct 29th, 2025

By Tim Lacroix • October 29, 2025
Bank of Canada lowers policy rate to 2¼%. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Relations Ottawa, Ontario October 29, 2025 The Bank of Canada today reduced its target for the overnight rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%, with the Bank Rate at 2.5% and the deposit rate at 2.20%. With the effects of US trade actions on economic growth and inflation somewhat clearer, the Bank has returned to its usual practice of providing a projection for the global and Canadian economies in this Monetary Policy Report (MPR). Because US trade policy remains unpredictable and uncertainty is still higher than normal, this projection is subject to a wider-than-usual range of risks. While the global economy has been resilient to the historic rise in US tariffs, the impact is becoming more evident. Trade relationships are being reconfigured and ongoing trade tensions are dampening investment in many countries. In the MPR projection, the global economy slows from about 3¼% in 2025 to about 3% in 2026 and 2027. In the United States, economic activity has been strong, supported by the boom in AI investment. At the same time, employment growth has slowed and tariffs have started to push up consumer prices. Growth in the euro area is decelerating due to weaker exports and slowing domestic demand. In China, lower exports to the United States have been offset by higher exports to other countries, but business investment has weakened. Global financial conditions have eased further since July and oil prices have been fairly stable. The Canadian dollar has depreciated slightly against the US dollar. Canada’s economy contracted by 1.6% in the second quarter, reflecting a drop in exports and weak business investment amid heightened uncertainty. Meanwhile, household spending grew at a healthy pace. US trade actions and related uncertainty are having severe effects on targeted sectors including autos, steel, aluminum, and lumber. As a result, GDP growth is expected to be weak in the second half of the year. Growth will get some support from rising consumer and government spending and residential investment, and then pick up gradually as exports and business investment begin to recover. Canada’s labour market remains soft. Employment gains in September followed two months of sizeable losses. Job losses continue to build in trade-sensitive sectors and hiring has been weak across the economy. The unemployment rate remained at 7.1% in September and wage growth has slowed. Slower population growth means fewer new jobs are needed to keep the employment rate steady. The Bank projects GDP will grow by 1.2% in 2025, 1.1% in 2026 and 1.6% in 2027. On a quarterly basis, growth strengthens in 2026 after a weak second half of this year. Excess capacity in the economy is expected to persist and be taken up gradually. CPI inflation was 2.4% in September, slightly higher than the Bank had anticipated. Inflation excluding taxes was 2.9%. The Bank’s preferred measures of core inflation have been sticky around 3%. Expanding the range of indicators to include alternative measures of core inflation and the distribution of price changes among CPI components suggests underlying inflation remains around 2½%. The Bank expects inflationary pressures to ease in the months ahead and CPI inflation to remain near 2% over the projection horizon. With ongoing weakness in the economy and inflation expected to remain close to the 2% target, Governing Council decided to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points. If inflation and economic activity evolve broadly in line with the October projection, Governing Council sees the current policy rate at about the right level to keep inflation close to 2% while helping the economy through this period of structural adjustment. If the outlook changes, we are prepared to respond. Governing Council will be assessing incoming data carefully relative to the Bank’s forecast. The Canadian economy faces a difficult transition. The structural damage caused by the trade conflict reduces the capacity of the economy and adds costs. This limits the role that monetary policy can play to boost demand while maintaining low inflation. The Bank is focused on ensuring that Canadians continue to have confidence in price stability through this period of global upheaval. Information note The next scheduled date for announcing the overnight rate target is December 10, 2025. The Bank’s next MPR will be released on January 28, 2026. Read the October 29th, 2025 Monetary Report