NIKI CUTHBERT

MORTGAGE BROKER
MORTGAGE BROKER
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Niki Cuthbert, Mortgage Broker

Niki Cuthbert is an independent mortgage broker and co-owner of Ask About Mortgages- Mortgage Architects, located in beautiful British Columbia. She will take the time to discuss your specific situation, needs and goals to find the lowest mortgage rates and product best suited to you. When you work with Niki, she will explain the process and give you all your options to allow you to make a more educated decision before jumping right into the first home mortgage loan your bank offers you.
Getting the Best Mortgage Product
What most homebuyers do when applying for a home mortgage loan is they visit their local bank, however the lowest mortgage rates are usually not found at your bank.

When shopping for a home mortgage loan on your own, each time a lender looks at your credit, your beacon (credit) score will slightly drop. One big benefit to using Niki Cuthbert is that she can do all the mortgage rates shopping for you with only a single credit check, therefore, your credit score remains intact.

When you walk into a bank to apply for your mortgage, you are at the banks mercy. The person you are speaking to works directly for that bank. Niki works for you, not the lender, and therefore she is looking out for your best interests. Getting the right advice is crucial, and with years of experience funding mortgages, she can provide you with the right information that could end up saving you thousands of dollars. There are no additional fees for qualified borrowers, as she receives a “finder’s fee” from the mortgage lender. In most cases, she is able to get you better than bank mortgage rates and the process is more enjoyable.

With Niki’s years of experience placing mortgages, she knows how the system works and can negotiate your mortgage for you, getting you the best possible deal. As she deals with over 40 different mortgage lenders, you can sit back, relax and let her do the mortgage rate shopping for you! It is important to Niki that she ensures you have the best home financing experience possible, as she wants to earn your home financing business for life.
Mortgage Services
Home Purchase
If you are looking to purchase a property, understanding all the mortgage options available to you can seem overwhelming. That’s where I come in, I do this everyday, and I love it. I will help you make sense of all the numbers and provide you with options that make sense to you and arrange the mortgage that suits your goals! However step 1 is to get a pre-approval. We should talk!
Mortgage Management
Your home is your most valuable asset. My goal is to help you make the best of it by helping you manage your mortgage. Regardless if your mortgage is up for renewal or you happen to be in the middle of a term, I would love the opportunity to review your mortgage at no cost to you to make sure you aren’t paying too much in interest! Saving you money is what I do.
Renewal
If you are within 6 months of your mortgage renewal, or if your existing lender has sent you a renewal offer in the mail, the first thing you should do is send it to me. I will give you a second opinion and in most cases, I will be able to save you money. Never just sign the offer, there is always room to negotiate, and I am here to help you so that you don’t have to do those negotiations alone!
Refinance
Are you looking to access some of the equity built up in your property? Maybe you want to consolidate some debts, start a new business, buy a vacation or investment property or travel the world… regardless, I can discuss all your mortgage refinancing options with you!
First Time Home Buyers
If you are looking to purchase your first home, then you have come to the right place! I love answering questions so much that I actually use “Ask about mortgages” in my branding. And I mean it… I love helping first time home buyers understand what mortgage financing is all about. Let’s walk through the process together and make sure you feel comfortable with the entire process.
Contact
Before you go out and start shopping for a new house, you need a plan. It doesn’t matter if this is your first time buying a home or your hundredth, financial situations change, rules change, interest rates change. The best place to start is to contact me directly. We will work through your situation together and you will know exactly how much buying power you have! Talk soon!
Testimonials

Some of My Lenders

I have developed excellent relationships with lenders across the country, let's figure out which one has the best product for you. 

Mortgage Resources

By Niki Cuthbert 07 Nov, 2017
Have you ever been approved for a mortgage? More importantly, have you ever been declined? Do you know why you were approved or declined? Or maybe you are brand new to the whole mortgage process… regardless, happy to have you here! This is the introduction post to a short series that explores a lender’s decision making process that ultimately leads to your mortgage being approved or declined. Although sometimes it may seem like it, let me assure you that it is NOT your fundamental right as a Canadian to borrow money. Actually, borrowing money for a mortgage in Canada is becoming increasingly difficult. Over the last 5 years, the government has tightened up lending guidelines 4 times and lenders seem to be looking at every mortgage application with a magnifying glass. Every lender has their own level of risk tolerance when assessing a mortgage application, however, there are four main areas common to every lender for their assessment. I will outline them for you now, and then follow up with an in depth look at each section over the coming weeks. INCOME
By Niki Cuthbert 07 Nov, 2017
If you have no desire at all to qualify for a mortgage, here are some great ways to make sure you don’t accidentally end up buying a house and taking out a mortgage to do so. One of the best ways to ensure you won’t qualify for a mortgage is to be unemployed . Yep, banks hate lending money to unemployed people! Okay, so you have a job. Well, that’s okay, you can always unexpectedly quit your job just as you are trying to arrange financing! Even if you are making a lateral move, or taking a better job than the one you have now, that’s cool… any change in employment status while you are looking to get a mortgage will most likely wreck your chances of getting a mortgage for a while. This is because lenders want to see stability; they want to know that you have been in your current position for some time, that you are past probation, and that everything is working out well. By changing jobs right when you are looking to buy a property, you won’t instil the lender with confidence, and they probably won’t give you a mortgage. Mission accomplished. Don’t wanna buy a house? Well, then it’s best you don’t save any money. Better yet, you should probably borrow as much money on credit as you can . One of the main qualification points on a mortgage is called your debt-service ratio. Simply put, the more money you owe in consumer debt, the less money you will qualify to borrow on a mortgage, because your ratio of income compared to your debt is higher when you owe more money. Consider this permission to go and finance a Harley-Davidson. Do it, right now. Not a big fan of motorcycles? That’s cool; a Ford 150 should do the trick nicely. The key here is to make sure you add as much monthly payment as you can. The bigger the payment, the better. But let’s say that unfortunately your debt-service ratios are in line, you have been able to save up the necessary 5% down payment, and you are on your way to buying a house. What do you do? Ugly documentation! A great way to make sure your lender feels uncomfortable is to have really terrible bank statements. Typically when proving your down payment, the lender will require 90 days’ history of your account(s), with your name on the statement, showing that you have accumulated the down payment over time. Want to really mess things up? Make sure there are lots of deposits over $1000 that can’t be substantiated. This will look like money laundering. If that doesn’t work, you can always black out your “personal information.” Just use a black Sharpie and make your bank statements look like a classified FBI document. Lenders hate that! So you’ve got a great job and lots of money… don’t panic, you can still absolutely wreck your chances of qualifying for a mortgage. Just don’t pay any of your bills on time. Seriously, borrow lots of money, and then stop paying! Boom. Why would any lender want to lend you money when you have a great track record of not paying back any of the money you borrow? Now, if this feels morally wrong, okay, here is an ethical way to wreck your credit. Don’t pay that cell phone bill out of principle. We’ve all been there — roaming charges, extra data charges that the cell company added on your bill… choose not to pay this on principle. This is a great way to sink your chances of getting a mortgage, I mean, how are you supposed to know that some collections (like cell phones) will show up on your credit report? Last, if you want to make sure you never get financing, insist on buying the worst house in a bad neighbourhood. You see, the property you are looking to buy is very important to the lender. If they lend you the money to buy it and you stop making the payments, they will be forced to repossess and sell it. They are going to make sure they can recoup their initial investment. So, a “handyman special, fixer upper, with lots of potential” is a great option. As everyone knows, those words are code for “a giant dump.” Bonus points if you get those terms written in the MLS listing. Yep, insist on buying something that is falling apart and stick to it; don’t ever consider buying a solid home in a good neighbourhood. So there you have it, if you don’t want a mortgage, no problem. Quit your job, borrow lots of money, wreck your credit, and insist on buying a dump. However, on the off chance you feel homeownership is right for you, contact me anytime, I can help you put a plan in place to avoid these (and many more) mortgage qualification pitfalls.
By Niki Cuthbert 07 Nov, 2017
There aren’t too many Canadians who are able to save up enough money to pay cash for their home. This is why we have mortgages. A mortgage is a loan made to assist a borrower to purchase a property. The property is held as collateral and interest is charged on the loan. Typically a mortgage will be paid back over 25 years (this is called the amortization), and the amount of interest charged is renegotiated every 1-10 years (this is called the term). Over the long run, borrowing money isn’t cheap, despite interest rates being at an all time low! So, if you need to borrow money in order to buy a property, your number one goal should be to keep your cost of borrowing as low as possible. Bolded and italicized for emphasis. Now, contrary to what years of marketing messaging would have us believe, this doesn’t always mean choosing the mortgage with the lowest rate. Although choosing a mortgage with a low rate is a part of lowering your borrowing costs, it’s not the only factor.
By Niki Cuthbert 07 Nov, 2017
No doubt about it, buying a home is an emotional experience. It’s a game of balancing needs and wants, while trying to be honest with yourself about those very needs and wants. It’s hard to get it right, figuring out what’s negotiable and what isn’t… what you can live with and what you can’t live without. House shopping tends to be more arbitrary than science, especially when you’re someone who makes decisions with your heart (sometimes at the expense of your head). One of the biggest mistakes you can make when shopping for a house is to fall in love with something you can’t afford. Doing this almost certainly guarantees that nothing else will compare and you will inevitably find yourself “settling” for something that is actually quite nice (and would’ve been perfect, had you not already fallen in love with something out of your price range).
By Niki Cuthbert 07 Nov, 2017
It has been said that there are two certainties in life; death and taxes. Well, as it relates to your mortgage, the single certainty is that you will pay back what you borrowed, plus interest. However, how you make your mortgage payments, the payment frequency, is somewhat up to you! The following is a look at the different types of payment frequencies and how they will impact you and your bottom line. Here are the 6 main payment frequency types Monthly payments – 12 payments per year Semi-Monthly payments – 24 payments per year Bi-weekly payments – 26 payments per year Weekly payments – 52 payments per year Accelerated bi-weekly payments – 26 payments per year Accelerated weekly payments – 52 payments per year Options one through four are designed to match your payment frequency with your employer. So if you get paid monthly, it makes sense to arrange your mortgage payments to come out a few days after payday. If you’re paid every second Friday, it might make sense to have your mortgage payments match your payday! These are lifestyle choices, and will of course pay down your mortgage as agreed in your mortgage contract, and will run the full length of your amortization. However, options five and six have that word accelerated attached… and they do just that, they accelerate how fast you are able to pay down your mortgage. Here’s how that works. With the accelerated bi-weekly payment frequency, you make 26 payments in the year, but instead of making the total annual payment divided by 26 payments, you divide the total annual payment by 24 payments (as if the payments were being set as semi-monthly) and you make 26 payments at the higher amount. So let’s say your monthly payment is $2000. Bi-weekly payment : $2000 x 12 / 26 = $923.07 Accelerated bi-weekly payment $2000 x 12 / 24 = $1000 You see, by making the accelerated bi-weekly payments, it’s like you’re actually making two extra payments each year. It’s these extra payments that add up and reduce your mortgage principal, which then saves you interest on the total life of your mortgage. The payments for accelerated weekly work the same way, it’s just that you’d be making 52 payments a year instead of 26. Essentially by choosing an accelerated option for your payment frequency, you are lowering the overall cost of borrowing, and making small extra payments as part of your regular cash flow. Now, It’s hard to nail down exactly how much interest you would save over the course of a 25 year amortization, because your total mortgage is broken up into terms with different interest rates along the way. However, given todays rates, an accelerated bi-weekly payment schedule could reduce your amortization by up to three and a half years. If you’d like to have a look at some of the mortgage numbers as they relate to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime, I’d love to work with you and help you find the mortgage (and the mortgage payment frequency) that best suits your needs.
By Niki Cuthburt 07 Nov, 2017
If you’ve tuned into the news today, you’ve probably heard that there are new mortgage rules coming into effect on January 1st. 2018. Over the next week you’ll most likely hear a lot of commentary on whether these rules are good, bad, necessary, or unnecessary. And no doubt someone somewhere will come to the conclusion that no one will ever get a mortgage again, and that the housing market in Canada is going to come crashing down around us. Please remember that it’s the media’s job to write headlines and attract eyes, so they tend to sensationalize everything. Take what you hear with a grain of salt. Mortgages will still be written, and houses will still be bought. At the end of the day, these new rules (outlined below) will come into play, and there’s nothing we can do to change the government’s mind. So how do we respond? Well… as it becomes increasingly difficult to qualify for a mortgage, your goal should be to work with a mortgage professional that gives you more choices. Instead of working with a single institution; having access to a single line of mortgage products, when you work with a mortgage broker, you have access to many different lenders, with a wide variety of choices. As mortgage rules tighten, your goal should be to find as much flexibility as possible, you do this by working with a mortgage broker. So if you have any questions about your mortgage, please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime, I’d love to have a conversation with you. Okay, so on to the changes… the biggest change to the rules surrounding mortgage qualification is that a requirement to stress test each mortgage will be now applied to all borrowers, instead of just borrowers who have less than a 20% downpayment. Qualification for all mortgages will now be made at a minimum qualifying rate which is the greater of the five-year benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada or the contractual mortgage rate +2%. OSFI (The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions) released their final version of their new guidelines for the mortgage industry. Below is the news release from OSFI. called: OSFI is reinforcing a strong and prudent regulatory regime for residential mortgage underwriting News Release For Immediate Release OTTAWA – October 17, 2017 – Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada Today the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) published the final version of Guideline B-20 − Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures. The revised Guideline, which comes into effect on January 1, 2018, applies to all federally regulated financial institutions. The changes to Guideline B-20 reinforce OSFI’s expectation that federally regulated mortgage lenders remain vigilant in their mortgage underwriting practices. The final Guideline focuses on the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages, expectations around loan-to-value (LTV) frameworks and limits, and restrictions to transactions designed to circumvent those LTV limits. OSFI is setting a new minimum qualifying rate, or “stress test,” for uninsured mortgages. Guideline B-20 now requires the minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages to be the greater of the five-year benchmark rate published by the Bank of Canada or the contractual mortgage rate +2%. OSFI is requiring lenders to enhance their loan-to-value (LTV) measurement and limits so they will be dynamic and responsive to risk. Under the final Guideline, federally regulated financial institutions must establish and adhere to appropriate LTV ratio limits that are reflective of risk and are updated as housing markets and the economic environment evolve. OSFI is placing restrictions on certain lending arrangements that are designed, or appear designed to circumvent LTV limits. A federally regulated financial institution is prohibited from arranging with another lender a mortgage, or a combination of a mortgage and other lending products, in any form that circumvents the institution’s maximum LTV ratio or other limits in its residential mortgage underwriting policy, or any requirements established by law. Quote “These revisions to Guideline B-20 reinforce a strong and prudent regulatory regime for residential mortgage underwriting in Canada,” said Superintendent Jeremy Rudin. Quick Facts On July 7, 2017, OSFI published draft revisions to Guideline B-20 – Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures . The consultation period ended on August 17, 2017. OSFI received more than 200 submissions from federally regulated financial institutions, financial industry associations, other organizations active in the mortgage market, as well as the general public. The cover letter includes an unattributed summary of the comments and an explanation of how these issues were dealt with in the final Guideline B-20. Following publication of Guideline B-20 OSFI plans to assess Guideline B-21 − Residential Mortgage Insurance Underwriting Practices and Procedures for consequential amendments. Associated Links Cover letter (including a summary of industry comments and OSFI’s responses) Guideline B-20 – Residential Mortgage Underwriting Practices and Procedures About OSFI The Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada (OSFI) is an independent agency of the Government of Canada, established in 1987 to protect depositors, policyholders, financial institution creditors and pension plan members, while allowing financial institutions to compete and take reasonable risks.

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