hey guys
good morning, just caught the thread...and am gonna wade in with a couple of thoughts.
I, personally, dont have a problem carrying a mortgage either, as long as its good debt (ie: investment kind)..drives my wife crazy, but I dont care if I ever pay the house off, if I am using cheap money to invest in other property, stocks..etc.
HLOC are a great tool. If you are using your house as security for a HLOC, PLC etc...banks should be giving you at the very minimum prime + 1. Prime + .5 should be the norm. IF you arent getting this..shop around!
Interest only mortgages can be a good thing if you are looking at flipping the property or using the money for investment purposes. For a strictly homeownership point of view..I would say no, cause you wont ever get anywhere with it then.
I live out in the sticks and havent heard the 30-35 year mortgages by CMHC. Banks wont typically do those kinds of mortgages in rural alberta which is probably why I havent caught wind of it yet. Is it a good idea?
Well, it only reduces your payment slightly and well if that helps you get into a home, why not. when I bought my first condo in calgary many years ago, a company called sunlife offered a 50 year mortgage, I took it!
kept the payment nice and low.
As far as ATB is concerned, and no offence to anyone that works for ATB, but, its a government financial institution that plays by its own set of rules. Its our tax dollars hard at work. ATB's rules are different than any other financial institution (ie) charters or CU's when it comes to lending and/or investments. they sometimes offer lower rates on products when it comes to lending and sometimes they offer higher rate of returns when it comes to guaranteed investment products. Why?..because they dont have any shareholders to answer to, just the government.
anyhow, if you have specific questions with regards to mortgages, please feel free to give me a buzz, I would be more than happy to answer them.
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