MY TORONTO

 SHAWN   " Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one. "   - Brad Paisley   Shawn Venasse Sales Representative Sotheby's International Realty Canada 1867 Yonge Street, Suite 100, Toronto ON M4S 1Y5 c 647.250.9937 | t 416.960.9995 | f 416.960.3222 svenasse@sothebysrealty.ca sothebysrealty.ca ...

Soft inquiries, sometimes known as a soft credit check or a soft credit pull, do not impact your credit scores because they are not attached to a specific application for credit.   They can occur when a credit card issuer or mortgage lender checks a person's credit for preapproval purposes. Examples of soft inquiries are when you check your own credit or one of your current creditors checks your credit.   If you are concerned about the negative impact on your score, specify to the lender that you want a "soft pull" to see if you qualify for preapproval. Soft inquiries may appear on your credit report but should not adversely affect your credit score. Consumers are entitled to one free copy from each major credit bureau, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, once every twelve months available at AnnualCreditReport.com .   Hard inquiries occur when a borrower makes a new application for credit.   These will impact your credit score and will remain on your credit re...

  SHAWN   Wishing you and your family a safe and happy holidays.     Shawn Venasse Sales Representative Sotheby's International Realty Canada 1867 Yonge Street, Suite 100, Toronto ON M4S 1Y5 c 647.250.9937 | t 416.960.99...

When the situation arises that you have a lump sum of cash to pay down your existing mortgage,  there may be different options available.   Pre-paying principal on a fixed-rate mortgage shortens the term of the mortgage but the payment stays the same. Conversely, recasting a mortgage with a lump-sum principal payment lowers the principal and interest payment but leaves the term intact with the same payoff date. The interest rate on the mortgage will stay the same regardless.   Prepaying principal can be done at any time but may not be applied until the next payment date.   Recasting cannot be done within the first 90-days of a mortgage. Pre-paying principal is like driving faster on a trip to a specific destination to get you there sooner.   Recasting/Re-amortization gets you to the destination at the same estimated time of arrival but using less fuel. Most loans allow you to pre-pay principal, but recasting is not allowed on FHA, VA, and GNMA. ...

Do you remember if or when you have replaced your washing machine hoses?   Are they the original hoses and if so, how old is your washing machine?   It is recommended that washing machine supply hoses should be replaced every five to seven years.   Washing machines, like all appliances, are expected to work and when they don't, it's time to have them fixed or replaced.   However, there is a critical connection from the water supply that may even be older than your washing machine itself. Eventually, unless hoses are replaced, they will fail, which on the mild side could be slow leaks or burst entirely, and could cause a catastrophic flood in the home.   The failure could come from a number of causes including age, improperly installation, poor-quality materials or poor design. The hoses are generally under the same pressure as the other plumbing in the home.   Imagine having an open faucet running directly on your floor. Ask someone whose hose broke...

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loan limits are adjusted annually to keep up with cost of living but with the appreciation experienced in many markets, it may not be enough. When the conforming loan limit is not enough, qualified buyers can turn to a jumbo loan. The maximum loan limit on conforming, conventional loans for 2022 is $625,000 for a single-family home but is increased up to $937,500 for designated high price areas.   The underwriting guidelines for conforming loans are consistent with regards to things like minimum down payment, private mortgage insurance, debt-to-income ratio, minimum credit score and cash reserves required. Jumbo loans are loans more than the FNMA maximum limits and are considered non-conforming loans.   This allows lenders to set their own requirements on maximum loan amount, minimum required credit score, maximum debt-to-income ratio, and minimum down payment. The rates paid on the jumbo loans may be the same as conforming loan rates. ...

Some people consider a house payment as basic as monthly utilities but with a plan and some discipline, you can be mortgage free. Consider a person borrowed $300,000 at 3% for 30 years, the principal and interest payment would be $1,264.81 and at the end of 12 years, the unpaid balance on the mortgage would be $210,900. If that same person had financed the home on a 15-year term at 2.5%, the payments would have been $2,000 but the unpaid balance at the end of 12 years would be $69,310.   The homeowner will have a larger equity but they have also had to make higher payments. 15-year mortgages usually have a lower interest rate than the 30-year loans and at the time this article was written, the difference in a 30-year loan was about 0.5%.   A 15-year loan gives the lender their money back in half the time.   If rates go up during the interim, they will be able to loan it at the higher rate sooner.   For that reason, they are usually willing to offer a slightly l...

SHOULD YOU KEEP YOUR RADIATOR SYSTEM? Do you have an older heating system - specifically a hot water heating system utilizing a boiler and radiators strewn throughout your house. Although there is no question that this system can work, is it the most efficient? Is it fulfilling your needs? Is there perhaps a better system? Or, could it be the best system in the world for heating -- but maybe yours just needs some tweaking. All these questions answered and more in my following blog post. Read on and find out! Radiators have been around for a long time and are a staple of many heating systems, especially in older homes. They often provide heat throughout the winter at a lower energy cost than some other heating options, since true to their name they allow heat to passively radiate into the surrounding air. Unfortunately, some older radiator systems can require a lot of maintenance to keep in service year after year and may not be the best at providing even heat in your home. Because of t...

Credit utilization reflects how much of your available credit is being used at a given time.   Lower credit utilization indicates that a borrower is not heavily relying on their credit and that they are using their credit responsibly. Is calculated by dividing your total credit card balances by your total limits.   The higher the percentage, the higher the risk which adversely affects the credit score according to most of the companies.   It is recommended that your credit utilization be under 30% to positively impact your credit score. If the available limit on a credit card is $12,000 and their normal monthly balance is around $3,000, they have a credit utilization of 25%.   If for whatever reason, the borrower's available limit was reduced to $6,000, and their long history of having a monthly balance of $3,000, the ratio, then, increases to 50% which will likely lower their credit score. For borrowers who use more than 30% of their available credit and regul...