Buying property is a key aspect of adult life. Yet, we don’t learn any practical skills regarding homeownership, like how mortgages work and how to actually go about buying a house! In today’s episode, we are joined by Sherry Corbitt, a Mortgage Broker and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst from Whitby, Ontario. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• How to get a mortgage: 1) Walk into a bank and do it yourself; OR 2) Go through a Mortgage Broker, who does the shopping for you in terms of finding Interest Rates and Terms based on your needs. P.S. Mortgage Brokers get more exclusive rates!
• The different lenders that are available: banks, mortgage lenders, credit unions, investment funds, and so forth
• How one qualifies for getting a mortgage. Lenders look at: 1) How much income you have versus how much debt you have (car payments, credit card debt, student loans, etc.), and whether you can make the monthly mortgage payments; 2) A good credit score to demonstrate you have a good history of paying things off on time; 3) Equity: how much of the property will you own versus how much the lender is lending you
• How to have good credit, and how to increase your credit score: 1) Pay your phone bills because your phone provider reports to the credit bureau; 2) Pay your credit card bills on time because if you don’t, it will drop dramatically; and 3) Don’t overt-utilize your card/max it out because credit bureaus look at how much of the card you utilize each month (i.e. a $5k balance on a $10k credit card would be a Utilization Rate of 50%); and 4) Use credit! Use your credit card AND pay it off every month. You NEED NEED NEED to build a credit history!!! 
• At the very least, start with a $500 or $1000 credit card, or even a pre-paid card 
• Get a credit card with points or a reward system, and accumulate a nice “Savings Account” of imaginary points you can use to buy tangible things at a later date
• Some lenders have a limit on how many “doors” you can own, meaning how many units a property has. Once you become a savvy investor, you will likely need to move lenders (i.e. the bank isn’t going to keep giving you mortgages for income properties)
• Tip: You should keep your mortgages with different lenders because if there is an incident with one of your properties, and they decide to waste your time on another property that has nothing to do with the incident occurring with the first property, that’s frustrating

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