Archive for November, 2008
Top Home Mortgage Loan – Main Navigation
Posted by Top Home Loans in Off-Topic on November 28, 2008
Top Ten Most Popular Articles
- Top 10 Most Expensive Houses For Sale in Canada Right Now
- How to Buy a House without a Buyer’s Real Estate Agent, Part 1: Myths
- 10 Steps to Buying a House without a Buyer’s Real Estate Agent
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average Retrospective Part 1
- Monthly, Semi-Monthly, Bi-Weekly, or Weekly Payments; What is the Best Option for you?
- The Importance of the Mortgage Pre-Approval
- The Landlord’s Market, and What you Can do to Capitalize on this Emerging Market
- How to get a Mortgage if you are Self-Employed
- What Factors does a Bank look at when Approving a Mortgage?
- How to Hire a Discount Real Estate Agent to get the Most Value
The Home Buyer’s Toolkit
- The Benefits of Buying a Resale Home
- Are you Financially Ready to Own a Home?
- Renovate or Relocate?
- Mortgage Life Insurance
- Your House, Your Investment
- The Lowest Mortgage Rate is Not the Best
- The Professionals you Need with your Home Purchase
- The Truth of Power of Sale
- The Lawyer in the Mortgage Process
Save your Mortgage from the Bank. Simply Mortgages can Help!
Welcome back!
The Green Housing Revolution and What you Need to Know
Posted by Top Home Loans in Economy, Real Estate on November 30, 2008
Things in the world are changing at an extremely fast paced. The home that you live in now could look extremely different in the next ten years. It is extremely important that you know of all the changes that are going on in the world and you take advantage of those potential changes. Some examples of these changes are as follows:
- Today, you use electricity from a hydro company. Tomorrow, you will do it yourself by wind or solar energy.
- Today, you have garbage, recycle, and a green bin. Tomorrow, everything will be recycled and placed in one trash or potentially used for energy in your house.
- Today, your home is built with bricks, cement, and other decomposing materials. Tomorrow, your house will be designed to not decompose and to absorb energy.
- Today, we drive pollution causing vehicles. Tomorrow, our vehicles could reduce pollution.
What Effect does this have on me?
With technology advances, many governments are trying to get people to be more ‘green’. This has a direct effect on population levels, pollution levels, travel income, health, quality of living, and other major effects on the nation.
The two links are for Ontario and British Columbia where it shows the list of possible ‘green’ upgrades that you could make to your property in order to make your home use less energy and increase the value of your property.
Ontario Green Initiative Renovation Rebates
British Columbia Green Initiative Renovation Rebates
The most important thing is that you could receive thousands of dollars from the government to increase the value of your property. If you are purchasing a new property, then this is even more important because you can save money by choosing new additions to your property that will provide you with rebates. The more money that you can get from the government for free, the better.
Make sure that you do all the necessary research about ‘green’ initiatives that your government is taking before deciding on purchasing or completing renovations on your current or new property.
Save your Mortgage from the Bank. Simply Mortgages can Help!
How to Avoid Mortgage Fraud in Canada
Posted by Top Home Loans in Mortgage Advice, Mortgage News, Real Estate on November 29, 2008
Mortgage fraud should be of concern to all home owners. Even if you are unaware that a transaction is being completed in your name, then you could still end up with the bill or even lose your house. The method of which the scam is completed is done without the home owner knew anything was even going on in the first place.
How the Fraud Works
The method that individuals commit the fraud in Canada is completed by the following process:
- An imposter poses as a home owner or relative and claims that they have title to the property.
- The imposter then sells the property to another fraudster in on the deal.
- The person who is buying the property then goes to the bank to get a mortgage on the property and all parties completely disappear with the banks money.
This fraud only works if you fit two major criteria:
- There is only 1 person on the title (easier to impersonate one person over two)
- The house is paid in full (no banks will have liens on the property)
If you fit this criteria, then you are the most at risk for this particular mortgage fraud. All a fraudster needs to know is some basic information about you.
How does the Fraudster get this Information?
The people acting in this operation will come through file after file at the land title office for people that fit this criteria. Once they have discovered a person that they are looking to complete the scam with, then they will make the necessary documentation and proceed with a sale of the property.
If the fraudsters delegate the correct front people and have appropriate lawyers, then they will actually be able to complete the request with little to no resistance.
How can you Protect Yourself?
Protecting yourself from mortgage fraud is actually very simple. The best way to protect yourself is to carry a mortgage on the property; however, after paying your mortgage off, you will have to discharge your mortgage. Once this is completed, you can still allow the bank to keep a lien on your property by opening a secured line of credit on your property. Even if there is no balance on the line of credit, then you will still be protected because the bank has a lien on the property.
The second way to prevent this type of fraud is by purchasing title insurance. Title insurance is a great way of protecting the things that you own from fraudulent activity and hostile claims to your properties. Many lawyers, realtors, and other real estate professionals will be able to provide you more info on how and where to get title insurance.
Mortgage fraud is a type of fraud that has rarely happened in the past; however, if it does happen, then you want to ensure that it does not happen to you. Make sure that you take the necessary precautions to protect your family from potential fraudulent activity. If you need to pay the money for title insurance, then you should, for it may avoid losing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fraud.