Christine Buemann Mortgage Broker

If you live in Prince George and have a rental property or rent out a portion of your home you will be required to purchase a business license starting in the new year. It was an interesting move by city council last week and it will be even more interesting to see how it pans out. Many feel that the reason why this was implemented was to increase revenue for the business license program, however an increase to the fee for businesses may have had a lesser impact than the new rental requirements. In this CKPG news report they have stated that "the city feels the need for a license will ensure that rental properties are up to code and not illegal. The business license fee for rental properties will be $155 per year, per property." Although most homes in Prince George are zoned to allow a rental suite, the majority of them don't currently comply with the requirements to make them "legal". Here is an article from the City of Prince George detailing their req...

Hello! As you may recall, we upgraded our company name last year from Verico LendingMax Mortgage to Verico Premium Mortgage. My e-mail address changed however my website and phone number stayed the same. Our e-mail provider is longer forwarding e-mails from the old address so please take a moment to update my e-mail address to the following: christine@premiummortgage.ca I have also attached a contact file if you use Outlook or a similar program. If you have sent an e-mail to cbuemann@lendingmax.ca recently and I have not responded, I apologize.

Consolidate Your Debt   The key to getting rid of debt is to commit to fixed, not declining, monthly payments. With your 19.75% credit card, if you were to pay off a debt of $30,000.00 at a fixed payment of $600 per month, you would pay the debt off in just under 9 years, and pay approximately $30, 000.00 in interest.   Suppose you take out a home equity loan at 4% interest. If you pay it off at $600 per month, you will retire the debt in just under 4.5 years – 4.5 years sooner than with the credit card. But best of all, your interest cost will be reduced from $30,000.00 to $3,000.00. That's approximately $27,000.00 in your pocket with exactly the same monthly payments!   In the real world, of course, your debt may not reside on one, but multiple credit cards. The practice of transferring all of your debt to a single loan is called debt consolidation.   Here's how it works: 1. Add up all your credit card debt. 2. Take out a single loan, such as...

Interest rates are still going up and they are moving quite quickly. If your mortgage is coming up for renewal in the next few months, you have a few options: 1.        Do nothing and wait to see what interest rates are at when your renewal date arrives. 2.        Contact your current lender to see if they offer “early renewal” options. Keep in mind that if you choose to renew early and rates go down at all, you will only get the rate that you have locked into. They may also offer you a “blended” rate which could be higher than you could get elsewhere. 3.        Contact your Mortgage Broker to get an approval with a 120 day rate hold. If rates go down, you will get the lower rate but if they go up, then you are protected. This way you also avoid paying any payout penalties. The only cost to switch your mortgage in BC is a mandatory $75 fee to remove the old mortgage from the land title and regi...