March 25, 2011
Credit, Costs and Mortgages
Buying real estate for the first time is very exciting. Most people are anxious. This is normal. However, being aware of all the costs associated with purchasing a home is a good first step towards minimising your stress.
1. Know your Credit
The first thing a lender is going to look at is your credit score. Credit scores in Canada range from 300 to 900, with the higher numbers indicating a healthier financial record and less of a risk to the lender. Good credit scores start in the low 700s; the higher they are, the easier it will be for you to get a loan. Your interest rates are also determined by your credit scores, with the best rates going to those with scores over 760. Your credit score not only impacts your ability to get a loan, but it also impacts your options when renting a home or purchasing a cell phone. Maintaining a good credit score is essential to your financial well being.
2. Understand How Mortgages Work
Get familiar with the mortgage laws, structure and options. That way, you will be able to decide on the right loan and lender — crucial to your home buying success. It's up to you to determine which lender is best for your needs, and it's always a good idea to have at least a bit of background about the loan process before you talk to a lender.
3. Get Pre-Approved
When you meet with a mortgage broker or banker, you want to ask them to pre-approve you. Pre-approval is an underwriting of your file and will help you identify how much you can actually spend on a house. You will have to provide your income documentation, credit and many other personal and financial information in order to underwrite your file.
4. Closing Costs
Most expenses begin when you have signed the paperwork. Closing costs include:
Buying your first home is a huge step. While it can be a bit overwhelming if you are unprepared, there are places like the Thornhill Wealth Forum where you can get free advice and network with professionals who can guide you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 18, 2011
Fuel, Oxygen,Ignition and Real Estate Investing
In high school science they teach that in order to start a fire-three things must be present.
1. Fuel
2. Oxygen
3. Ignition
It is a law of nature that if you remove any one of the three things there can be no fire. Real estate investing is similar in that three things must also be present for your business to become successful.
1. Good Deals = Fuel
2. Money = Oxygen
3. Your Energy = Ignition
Remove any one of these and you cannot succeed. There are thousands of deals available but what we must have are good deals that can be converted into enough money to pay us for our investment of time and money.
Money is the oxygen of real estate investing and in order to succeed there must be access to an unending stream of it or your fire will go out. That is why using your own money is a mistake. You should be able to find more good deals than you can control using your own money. Finding money is a skill that must be mastered in order to keep the fire going.
The most important the three elements is your own energy. Your must make the effort to find deals and find the money and then turn them into a profit. When you put these three together-you will enjoy the warm glow of a successful real estate investing business.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------March 11, 2011
5 More Skills You Won't Learn at school....Part 2
I believe that learning is growing and that new life skills are essential for survival in this fast and changing world. Here are 5 more skills that you will never learn at school, but will help you be more successful financially and professionally.
Goal Setting 101
How to set reachable, manageable goals
Goals enable us to work towards something instead of just struggling in a random direction without any real forward motion. A good goal not only specifies where we’re going, but makes it very clear when we’ve reached our goal as well as providing milestones for getting there. Try setting a goal that involves a number so that you can clearly track your progress along the way and can see the impact of your daily choices as you go.
Focus 101
How to eliminate distractions and put your attention on a single matter
How many of you have another web browser or another tab open right now? Is your cell phone on? How about a Twitter client or Facebook? All of these things are distractions that can easily pull you away from whatever task you happen to be working on at the moment.
Public Discourse 101
How to discuss issues without resorting to name-calling
The public arena is filled with incredible viciousness, with people on both sides hurling such hateful terminology at people who merely disagree with them on an issue or two. Discussion and public policy can’t move forward in that state. If more people adopted a more sensible form of public discourse, we could find middle grounds that allow society to move forward. Share the positives of your ideas, not the negatives of other ideas. Don’t resort to name-calling. When criticized, don’t respond with more criticism. Listen (and by that, I don’t mean just wait until your turn to talk).
Marketing Interpretation 101
How to understand how marketing manipulates you in every avenue of life
From politics to what gadgets you want, from the shows you choose to watch to the food you buy at the supermarket, marketing plays a role. The simple ability to figure out what ideas in your head and what ideas spoken by others are actually based on facts or are based on marketing and promotion makes it much easier to cut down to the reality of things, as well as get a grip on your own personal choices and ideas.
Impulse Control 101
How to get a grip on your personal decision-making
All of us are impulsive at times, but impulsiveness can have huge personal and financial costs. The more control you have over your own impulsiveness (including the ability to know when to allow yourself to be impulsive), the more control you have over your finances and your ability to interact positively with the world around you. The easiest tactic is to simply apply a five second rule to each significant decision you make in a day – each item you buy, each thing you agree to, and so on. Just think quickly about the pros and cons of each choice and see how that reshapes your initial impulse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 4, 2011
5 Skills You Won't Learn at school....Part 1
This article was yet another reminder to me that most of the skills that a person uses professionally, financially and personally are developed outside of the classroom. Here are five essential skills that aren’t typically taught in school and how you can learn them in your own life.
Money Management 101
How to keep out of debt and spend less than you earn
If more Americans had these simple lessons as part of their life, there would never have been a housing crisis and the economic downturn of 2008 would have been far softer. The fundamental key to money management is to simply spend less than you earn every single month. Part of that involves not overcommitting yourself to future bills – in other words, get sensible mortgages and avoid other debts. It also means learning how to resist the temptation to have all of the material stuff that other people have.
Idea Organization 101
How to organize many ideas to tell a single coherent story
I receive many emails that consist of just a long glob of text with lots of facts and ideas spread throughout. Unfortunately, without a lot of work, those emails are incomprehensible. Using basic strategies for organizing your ideas can make a huge difference in terms of the recipient understanding you and effectively handling your wishes. Key strategies include sticking to only one fact per paragraph, listing all of the facts you want to convey before you start writing, and putting yourself in the shoes of the person receiving the message.
Persuasion 101
How to convince others of your ideas – and understand how others convince you
You don’t persuade others by merely being right on your own terms. You persuade others by making your case clear on their terms. One big part of this is to simply use honey rather than vinegar. Be kind and understanding and leave being judgmental by the wayside.
Personal Growth 101
How to consistently evaluate and improve yourself in every dimension of life
We all succeed in some areas and fail in others. Almost every situation in our lives offers some room for improvement, if only we’re willing to see it and take it. Personal growth requires a willingness to look at our own faults and mistakes and ask ourselves constantly what we can do to improve on those faults in every area of life. It requires that we accept that we’re not perfect and that we can always improve. It also requires us to take action to improve those faults.
Time Management 101
How to organize your time – without over-organizing it
At one extreme, we have people who do no time management at all and seem to just stumble onto whatever task comes next. At the other extreme, some people have every element of their day scheduled down to the five minute mark. There’s a happy, healthy medium that allows freedom while still giving enough structure to make sure we get done the things we need to do. The first step is to keep a calendar. Another step is to constantly keep a “to-do” list going – and constantly add to it as ideas come into our head, writing them down instead of just trying to remember them.
Credit, Costs and Mortgages
Buying real estate for the first time is very exciting. Most people are anxious. This is normal. However, being aware of all the costs associated with purchasing a home is a good first step towards minimising your stress.
1. Know your Credit
The first thing a lender is going to look at is your credit score. Credit scores in Canada range from 300 to 900, with the higher numbers indicating a healthier financial record and less of a risk to the lender. Good credit scores start in the low 700s; the higher they are, the easier it will be for you to get a loan. Your interest rates are also determined by your credit scores, with the best rates going to those with scores over 760. Your credit score not only impacts your ability to get a loan, but it also impacts your options when renting a home or purchasing a cell phone. Maintaining a good credit score is essential to your financial well being.
2. Understand How Mortgages Work
Get familiar with the mortgage laws, structure and options. That way, you will be able to decide on the right loan and lender — crucial to your home buying success. It's up to you to determine which lender is best for your needs, and it's always a good idea to have at least a bit of background about the loan process before you talk to a lender.
3. Get Pre-Approved
When you meet with a mortgage broker or banker, you want to ask them to pre-approve you. Pre-approval is an underwriting of your file and will help you identify how much you can actually spend on a house. You will have to provide your income documentation, credit and many other personal and financial information in order to underwrite your file.
4. Closing Costs
Most expenses begin when you have signed the paperwork. Closing costs include:
- Home inspection costs can range between $400 - $1000
- Home insurance costs vary depending on the age of the roof, structure and neigbourhood
- Property transfer costs depends on the market value of your home
-
HST
- Legal fees
- Appraisal fee
- Property taxes
Buying your first home is a huge step. While it can be a bit overwhelming if you are unprepared, there are places like the Thornhill Wealth Forum where you can get free advice and network with professionals who can guide you.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 18, 2011
Fuel, Oxygen,Ignition and Real Estate Investing
In high school science they teach that in order to start a fire-three things must be present.
1. Fuel
2. Oxygen
3. Ignition
It is a law of nature that if you remove any one of the three things there can be no fire. Real estate investing is similar in that three things must also be present for your business to become successful.
1. Good Deals = Fuel
2. Money = Oxygen
3. Your Energy = Ignition
Remove any one of these and you cannot succeed. There are thousands of deals available but what we must have are good deals that can be converted into enough money to pay us for our investment of time and money.
Money is the oxygen of real estate investing and in order to succeed there must be access to an unending stream of it or your fire will go out. That is why using your own money is a mistake. You should be able to find more good deals than you can control using your own money. Finding money is a skill that must be mastered in order to keep the fire going.
The most important the three elements is your own energy. Your must make the effort to find deals and find the money and then turn them into a profit. When you put these three together-you will enjoy the warm glow of a successful real estate investing business.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------March 11, 2011
5 More Skills You Won't Learn at school....Part 2
I believe that learning is growing and that new life skills are essential for survival in this fast and changing world. Here are 5 more skills that you will never learn at school, but will help you be more successful financially and professionally.
Goal Setting 101
How to set reachable, manageable goals
Goals enable us to work towards something instead of just struggling in a random direction without any real forward motion. A good goal not only specifies where we’re going, but makes it very clear when we’ve reached our goal as well as providing milestones for getting there. Try setting a goal that involves a number so that you can clearly track your progress along the way and can see the impact of your daily choices as you go.
Focus 101
How to eliminate distractions and put your attention on a single matter
How many of you have another web browser or another tab open right now? Is your cell phone on? How about a Twitter client or Facebook? All of these things are distractions that can easily pull you away from whatever task you happen to be working on at the moment.
Public Discourse 101
How to discuss issues without resorting to name-calling
The public arena is filled with incredible viciousness, with people on both sides hurling such hateful terminology at people who merely disagree with them on an issue or two. Discussion and public policy can’t move forward in that state. If more people adopted a more sensible form of public discourse, we could find middle grounds that allow society to move forward. Share the positives of your ideas, not the negatives of other ideas. Don’t resort to name-calling. When criticized, don’t respond with more criticism. Listen (and by that, I don’t mean just wait until your turn to talk).
Marketing Interpretation 101
How to understand how marketing manipulates you in every avenue of life
From politics to what gadgets you want, from the shows you choose to watch to the food you buy at the supermarket, marketing plays a role. The simple ability to figure out what ideas in your head and what ideas spoken by others are actually based on facts or are based on marketing and promotion makes it much easier to cut down to the reality of things, as well as get a grip on your own personal choices and ideas.
Impulse Control 101
How to get a grip on your personal decision-making
All of us are impulsive at times, but impulsiveness can have huge personal and financial costs. The more control you have over your own impulsiveness (including the ability to know when to allow yourself to be impulsive), the more control you have over your finances and your ability to interact positively with the world around you. The easiest tactic is to simply apply a five second rule to each significant decision you make in a day – each item you buy, each thing you agree to, and so on. Just think quickly about the pros and cons of each choice and see how that reshapes your initial impulse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 4, 2011
5 Skills You Won't Learn at school....Part 1
This article was yet another reminder to me that most of the skills that a person uses professionally, financially and personally are developed outside of the classroom. Here are five essential skills that aren’t typically taught in school and how you can learn them in your own life.
Money Management 101
How to keep out of debt and spend less than you earn
If more Americans had these simple lessons as part of their life, there would never have been a housing crisis and the economic downturn of 2008 would have been far softer. The fundamental key to money management is to simply spend less than you earn every single month. Part of that involves not overcommitting yourself to future bills – in other words, get sensible mortgages and avoid other debts. It also means learning how to resist the temptation to have all of the material stuff that other people have.
Idea Organization 101
How to organize many ideas to tell a single coherent story
I receive many emails that consist of just a long glob of text with lots of facts and ideas spread throughout. Unfortunately, without a lot of work, those emails are incomprehensible. Using basic strategies for organizing your ideas can make a huge difference in terms of the recipient understanding you and effectively handling your wishes. Key strategies include sticking to only one fact per paragraph, listing all of the facts you want to convey before you start writing, and putting yourself in the shoes of the person receiving the message.
Persuasion 101
How to convince others of your ideas – and understand how others convince you
You don’t persuade others by merely being right on your own terms. You persuade others by making your case clear on their terms. One big part of this is to simply use honey rather than vinegar. Be kind and understanding and leave being judgmental by the wayside.
Personal Growth 101
How to consistently evaluate and improve yourself in every dimension of life
We all succeed in some areas and fail in others. Almost every situation in our lives offers some room for improvement, if only we’re willing to see it and take it. Personal growth requires a willingness to look at our own faults and mistakes and ask ourselves constantly what we can do to improve on those faults in every area of life. It requires that we accept that we’re not perfect and that we can always improve. It also requires us to take action to improve those faults.
Time Management 101
How to organize your time – without over-organizing it
At one extreme, we have people who do no time management at all and seem to just stumble onto whatever task comes next. At the other extreme, some people have every element of their day scheduled down to the five minute mark. There’s a happy, healthy medium that allows freedom while still giving enough structure to make sure we get done the things we need to do. The first step is to keep a calendar. Another step is to constantly keep a “to-do” list going – and constantly add to it as ideas come into our head, writing them down instead of just trying to remember them.