Transcript of Video Blog:
Hi everybody, it’s Rowan Smith with The Mortgage Centre. I’m going to do a little top five list. These are top five things not to do once you’ve written an offer.
OK, so number one. Do not write an offer and leave on vacation. Now there’s a couple of catches to this, OK?
You can do it. But during the subject removal period I’m going to need you here. Your Realtor is going to need you here to sign things, review documents.
So don’t write an offer and expect to be able to leave town during the subject removal period. Especially do not be gone during the closing period.
Because you have to be here to sign in front of a lawyer, especially if you’re buying property in British Columbia. So you’ve got to be here.
Now if you’ve got two months from the time you write an offer to the time your completion is, feel free to be out of town for part of that time.
I mean everyone’s got work and business obligations. And they may want to take a vacation. That’s fine. But just keep those vacations coordinated with the home buying process. It’s a big item. So vacations are a very important thing.
Number four. Do not transfer your dollars around for your down payments. People will often be in an effort to be helpful to me, they will transfer dollars from their ING account into their CIBC checking. From that TD savings into their CIBC checking. From their RSP into their checking.
The problem is, then I get a copy of that checking account statement, and it looks like you got a whole bunch of money just flew into the account.
So what I end up having to do is document every large deposit on there. That means I have to get the ING, the TD account, the RSP account, and the CIBC checking account. I’ve got to get it all to track where every dollar is. It’s a lot easier to just leave the funds where they are.
And once we’ve got the down payment accepted by the lender, then you can move them around.
Number three is, do not buy lots of new things, especially on credit. And I’m referring to people that will gloat and they’ll get excited about buying their home. And so they’ll go to The Brick and they’ll buy a whole bunch of furniture on a “do not pay plan.”
And then they’ll go to Best Buy and they’ll buy appliances and all this type of thing. Do not do that.
Wait until you’re in the home. If you incur additional debt before the closing date and the bank finds out about it, they can pull that approval. Because you may not qualify even though you can afford, you may not qualify for that new debt in addition to the debts you already had.
Now this is even if those debts are going to be paid out prior to the completion with the sale of an old home. Just check with me first. Be very careful about buying new items.
Number two. And this is the most common one that I see of buying new items, is do not buy a new vehicle. Those vehicles, especially vehicle leases, have massive payments, or can have massive payments. And it can throw the debt servicing and your ability to qualify for the mortgage. Again, completely out of line.
So before you go do that, get your mortgage completely finalized. Have the approval ready. Have it instructed to the lawyer’s office, and then you can start shopping for a new vehicle. I still don’t recommend buying it until after you’ve purchased the new place, just to avoid any challenges.
And lastly, the number one that I consistently get that blows me away is, do not quit your job. From the time you write that offer until the time you move in you have to be prepared to stay in your line of work.
Now things happen. Sometime companies sell off divisions. You get transferred. Other times you may just get fired. That’s life.
But the reality is that you also will have a lot of choice in these cases many times. And there’s no need to quit your job right during that period of time.
So from the time you write that offer to the time you complete, stay on your job. Stay the course. What you do after you’re in the property is up to you. And life takes many changes and it’s unpredictable.
So there is no way that anybody can fault you if you lose your job two months down the road. Or you quit and transfer into a new role to get a pay increase or whatnot.
So there it is. The top five things not to do when you’re buying a home.
For The Mortgage Centre, I’m Rowan Smith.
