Most times it seems the task of finding your Dream Home is a combination of the right circumstances in your life that make it possible for you to step into the House Buying Process.

With the mortgage terms and affordability as the biggest impediment to home buying a number of down payment programs can be created just for you thru the RBC Preferred Client Program. Amortizations have been shortened from the 40 year plan down to a 35 year amortization maximum.

I would hope that with prepayment options that many mortgages and an acceleration of amortization each year at the anniversary of the mortgage, you could shorten the term by at least half. Contact me for program details.  Don't forget the bi-weekly payments

Lindsay Doke, Trusted Mortgage Advisor, RBC Mortgages has been a strong proponent of the blended mortgage that takes half of the balance into the variable rate portfolio and the remaining half into the fixed interest rate portfolio.

By using this approach; you can reduce the interest costs greatly without gambling on interest rate fluctuations. With today's interest rates in simple terms, you could be borrowing at 4%.

So maybe the downpayment is your impediment; We can deal with that too! Lindsay has programs for HomeLine to advance against a property, additional credit lines to fund your downpayment, and cash back programs that will leave you money for land transfer taxes and related fees and expenses. Deferred cost programs are also available from Title Insurance Companies to assist your entry in Home buying.

There has been a concentrated effort to look at credit scores and the related perception of what is bad credit or poor credit and what can be fixed to make you eligible for a mortgage. Some of these programs may take 3-6 months to impliment, or as long as a year. New to the country and need to establish credit?

So first, we need to establish how much house you can afford. If you are paying rent of $ 1500 to $ 1700 per month, you may be surprised to find a $ 300K property carries for the same monthly amount. This Pre Qualification is vital to be completed in its entirety and not as a calculation at home. There is nothing more disappointing than being verbally approved at a Lenders office to find that their approval has many more conditions that you are unable to fulfil.

We will shortly have access yet again, to the entire Toronto Real Estate database of listings thru the Listing Portal at the Elegant Homes websites. This is exciting because all the listings available can be search without needless delay or filtering (like Realtor.ca) Some real estate boards have actually opted out of the Realtor.ca database. Will Toronto follow suit?