Robert W. May, Realtor/Mortgage Expert Lethbridge Mortgage & Real Estate Info

As a mortgage associate in Lethbridge with Canada First Mortgage, as well as being a licensed Realtor and Broker of Rainbow Realty, I have been an active fixture of the local real estate community since 1993.  I have helped many others obtain mortgages, home equity line of credits, consolidation loans, and even second mortgages.  Many of these clients were a bit of a challenge, having poor credit or non-traditional jobs or income streams, so imagine my suprise when I submit my own personal application for financing on a property and am declined by the lender.

Now let me start by saying that I am self-employed, have strong credit, and no debt.  On paper I appear to be a strong applicant.  However, sometime in the recent past during the mortgage and lending crisis which we are enjoying, my favorite lender decided to change their policies.  The new policy now requires that all properties that they lend on be listed MLS.  That means that no private transactions, no exclusive listings, no FSBO, etc.  This is great news for organized real estate and may put a single nail into the coffin of the fsbo companies, but for me it was devastating.

I contacted my lender and stated that if they would like, the property I was buying could be listed MLS within 5 minutes, however they have another curious policy which states that every mortgage submission gets one chance, and once chance only.  So my file was declined and would not be reconsidered.  Totally absurd logic, but those are the rules which I am bound to follow.

The good news was that there is a whole host of other lenders who do not as of yet have similar bizaar policy and my application was able to be resurrected and redirected to a different lender.  Financing approved, funds advanced, mortgage completed, all withing a weeks times. 

For future mortgage applicants, it is of great importance that you work with a mortgage associate who has this sort of flexibilty available to them.  It is important to have access to multiple lenders, multiple products, and to have as many options available as possible.  This personal experience has reinforced to me to keep my streams of communication with ALL lenders open and active.  It reiterates to me the importance of knowing which lenders offer which type of products to keep abreast of where to direct each unique application.  It is the reason that I continue to meet with various lenders weekly, track their products daily, and remain an active member of the industry.

Robert May

Robert May is the broker and owner of Rainbow Realty of Lethbridge Alberta. He is also a licensed mortgage associate and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta. He has been in the real estate industry since 1993 and offers full MLS real estate services to Lethbridge and surrounding area, as well as mortgage financing, refinancing/renewals, preapprovals, and home equity financing to Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. He can be found online at www.LethbridgeLoans.com

Genworth, the mortgage insurance company, recently sent out this update.  Much of the information is valuable information for consumers and real estate professionals.  The informed Realtor will be advised to know this information and/or to have a great mortgage associate at your disposal.  Here is Genworths update:

Square Footage Minimum -  Genworth does NOT have square footage minimum but property size has to be the "norm" for the area.  For example; there is a lot of very small condos in downtown Toronto so that is normal for area

NOA Verification -  If you go to CRA website www.cra.gc.ca. and request Quick Access, follow the prompts and have available SIN, DOB, TAX YEAR and AMOUNT ON on LINE 150, when you hit continue and if Line 150 is correct, you will get the Name of filer, and statement "your 2007 was assessed on (date on return) " and then you can also confirm the RRSP limit by clicking on that box.   If you do not get this information, the NOA presented to you has discrepancies.   This is currently good for 2006 and 2007. 

If you have further questions attached is the link to Genworth's Underwriting Guidelines for your reference: http://www.genworth.ca/mi/eng/industry_professionals/underwriting_guide.html

Robert May is the broker and owner of Rainbow Realty of Lethbridge Alberta. He is also a licensed mortgage associate and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta. He has been in the real estate industry since 1993 and offers full MLS real estate services to Lethbridge and surrounding area, as well as mortgage financing, refinancing/renewals, preapprovals, and home equity financing to Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. He can be found online at www.LethbridgeLoans.com

Well i have made a few more steps towards saving energy.  This week i bought a case of them squirly compact flourescent mercury poison bulbs (i am not entirely convinced i love or hate them).  I replaced all of the bulbs in my house that took standard bulbs, which ended up being 12 bulbs.  A quick calculation took me from about 1000 watts of lightbulbs down to 300 watts of bulbs.  There are a couple of rooms in my house that are nototious for having the lightbulb left on 24/7.  The laundry room and the storage room downstairs are lit everytime i happen to visit them, so hopefully the change will make a difference in these locations.

I am also building a theater room at the moment and it has some unique lighting in it.  I have 8 pot lights which came with ultrabright little halogen bulbs and also 8 wall sconces which had some quirky little bulbs in them.  I had to make a decision whether to keep these lights on energy expensive bulbs which i could operate on a dimmer or else upgrade them to LED bulbs for about $100.  I have decided to go with the LED bulbs even though they have quite an expense to the bulb and i cant use dimmers on them, the reason being that they throw no heat.  This was a concern as the ceiling is insulated and also covered with insulated ceiling tiles so extra heat would just build up and pose a potential fire hazard.

Once the lighting was upgraded, I also applied several cans of insulating foam to the sill of the foundation of my house.  Only 2 of the 4 walls readily took the foam into them, the other 2 were solid wood on the sill so i insulated them with pink fiberglass instead.  There should be a huge difference from this insulation as i could feel the cold draft from outside coming in while i was spraying the foam in.

Not sure what other steps i am going to take, perhaps i will wait a bit and see.  I still waste a ton of electricity with my hottub, 3 computers, 3 tvs, countless wall chargers throughout the house, etc.  I will take a month and then perhaps make some more improvements.

Robert May

Robert May is the broker and owner of Rainbow Realty of Lethbridge Alberta. He is also a licensed mortgage associate and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta. He has been in the real estate industry since 1993 and offers full MLS real estate services to Lethbridge and surrounding area, as well as mortgage financing, refinancing/renewals, preapprovals, and home equity financing to Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. He can be found online at www.LethbridgeLoans.com

While I am no expert in the field, I have bought, sold, and installed several thousand square feet in the past few years.  At the request of some others I thought i would make a brief guide to the variety of hardwood flooring products that are available in my marketplace.

Laminate flooring - this flooring is the cheapest product.  Basically think of it as a piece of hard compressed cardboard with a photograph of wood grain on the top of it.  Some laminate looks convincingly like real hardwood floors, some does not.  All laminate requires a thin underlay product to help cushion it (about 30 to 60 cents a square foot). Cheap quality laminate is thin, the boards do not lock together smoothly, and the photo of woodgrain on the boards is very repetitive, meaning every third or forth board will look the same.  This type of flooring should cost around 79 to 99 cents a square foot.

Some cheaper and older style laminate floor requires that you apply glue between the boards to secure them together.  All newer style has a better tongue and groove which 'clicks' the boards tight together.  Generally, the better quality laminate flooring you buy, the thicker the boards and the better the locking of the boards.  Some high quality laminates ($2/sq foot) are half an inch, some are completely waterproof, and certain brands of laminates are the most durable of all hardwood flooring products.

These are the best product for flips/rentals (cheap) or high traffic locations (durable).  Easy to install it yourself.

Engineered floor/floating floor - this flooring is designed to be laid on concrete, specifically basements and slab homes (also great for theater rooms).  The board is a sandwich with the top layer being real hard wood and the bottom layer being thin plywood.  The product is designed to handle the temperature/moisture characteristics of being laid on concrete.  The cheap stuff can look like laminate, and the more expesive stuff indistinguishable from regular hardwood.  Once again when laying this flooring an vapor barrier underlay is used.  Also, the boards must be glued together with wood glue when installing.  Some variations can be glued down to the subfloor and some thicker versions can be nailed down like regular hardwood.  I prefer the floating variety, which can be used with thicker underlay to help soundproof and really eliminate noise transfer since the floor is not connected.  This product should cost between $1 to $3 a square foot.  A little more work to install because of the glue, but still pretty easy and the only choice for basements.

Hardwood floor - this wood is made from real trees.  It comes in a ton of varieties with oak, maple, cherry, walnut, beech, bamboo, and cork being the most common.  In general, the thicker the board the more expensive.  This is so that should the surface of the floor become scratech, it can be sanded down and refinished, just like the hardwood floors of 100 years ago.  Depending upon the wood type, some hardwood floors are actually not that hard at all, and the surface will scratch easily.  This is especially noticable the darker the color of the floor and the less grainy the wood.  This flooring requires a thin underlayment in most cases and is nailed down securely to the subfloor below it.  For that reason it must be laid over wood subfloor.  Hardwood can be bought from between $2 to $20 a square foot depending on where you get it and how flexible you are on exotic wood type and color.  I have bought it as low as $1/sq foot at auction.  Not the greatest for high traffic locations, kids or pets, but looks amazing and classes up any house.  More work to nail down, probably have to rent the nailer and compressor, etc.

Other considerations

board size - some products have every board in the box the same length and width.  Other products come with an assortment of 4 to 6 different lengths in a box, which is called random length (even though it is not random, its assorted).  Generally, the wider and longer the planks, the more expensive the product.

board type - some boards have bevelled edges which accentuate the seams between boards. 

finishing - some hardwood floor products come prefinished with a varnish/stain already preapplied.  This saves a ton of time and mess for the consumer.  These products are a wonderful time saver and the floor finish will be uniform, much better then trying to finish hardwood by yourself.

pattern - this is my pet peeve area.  Some laminate products have a photo which looks like butcherblock of smaller boards.  Others appear to have no seams and look like a single plank.  It is important when laying the flooring to avoid having seams between planks end up at inappropriate spots or adjacent to each other.  I have seen many floors laid by 'experts' that looked like crap.  If you start every row from the same wall so all your board seems end at the same spot your floor will look like crap.  If you cut every second board in half and do the same thing it will look only marginally better, still better but not by much.  Depending upon your hardwood product, your boards should be laid either in a random length pattern or a pattern of thirds to look their finest. (this is based on my personal experience and the comments of others who have viewed my fine work, lol).  You will discover that random is much harder to do then one would imagine, and certianly much harder then a pattern of thirds.

Robert May is the broker and owner of Rainbow Realty of Lethbridge Alberta. He is also a licensed mortgage associate and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta. He has been in the real estate industry since 1993 and offers full MLS real estate services to Lethbridge and surrounding area, as well as mortgage financing, refinancing/renewals, preapprovals, and home equity financing to Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. He can be found online at www.LethbridgeLoans.com

Tonight i attended yet another hardwood floor auction.  These auctions seem to roll through our city every 3 months and I seem to attend and purchase from every one of them.  As a result, i have hauled, stored, and installed several thousand square feet of laminate, floating floor, engineered floor, and hardwood.

Tonight i went looking for some floor to put in my home theatre that i am constructing in my basement.  I had been to the carpet store earlier in the week and almost choked when i got a quote for carpet, underpad, and installation.  The cost for my room was $1800.  So i decided that i would go with a floating floor instead.

The auction is so hit and miss for prices.  I watched people buy laminate floor that has a value of 50 cents a square foot and they paid $2 a square foot for it.  I watched 3/4 inch hard wood sell for as little at 70 cents a square foot, an amazing deal.  Lots of bargains for those who had the means to haul it and store it and who knew their products.

In the end i purchasing 1200 square feet of floating beech flooring for 85 cents a square foot, about a third of the retail price of this type of flooring.  I also was fortunate enough buy 400 square feet of another brand of floating floor in a black finish, for only 25 cents a square foot, it was a steal.  The only downside to the whole bargain was loading a ton and a half of hardwood flooring into my trailer and bringing it home so i can unload it again tomorrow.

One of these days i will write a guide for people who wish to buy at these auctions and what they should be looking for in product and price.

Robert May is the broker and owner of Rainbow Realty of Lethbridge Alberta. He is also a licensed mortgage associate and financing expert with Canada First Mortgage of Calgary Alberta. He has been in the real estate industry since 1993 and offers full MLS real estate services to Lethbridge and surrounding area, as well as mortgage financing, refinancing/renewals, preapprovals, and home equity financing to Lethbridge and Southern Alberta. He can be found online at www.LethbridgeLoans.com