by Shawn Selanders | Oct 19, 2026 | Mortgage Tips
Read this first • 30 seconds▶The bank does not take your house. You stay on title. Your estate never owes more than the home sells for.▶It is expensive money. Nothing is paid, so the interest compounds on itself every month.▶It is the fourth door, not the...
by Shawn Selanders | Oct 13, 2026 | Rates & Renewals
Read this first • 30 seconds▶$350,000 from 2021 at 2%: $1,482 a month. Renew the $293,200 left at 4% over 20 years: $1,772. Up $290.▶The 5-year bond went from about 3.3% to 3.69% in a month. Fixed rates jumped up to a full point at some lenders.▶Four ways...
by Shawn Selanders | Oct 5, 2026 | Mortgage Tips
Read this first • 30 seconds▶$60,000 on cards at 20% is about $1,000 a month in interest. It buys you nothing and reduces nothing.▶You can refinance to 80% of your home's value. Above that, no - there is no back door.▶Stretch it over...
by Shawn Selanders | Sep 28, 2026 | Mortgage Tips
Read this first • 30 seconds▶Interest on money you borrow to invest is tax-deductible only in a regular, non-registered account that earns income. Borrow to fund a TFSA or RRSP and there is no deduction. None.▶On $100,000 at 4.7%, that is...
by Shawn Selanders | Sep 21, 2026 | Rates & Renewals
On September 2 the Bank of Canada held its rate at 2.25% for the seventh straight time. Nobody blinked. Then, two weeks later, it published the minutes from that meeting - and buried in them is a sentence every Alberta homeowner with a renewal coming should read...
by Shawn Selanders | Sep 14, 2026 | Home Buying
The August numbers are out from the Calgary Real Estate Board, and the headline is quiet: "Sales and new listings slow in August." Here is what the numbers actually say, and what they mean if you are buying or selling in High River, Okotoks or the Foothills.1,986sales...
by Shawn Selanders | Sep 8, 2026 | Rates & Renewals
Here is what most people miss about a mortgage renewal: it is the one moment in your entire mortgage where the power flips to you.When you bought your house, you needed the lender. At renewal, the lender needs you. Your mortgage is a performing asset they very much...
by Shawn Selanders | Sep 3, 2026 | Rates & Renewals
Yesterday the Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% — the seventh consecutive hold — and warned that tariffs and oil prices could still push inflation above 3%. Here is what that actually means at your kitchen table, in plain English.If you are on a variable...
by Shawn Selanders | Aug 23, 2026 | Mortgage Tips
I am going to be honest with you, because somebody in this conversation should be: a reverse mortgage is neither the miracle the TV commercials suggest nor the trap your neighbour warns about at coffee. It is a tool with a real price tag. Here is the price tag.The...
by Shawn Selanders | Aug 13, 2026 | Acreage & Rural
I live in Foothills County. I have been financing acreages around High River, Okotoks, Diamond Valley, and the rest of Southern Alberta since 1999. And here is what I can tell you: acreage mortgages do not fail because of the borrower. They fail on three questions...