Sally Bennett’s business card may read “mortgage advisor,” but to hear her tell it, it might as well say “myth buster” for how frequently she has to dispel misconceptions around buying a home.
“It depends on the myth, but I would say I am myth-busting all the time,” she said. “For example, it’s a really common belief you need to put 20-per-cent down, and that’s where people are really struggling and getting the sense they will never be able to buy … You can put as little as five-per-cent down, you do have to pay mortgage insurance on top of that but that can be spread out across the 25-year* amortization.”
That notion is understandable in one of the priciest housing markets in the country, but Bennett, a certified broker with Mortgage National, maintains that getting one’s foot in the market is a matter of being matched to the right lender for the buyer’s specific circumstances.
“[Advisors] get to know everything about our clients’ goals and scenarios because sometimes I would recommend one thing for one client and something else for another,” she explained. “We don’t want to pigeonhole them into something that will keep them in that one-bedroom forever.”
Clients can become disillusioned when their bank turns them down for a mortgage, Bennett said, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve lost their shot at homeownership.
“Each bank only knows their products and policies so they would say, ‘OK, based on our products, we can get you this.’ But they don’t necessarily communicate that to the client,” she said. “Another major bank could give you double what another would just because of the way their policies are written, all that little fine print. One major bank, for example, is good for construction loans, while another is best when you’re thinking about rental suites. It really depends on which scenario the client is in and what bank is better for them.”
Although local home prices have cooled somewhat in recent months after two-plus years of frenzied sales activity, the average single-family home remains largely out of reach for most Whistlerites. In fact, a provincially mandated assessment last year of Whistler’s housing needs found that more than 90 per cent of residents cannot currently afford an average market property here.
“I think that’s skewed by some of the extreme prices and, realistically, for most people, condos here and in Pemberton and Squamish are much more realistic as starter homes, particularly,” Bennett said. “If you think about it, when you’re buying your first home, generally it’s very likely—unless you got a huge gift or suddenly made a whole lot of money developing some fancy new app—you’ll be buying at the lower end of the market.”
Borrowing can be further complicated by Whistler’s diverse array of property types and zoning, particularly when it comes to resident-restricted housing provided through the Whistler Housing Authority (WHA). While prospective WHA owners have fewer lending options than they would buying a market property, Bennett said there are still plenty of options for the first-time buyer.
“Not all lenders will lend on them but there is enough variety,” she said. “It’s a smaller pool but it’s not that small.”
Buyers also don’t require perfect credit to secure a mortgage, Bennett advised. “For frontline workers and tradespeople, there are different programs, like purchase price improvements, where you can put less money down [on the condition that] you later improve the home. Also, people with low income and high assets, there are options for them, too,” she said. “There are so many different scenearios where people can get a mortgage.”
Another common mortgage myth Bennett often runs into? That advisors charge a fee whether or not a loan is secured.
“We’re actually free to meet with,” she said. “People think we are paid a fee, but we get a commission from whichever lender the client ends up using.”
*An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that putting five-per-cent down on a home would result in a 30-year amortization.
