You want to be the king or queen of your own castle. But how do you conquer this daunting feat, given that in big cities, so-called starter castles can cost more than $1-million? To help you navigate one of the largest purchases you’ll ever make in your life, here are some answers to commonly asked questions for first-time home buyers.

How do I know if I’m money-ready to be a home owner?

Look at your lifestyle and ask yourself, “Am I ready to commit?” Do you have stable income and can you plant roots for a few years?

“With the transactional costs of real estate, you have to stay put for five years to make up your money,” says 31-year-old Sean Cooper, who paid off his $450,000 mortgage in three years and authored the upcoming book, Burn Your Mortgage.

Next, crunch some numbers to determine if you can afford the home you want. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says your monthly housing costs (mortgage payments, taxes, heating, condo fees, etc.) shouldn’t be more than 32 per cent of your gross monthly income. Use mortgage payment calculators. Ask other homeowners how much owning their homes cost. And don’t forget to add in the closing costs.

“A lot of people assume that renting costs the same amount monthly as owning a house but that’s not true,” Cooper says. “Home ownership costs come with a lot more expenses such as home insurance, repairs and maintenance. A good rule of thumb is to budget 1 to 3 per cent of the purchase price of per year to repair and maintenance.”

How the heck do I amass a down payment?

“Beg your mom and dad,” says James Laird, president of Broker of Record. “We’re seeing that family members are willing to help.”

Millennials were 47 per cent more likely than generation Xers to have received help from family for a down payment on their first home, according to a recent RateHub report.

For those who don’t have that option, it’s going to take sacrifice and hustling. See if your parents will allow you to move home temporarily — almost 40 per cent of Millennials have moved back home at some point, a TD survey says — or if you can downgrade your living expenses, for example, by finding a roommate. Do what you can to boost your income and your savings, whether that’s reducing spending or negotiating for a raise or working that side hustle.

Also, under the home buyers’ plan, first-time home buyers can take $25,000 out of their registered retirement savings plan and pay it back over the next 15 years without incurring any penalty. For a couple that means $50,000.

Should I wait and save up 20 per cent or just put down the minimum 5 per cent?

Buyers who put down less than 20 per cent must purchase mortgage default insurance; they also may also qualify to borrow less. So, if you’re in an affordable housing market, aim for 20 per cent. (For the average Canadian home, which costed $474,590 in December, that’s a $94,918 downpayment.)

“If you’re waiting for a 20 per cent downpayment in a big city and you don’t have parental help, you’re going to be waiting a long time,” says Kerri-Lynn McAllister of RateHub. You then run the risk of being priced out of the market if prices continue to rise. “If you’re looking at [waiting] years, then it may not make sense,” McAllister adds. “[The insurance] is not a cost that you often feel because it’s rolled into your mortgage.”

What are my borrowing options?

“Do your research and compare your rates online,” McAllister says. “Even doing that research ahead of time and bringing that number to your bank and asking if they can match it, is also very prudent. You don’t want to take the first offer.”

Shopping can be complicated so consider getting a mortgage broker — an intermediary who is connected to multiple lenders and who shops around for the best deal for you (they are paid a finders fee from the lender), she says.

Vancouver-based online lender Mogo recently unveiled a mortgage platform geared to Millennials; the digital dashboard walks users through the process and allows them to apply for a mortgage online. “The application takes four minutes,” says Chantel Chapman, a credit expert and financial fitness coach with Mogo. “It’s all about the experience with a mortgage specialist and the convenience of doing it online.”

When you’re shopping for a mortgage, don’t just look at rates. Look at the penalties if you end up breaking your mortgage and check out pre-payment privileges such as being able to make lump sum payments, increase your payments and double up on payments.

The house that I want is out of my reach. Now what?

“People have to manage their expectations,” McAllister says. “The dream of home ownership doesn’t have to be equated with a detached house because that can be a stretch in cities like Toronto or Vancouver. People should start looking at different types of homes to fulfill like that dream; town houses and family-friendly condos are good alternatives.” Consider other options such as buying outside of the core or buying with family or friends.

-Financial Post

Canada’s banking industry association has criticized a federal Liberal proposal that would see them take on more of the risk involved in lending out mortgages.

The Canadian Bankers Association (CBA) said in a submission to the Department of Finance that the proposal would “undermine” access to mortgages for Canadians, by increasing mortgage rates, reducing competition and excluding some people from getting mortgages at all.

The proposal would see mortgage lenders pay a deductible on their insurance when a mortgage defaults. Currently, mortgage insurance covers the full cost of a defaulted mortgage.

That arrangement has some critics worried about “moral hazard”: Since someone else pays when things go wrong, the banks have little incentive to make sure that their insured mortgages have been lent out responsibly.

Many organizations, including the IMF, have suggested that the government phase out or privatize the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the country’s government-run mortgage insurer, in order to reduce risk in the housing market.

But the CBA’s report argues, in essence, that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“Canada’s housing finance system has demonstrated considerable resilience and stability over time,” the report said, referring to the fact that Canada avoided the U.S.’s housing crash last decade.

“The historical success of Canada’s system creates a strong presumption in favour of existing arrangements.”

The report argues that forcing the banks to take on more of the risk of insured mortgages would make it riskier for lenders, which means they would demand higher mortgage rates.

Additionally, it would mean some regional and smaller lenders, who depend more on insured mortgages, would stop lending, reducing competition.

“The impact would be particularly acute for first-time homebuyers,” the report stated.

Though Canada’s banks have been lauded in recent years for being well-run and well-capitalized, many organizations have less positive things to say about Canadians’ household debt, which has been driven by rising mortgages and is now the highest in the G7, at 166 per cent of disposable income.

The Parliamentary Budget Office warned last year that Canadians risk a debt crisis by 2020 if interest rates were to rise.

The CBA argued in its report that lenders vigorously stress-test their mortgage portfolios to ensure borrowers can still afford their mortgages should mortgage rates go up.

-The Huffington Post Canada

There are a lot of reasons why holding your mortgage in your RRSP is appealing. And there are a lot of people who could be candidates for the strategy. But I am going to let you in on a dirty little secret — the financial industry does not want you to know about holding your mortgage in your RRSP in the first place.

Many investors are still affected by the global financial crisis nearly ten years later. It was the collapse of the subprime mortgage market in the United States in 2007 that began the domino effect. It is hard to believe a decade has passed.

Since then, stock and real estate markets have had a profound emotional impact on investing for Gen Xers and Millennials. Canadians born after the baby boom that ended in 1964 were entering their 40s when the global financial crisis ensued. This is an age when many people are moving into larger, more expensive homes and simultaneously ramping up their retirement savings.

Younger generations of Canadians have therefore experienced a period when rising real estate is taking an ever larger share of their family budget, often at the expense of traditional investing. It has also been a period during which many people have felt that real estate has nowhere to go but up and is the best investment around.

This preference for real estate over stocks is further reinforced by the fear instilled by the 35 per cent drop in Canadian stocks experienced by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2008. According to a recent poll by Mackenzie Investments, “younger Canadians are significantly more likely to have negative feelings around RRSP season, while those in the 55+ age group appear more positive.”

Younger Canadians certainly have not had the same hesitation regarding real estate and mortgages, continuing to push real estate prices to all-time highs and doing so on the back of more and more debt.

So holding your mortgage in your RRSP can be appealing to younger Canadians, as well as anyone looking for higher yielding investments in a low yield world.

If someone wants to hold their mortgage in their RRSP, the first step is to find an institution that will allow you to do so. Your RRSP with your investment adviser or your bank is likely not an option. You will need a self-directed RRSP from an institution like Olympia Trust, B2B Bank, Canadian Western Trust or a handful of other trust companies or banks.

You will have to undergo the same income verification requirements and approval processes as you would with a regular mortgage. So holding your mortgage in your RRSP is not a way to borrow more money than you would otherwise be able to borrow conventionally.

The applicable interest rate will be the posted rate — not the discounted rate that most of us are accustomed to paying. This means more interest on your mortgage payments, but that is offset by high interest income for your RRSP.

There are fees involved, including appraisal fees, administrative charges, self-directed RRSP fees, mortgage insurance and so on. Set-up fees could be a couple of thousand dollars and ongoing costs could be a couple of hundred dollars each year.

Once set up, you make regular payments to your RRSP the same way you would otherwise do to the bank. The mortgage payments accumulate in cash in your RRSP and can then be invested into other investments. The principal and interest calculations are the same as with any regular mortgage.

Of note is that payments are not considered RRSP contributions. And just like your regular mortgage, you cannot miss payments. It does not matter that you are both the lender and the borrower. The trustee that holds your mortgage is responsible for initiating foreclosure if you do not keep up.

Much of the advice I have come across about holding your mortgage in your RRSP suggests that you need to have a large RRSP or a small mortgage to consider the strategy. That is not true, as the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) states that “there is no income tax requirement that such mortgages be a first mortgage or (even) a residential mortgage.”

On that basis, you can hold a portion of your overall mortgage debt on a property in your RRSP and another portion as a regular mortgage with a conventional lender. That said, the cost and time to set up a small mortgage in your RRSP may not be worth it.

It is also interesting to note that the CRA does not prevent you from holding a commercial property mortgage in your RRSP or even a rental property mortgage. These mortgages would be even more appealing mortgages to hold in your RRSP because if you are using these properties to earn rental income, the interest you are paying — to yourself in your RRSP — is tax deductible on your personal tax return. Furthermore, the interest rate on these mortgages may be higher than the interest rate on a residential 1^st mortgage, meaning higher income for your RRSP and higher tax deductions for you personally.

So back to my comment about the financial industry not wanting you to know about holding your mortgage in your RRSP. Most industries — the financial industry perhaps more than any other — have biases. We live in a capitalist society and the financial industry benefits when you borrow your mortgage money from them and invest your RRSP money with them as well. It gives them two sources of profit, as opposed to you cutting them out and holding your mortgage in your RRSP.

But this is a great case of what sounds like a great way to stick it to the establishment that sounds good in theory, but probably is not good in practice.

Consider this: if you hold your mortgage in your RRSP, you might be borrowing at 5 per cent and investing at 5 per cent (the posted rate). But if you can instead get a regular mortgage, borrow at 2.5 per cent and ideally invest at 3 per cent, 5 per cent, or even 7 per cent, you are going to be much better off in the long run because you will make money on the spread.

On that basis, despite the appeal and despite the large number of Canadians who could hold their mortgage in their RRSP — I would think twice.

Despite the large number of Canadians who could hold their mortgage in their RRSP — I would think twice

Those most likely to benefit would be ultra-conservative investors who are unlikely to take on stock market risk. Someone with a tax-deductible mortgage on a rental property, especially if they are in a high tax bracket, is another potential candidate.

But I would generally shy away from the strategy and instead use the bank as your partner instead of your enemy. Take their cheap money as a mortgage and do your best to invest your RRSP in a diversified portfolio.

If you really want to hold a mortgage in your RRSP, I would rather see you own someone else’s mortgage and ideally as a diversified pool of mortgages like a Mortgage Investment Corporation (MIC). Better yet, consider a diversified mix of stocks and bonds at a reasonable fee that are suited to your personal risk tolerance.

-Calgary Herald