Menno van Driel

The question “to own or to rent?” keeps on making the rounds. The full answer will depend on your financial situation, your location as well as your life goals (plans). There is no one right answer.

Is it better to own your home or to be a tenant? There's no correct answer, it'll all depend on various circumstances that may apply to you or not.

Most Canadians appear to believe that owning o ...

Real estate was always a business of bringing people to houses; these days, it involves more and more work at the … computer. So, does it ever happen that buyers make a real estate purchase over the computer?

Older real estate agents might remember having to work from a so-called MLS book to show clients what was on the market. Times have changed quite a bit.

Just viewing a property on the ...

Common sense dictates that you’ll want to put insurance on your home, its contents and that you purchase liability insurance for yourself and your family. To do this is easy and relatively affordable.

Most people will "naturally" find that it makes sense to put some form of insurance on one's home. Not only that, in many instances it's mandatory to carry certain insurance.

However, it’s not ...

This blog article is about what you COULD do with money that you’ve borrowed against your house. You’re borrowing at about 3% interest – where could you invest that at a much higher rate; possibly at a suggested 25%?

Investing your money at a 25% return, yeah wouldn't that be nice. If we could do that, we'd all be rich. Where oh where can this happen?

Some say that when today’s mortgage rat ...

I just finished uploading this Townhouse for sale, 4 815 North Rd, Gibsons, BC

This is a well-maintained 2-bedroom 1-bathroom bungalow-style townhome centrally located in Upper Gibsons. The quiet location is set back from the main road and only minutes to the main shopping areas and the recreation centre. Features include laminate flooring and wood kitchen cabinets with custom pull-out drawer ...

This is a dark topic. It would be possible that you pass away before your mortgage is paid in full. Would such a financial situation leave your loved ones in dire straits? Is there be something you should do about that?

Obviously, this is one of those things that you or your loved ones don't really want to think about but it could happen - and what'll happen then?

You’ll be offered “insuran ...

You want to buy a new house while the old one hasn’t sold. The question here is: can you do it? The simplest answer is “yes you can, under most circumstances” – but it’s not always so easy.

Almost every agreement of purchase and sale (offer) includes a string of special conditions that need to be fulfilled before the transaction firms up.

As an example, it can happen that you see a house yo ...

Not much appears to suddenly change on the Sunshine Coast. Things might be different in the world at large – what goes today may not go tomorrow. We are, of course, talking about finances here.

Canada is currently a country that's financially rock-solid; it's quite an achievement in a world where so many wealthy countries are suffering major financial indignities.

Some say that Canada can b ...

A mortgage loan is a long-term financial commitment – presumably one of the biggest in your life. Do you know how much longer yours is supposed to run? Do you know how to significantly shorten that period?

A mortgage is something you need to pay off, rather sooner than later. There are ways to efficiently speed up the process - all in your favour.

Many people have signed up for mortgage loa ...

Part of your mortgage payment is for principal and a large part is for interest. Do you know how much goes to what or how that changes during the life of your mortgage? This is actually a good news story.

Good news. While making your regular mortgage payments, the interest portion of your payments will get smaller and smaller and the amount of principal larger.

A mortgage starts off with mo ...