First Time Home Buyer Assistance Programs Vancouver
- Fix Credit Report Errors Before You Buy a House: Up to 8 Weeks
Before you can consider purchasing a home or securing a mortgage, you need to make sure your credit is good,” The industry standard utilized for most mortgage lenders is FICO scores. In Canada, most mortgage lenders will request a credit report from Equifax and/or TransUnion. They will look to see a credible history of borrowing and repaying debt from a variety of sources. Most lenders will look at your credit history over a 1-2 year period to discern whether you’re eligible for a mortgage. Keep in mind that TransUnion and Equifax — respond to disputes within 30 days. From there it takes another month for the changes to reflect.
In most cases, a minimum credit score of 620 is required to qualify for a mortgage. It is recommended to aim for a 760+ credit score. This way you can qualify for the best terms and rates without the headache. A minimum credit score of 720 is ideal to avoid any negative price adjustments. Any score below 620 would be considered subprime. This means that you are looking at higher interest rates, as statistically you are considered a risky investment.
- Get Mortgage Preapproval or Mortgage Prequalification: 15-25 Days
Buyers will seek loan pre-approval prior to beginning their search for a home. Pre-approval requires borrowers to submit detailed, accurate records related to their finances, credit history, income, assets and debt for review by loan officers and underwriters.
That can happen in two or three days, or as many as 120 days, but those timelines are outliers. The average is about 18 days from the start of the process to finish.
- Grants and Loan Programs offer – Before or after the sale of the home
Like any smart first-time buyer, you want to see what grants or loan programs that may be readily available to you. You may have heard BC First time Home Buyer Loan Program back in 2017 called The BC Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership (BC HOME Partnership).
As of now, this program is closed. However, there are plenty of other first time home buyer assistance programs Vancouver, BC that you capitalize on within BC.
This First time home buyer assistance programs Vancouver is very sought after to save money. Qualifying first-time buyers may be exempt from paying the PTT of one per cent on the first $200,000 and two per cent on the remainder of the purchase price of a resale home priced up to $500,000. There is a proportional exemption for homes priced between $500,000 and $525,000. At $525,000 and above exemption is nil. Foreign entities and taxable trustee are not eligible for the exemption.
Qualifying buyers of new homes may be exempt from paying the PTT on a newly built home or newly subdivided unit priced up to $750,000 and a partial exemption on newly built homes priced $750,000 to $800,000.
This grant reduces property taxes for home owners with an assessed or partitioned value up to $1.525 million. The grant is reduced by $5 for each $1,000 above the threshold and eliminated at $1.639 million (basic grant) and $1.859 million (additional grant). The basic grant:
up to $570 for principal residences in the Capital, Greater Vancouver, and Fraser Valley regional districts;
an additional grant of $200 to rural home owners elsewhere in BC; and
an additional grant of $275 to seniors aged 65 and older, those who are permanently disabled, and veterans (or surviving spouse) of certain wars.
Another first time home buyer loan program to consider is the Property Tax Deferment Program for Seniors: qualifying home owners aged 55 and older can defer property taxes.
Property Tax Deferment Program for Families with Children:qualifying home owners who financially support children under age 18 can defer property taxes.
These First time home buyer assistance programs Vancouver combine together with prepping your financial situation to get the best borrowing power would greatly help assist you in navigating the buying process and to save some money in purchasing a home.