What I wish I knew about buying a home.

“The biggest surprise for me was how substantial a sum the closing fees ended up being. When you’re saving you’re so focused on the down payment but altogether the fees can come to as much as 10-15% of the total loan amount. If you’re buying a $7million house and your down payment is 20%, that’s $1.4million. I was able to get 100% financing through NCB, so that helped, but say your mortgage is $5.6 million, your closing fees can come to as much as $840,000! That means you need to have almost $2.3 million (down payment plus closing fees)in order to seal the deal. It wasn’t until I met with a mortgage advisor that I understood all that.”

— Nadia McKoy 35 years old, Hotel Manager

“The biggest surprise for me was how substantial a sum the closing fees ended up being. When you’re saving you’re so focused on the down payment but altogether the fees can come to as much as 10-15% of the total loan amount. If you’re buying a $7million house and your down payment is 20%, that’s $1.4million. I was able to get 100% financing through NCB, so that helped, but say your mortgage is $5.6 million, your closing fees can come to as much as $840,000! That means you need to have almost $2.3 million (down payment plus closing fees)in order to seal the deal. It wasn’t until I met with a mortgage advisor that I understood all that.”

— Donovan Knight 58 years old, retired Civil Servant

“As a bachelor with no children, I never thought much about life insurance. When I started looking at buying an apartment, though, I realized that my mortgage provider required that I have home and life insurance. Since I was with NCB, it was easy to get what I needed through NCB Insurance. Now I know that should anything happen to me, whether serious illness or even—God forbid—death, my mortgage won’t be something I, or my future family has to worry about.”

— Jamal Atkins 28 years old, Graphic Designer

“Don’t overlook NHT. Call or visit, check what benefits are available to you, and get your Eligibility Letter. Your NHT benefit will probably cover only a portion of the total loan amount, but it will probably offer a lower interest rate on that portion, which will allow you to lower your monthly mortgage cost. If you already have your status letter in hand when you go in to start talking to a mortgage advisor they can figure it into their calculations.”


— Andrea Warner 42 years old, IT Manager

“Get the timing right. Talk it over with your mortgage advisor and make sure you know what happens when. For example, once you’ve been approved for a mortgage, funds are not always immediately disbursed. Confirm the time period with your mortgage provider as well as your Lawyer and plan accordingly. Another timing thing that almost caught me was stamp duty. You must pay your stamp duty within 30 days of the property transfer. It is approximately 2-5% of the sale price and the purchaser and vendor usually share payment of Stamp Duty equally. A conveyance of land must be stamped within 30 days of its signing to avoid penalty, and the penalty for late stamping is not small either. You want to pay attention to this, not just because of the penalty, if an Agreement for Sale is not stamped, it cannot be admitted in court as evidence. Hopefully, there’s no need for court, but just in case, make sure you’re covered. There are lots of little things like that, a good mortgage advisor should be able to give you all the details. A good lawyer will go a long way toward streamlining the whole thing as well.”

— Sean Thomlinson 38 years old, Teacher