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There must be some fuckery going on because Virtual Brokers registers them based upon their book value (ie: what I paid) not upon their current market value. So if I buy 6k worth of VGRO today and move them Jan 2nd, 2022, it doesn't matter their future value in terms of TFSA room.
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Jan 8, 2021 18:46
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A few years ago Questrade told me it was based on market value at any point in the day when the request was made. A year and a half later the CRA gave me a heads up that it's based on the market value of when the trade settles, and I owed 18 months worth of taxes on an contribution of (wait for it) $4.20  Now I just sell $x worth of holdings in my open account and transfer it, the few bucks the trade costs is worth the simplicity to me.
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Jan 8, 2021 19:12
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Sputnik posted:There must be some fuckery going on because Virtual Brokers registers them based upon their book value (ie: what I paid) not upon their current market value. So if I buy 6k worth of VGRO today and move them Jan 2nd, 2022, it doesn't matter their future value in terms of TFSA room. There is not even a sliver of a chance that this is correct/permissible handling - if you've actually got proof from statements, heck, tell the CRA they're loving it up. Guest2553 posted:A few years ago Questrade told me it was based on market value at any point in the day when the request was made. A year and a half later the CRA gave me a heads up that it's based on the market value of when the trade settles, and I owed 18 months worth of taxes on an contribution of (wait for it) $4.20 In kind contributions to RRSP, sure, fair enough, because you can slightly overcontribute and not care about it so long as you're within the allowable 2k, but for TFSA and its exact dollar limits, yeah, CAD cash all the way. And technically everything is to be determined using settlement date but gently caress it, if they want to put the hours of effort into figuring out my CAD/USD exchange rates on settlement date instead of trade date and similarly hit me with some microscopic charge (if it doesn't actually work out in my favour instead!), have at 'er. Sassafras fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jan 8, 2021 |
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Jan 8, 2021 21:02
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Sassafras posted:There is not even a sliver of a chance that this is correct/permissible handling - if you've actually got proof from statements, heck, tell the CRA they're loving it up. It wouldn't be the first time VirtualBrokers had made a serious fuckup with registered accounts. They are the cheapest of the penny brokers that I've seen, but at some point, fuckups eat into all those free trade savings....
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Jan 9, 2021 02:35
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I'm thinking about buying some property in the coming months. I have enough saved for a down payment well over 20% of what I'm looking at getting. However, with rates as low as they are, I would expect that money above the down payment would make a greater return over the course of the mortgage if I left it in the stock market than if I made a larger down payment. So, for example, if I get a 2% interest rate, but expect to average 4% per year in the stock market, it would be more advantageous to pay the 20% down payment and keep the balance in my investments than it would be to increase the down payment to 30%. Is that logic correct or is there something I'm missing?
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Jan 11, 2021 21:39
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Your logic is correct. The part you may be missing is that paying off a mortgage can be a significant psychological milestone, which means that many people end up making the less optimal decision. Which is entirely fair if it lets them rest easy. In fact, the logic extends to borrowing against your home and investing that too, but that's a step too far for a lot of people who were on board with the down payment part.
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Jan 11, 2021 22:16
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Making any investment while you have debt outstanding is isomorphic to leveraged investment, except for the tax consequences, after all.
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Jan 11, 2021 22:23
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Old info!
melon cat fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Feb 4, 2024 |
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Jan 11, 2021 23:35
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I'm possibly tentatively thinking about maybe finally going for buying a place. Two big questions come to mind: (1) Is it normal for first-time buyers to be putting all their wealth into their deposit? Put another way: I can hit the 20% deposit value needed for a reasonable mortgage, but, that would be more or less all of my savings (I don't really have investments outside of my cash savings). (2) Looking around, the lowest interest rates I'm seeing are from various, uhh, mortgage brokerages (eg. Butler Mortgages), as opposed to banks. Is there anything I need to be concerned about in using these sorts of places?
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Jan 13, 2021 02:14
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I can't speak with any certainty on the former, but the fact that everyone understands the concept of being house poor means "probably common enough". If you have a significant savings rate, though, and this isn't a lottery or an inheritance burning a hole in your pocket, then combined with mortgage size being "reasonable" to you, I wouldn't sweat it. You'll keep saving! For the second, yeah, brokers (especially the heavier discount ones) will serve you pretty well although they may not do as much hand-holding as the ones charging higher rates or the banks. Generally brokers will steer people away from the banks and their significant mortgage break penalties towards more flexible mortgages that will save a lot of money if life circumstances change. This can make a difference of tens of thousands of dollars in those cases, not just the headline interest rate. Also Butler in particular rebates back some of their commission to achieve the lower effective rate they advertise. This (on top of volume discounts they get for being big) is how they offer lower rates. Sassafras fucked around with this message at 04:12 on Jan 13, 2021 |
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Jan 13, 2021 04:09
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Cyril Sneer posted:I'm possibly tentatively thinking about maybe finally going for buying a place. Two big questions come to mind: quote:(2) Looking around, the lowest interest rates I'm seeing are from various, uhh, mortgage brokerages (eg. Butler Mortgages), as opposed to banks. Is there anything I need to be concerned about in using these sorts of places?
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Jan 13, 2021 16:24
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What's a good ballpark figure for the total costs of buying a house as a percentage of the house price? (downpayment + sales tax, assessments, moving costs, new furniture costs, various legal/broker fees, installations and repairs, etc?) I've been told 1.25% -> 4% on top of the 20% downpayment but we're trying to be conservative for our own peace of mind, would 25% be way too conservative or realistic?
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Jan 13, 2021 18:30
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Location matters massively for closing costs - AB has practically zero, BC and ON have healthy property transfer taxes, Toronto area has double, and I dunno about other places.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:36
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Yeah honestly look up estimators/calculators for your area, it varies a lot.
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Jan 13, 2021 18:49
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Yeah, we paid around $12,000 in land transfer tax, $1200 for the lawyer, and probably around $8k total for things like furniture (we'd been renting mostly furnished stuff so didn't actually own things like a couch or bedframe or dining room table and chairs) and other random things we needed immediately (CO detector, replacement shelf for the one in the fridge that was broken, just tiny things like that you don't really think of but that do add up)
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Jan 14, 2021 00:01
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any advice on picking a mortgage broker? I have asked a couple of friends but turns out they used the same guy and both felt he got them a perfectly good deal but wasn't communicative.
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Jan 14, 2021 01:24
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Don't discount furniture, which is always a bitch when you suddenly have "too much house, not enough stuff" (don't worry, five years in, the ratio flips itself), but also be ready for the things you didn't expect. It's the middle of winter. Snowblowers/shovels/de-icing 50lb bags are all new expenses if you came from a condo/apartment/somewhere like the Niagara valley. One of my neighbours moved in and, first weekend the water tank (stored in a basement bathroom) leaks out in a comedy of errors, causing some epic damage. Way I did it was have a reserve nest egg after the move (thinking...10-12 grand?), and, as it was an open mortgage, every month I DIDN'T use it, I put 25% of that into the mortgage.
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Jan 14, 2021 04:43
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Truman Peyote posted:any advice on picking a mortgage broker? I have asked a couple of friends but turns out they used the same guy and both felt he got them a perfectly good deal but wasn't communicative. I used True North Mortgage for my last two renewals and they were excellent both times.
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Jan 14, 2021 16:11
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I'm 15 days away from closing and my mortgage lender has demanded that the gift my partner received from her mother in Hong Kong be verified with bank statements edit: from her mom's bank account. He said it was the law. Which is horseshit, it has to be. What is a tiny mortgage company going to do about it? It's reported to FINTRAC, there's an asset being bought, we're INCREDIBLY credit-worthy, and we've complied with every other bullshit stipulation they've thrown in our way. We have the downpayment! The house is loving bought! It's with Butler Mortgages too. The entity we're getting the loan from is XMC. redbrouw fucked around with this message at 22:29 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 22:26
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redbrouw posted:I'm 15 days away from closing and my mortgage lender has demanded that the gift my partner received from her mother in Hong Kong be verified with bank statements edit: from her mom's bank account. Not a laywer, but I think requesting proof of down payment funds and where it originated is perfectly legal.
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Jan 19, 2021 22:40
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Yeah all the mortgage brokers are incredibly pedantic the second there's any gifted money.
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Jan 19, 2021 22:47
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Yeah, it's the norm. I don't know how it works when it's from out of country but they're pretty anal with that stuff. A co-worker of mine was a first time home buyer that needed some funds from their folks to come up with the down payment and I remember it being a huge pain in the rear end for them, and that was 15-20 years ago. I can't imagine it's any easier now. e: And it's not so much for the broker - they're not the ones giving you the money, they are just, well, brokering it. It's their diligence for the financial institution that they are working with for your mortgage.
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Jan 20, 2021 05:22
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Yeah, that's very much both legal and normal.
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Jan 20, 2021 05:30
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I have no doubt it's legal to ask, but they cancelled the deal over it.
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Jan 20, 2021 18:39
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I don't think you're going to get much sympathy that you couldn't buy a house in Canada using a gift from your parents in Hong Kong lol
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Jan 20, 2021 18:57
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xtal posted:I don't think you're going to get much sympathy that you couldn't buy a house in Canada using a gift from your parents in Hong Kong lol Yes, I'm dying for sympathy from you. The question was about them claiming it was the law requiring them to ask, which turns out to be bullshit.
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Jan 20, 2021 19:23
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redbrouw posted:Yes, I'm dying for sympathy from you. Congratulations this is already the Vancouver landowner social mindset so you're well on your way.
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Jan 20, 2021 19:25
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redbrouw posted:I have no doubt it's legal to ask, but they cancelled the deal over it. Wait why did they cancel? You couldn't get the statements in time?
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Jan 20, 2021 19:32
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Less Fat Luke posted:Wait why did they cancel? You couldn't get the statements in time? It involves sending my wife's retired parent to the bank in HK physically. We told them they should have told us this a week ago and it would take time, and then they cancelled the deal through our broker.
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Jan 20, 2021 19:58
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redbrouw posted:It involves sending my wife's retired parent to the bank in HK physically. We told them they should have told us this a week ago and it would take time, and then they cancelled the deal through our broker. I'd feel safer going to a bank in Hong Kong given their stats than Toronto! But seriously, what are you going to do now, get the docs and find another broker?
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Jan 20, 2021 20:05
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Broker found a different lender he says is going to accept the documents as is. Asking for 90 days of bank statements from the other side of the world in an attempt to do the job of FINTRAC and then claiming it's Canadian law is just utterly bogus, so I'm glad we're not with them now. edit: they also have to travel an hour by bus from Yuen Long to HK, so it's not as safe as you'd think.
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Jan 20, 2021 20:14
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redbrouw posted:Asking for 90 days of bank statements from the other side of the world in an attempt to do the job of FINTRAC and then claiming it's Canadian law is just utterly bogus, so I'm glad we're not with them now. What? Are you just being pedantic? They do have a legal requirement to report suspicious transactions to FINTRAC.
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Jan 20, 2021 22:07
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Jenkl posted:What? Are you just being pedantic? They do have a legal requirement to report suspicious transactions to FINTRAC. The documents we provided on this were a gift letter from the parent, a picture of the depositing cheque, receipt from the bank and the FINTRAC international transfer report which identifies it as a gift for purchasing real estate. After having those documents for two weeks, they asked us for 90 days of her mother's bank statements. When we protested we couldn't do it and we were about to close, they abruptly cancelled on us. It's chilling how willing they were to believe an immigrant was a criminal. How would invading her mother's privacy help them? Why were they so willing to believe my portion of the downpayment was legit when it came from Scotland?
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Jan 20, 2021 22:49
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Jenkl posted:What? Are you just being pedantic? They do have a legal requirement to report suspicious transactions to FINTRAC. Who cares, it's just FINTRAC. Allow me to quote some numbers from the 2018-2019 FINTRAC Annual Report: Large Cash Transaction Reports 2018–19 10,055,099 Electronic Funds Transfer Reports 2018–19 17,627,947 Suspicious Transaction Reports 2018–19 235,661 Cross-Border Currency Reports 2018–19 61,583 Casino Disbursement Reports 2018–19 201,145 2,276 unique disclosures of financial intelligence to police, law enforcement and national security agencies, contributed to 296 project-level investigations across Canada So, 30 million transactions reported to FINTRAC yields ... 2300 disclosures and a total of 300 investigations? But really, it's weird that the one lender/underwriter went so hardcore. Maybe they had just read this piece that morning? When I bought a place, my parents insisted on a not-strictly-necessary gift toward my downpayment since they'd done similar for older siblings (who also hadn't needed it)... One prospective lender's underwriter went so far as to call them(!) up to confirm we had our story straight about the source of funds (petty cash) but still didn't demand statements, the others were cool with just a gift letter since they don't really care beyond being able to chase parents for funds if the gift turned out to be lie and I both repaid them and defaulted later. Overall, it would have been far less hassle for everyone had I just taken a bigger loan and immediately applied the gift as a prepayment, however, hindsight! redbrouw posted:The documents we provided on this were a gift letter from the parent, a picture of the depositing cheque, receipt from the bank and the FINTRAC international transfer report which identifies it as a gift for purchasing real estate. After having those documents for two weeks, they asked us for 90 days of her mother's bank statements. When we protested we couldn't do it and we were about to close, they abruptly cancelled on us. I'm pretty sure that the entire industry operates on a "oh poo poo, this file has the shortest deadline" basis and nobody touches anything until the very last possible minute no matter how long they had it.
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Jan 20, 2021 22:58
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The broker just called us and we were instantly approved by the second place. Maybe someone at XMC figured they didn't want the money.
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Jan 20, 2021 23:01
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Sounds like what we went through, except that the lender was using an antiquated check list - they required a copy of the physical check of the gift. Except it was a transfer within td, so there was no check and they couldn't get past that. Seriously. Different lender was no problem (also got a better rate too)
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Jan 21, 2021 02:37
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redbrouw posted:It's chilling how willing they were to believe an immigrant was a criminal. How would invading her mother's privacy help them? Why were they so willing to believe my portion of the downpayment was legit when it came from Scotland? Just today by total chance my sister in northern Alberta had her sale fall through due to something very similar.
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Jan 21, 2021 04:29
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Yeah man I'm not trying to say this isn't annoying or bad business or unreasonable. Just that them thinking it's the law is pretty normal, whatever their legal team told them counts as fulfilling their duty to FINTRAC is what they go with, even if its harsher than competitors or out of date.
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Jan 21, 2021 15:35
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Also lol at "my foreign investor parents are not Hong Kongers but Scottish!"
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Jan 21, 2021 15:42
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xtal posted:Also lol at "my foreign investor parents are not Hong Kongers but Scottish!" How are you wrong about everything? Who posts in an investment thread being butt hurt about money? redbrouw fucked around with this message at 19:20 on Jan 21, 2021 |
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Jan 21, 2021 19:18
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