If it’s time for you to renew your mortgage, you want to be certain of getting the very lowest rate available, and while a local mortgage broker can help you, you can also help yourself by following these tips:

When it comes to mortgages, buying your first home differs greatly to buying a second, vacation home, with lenders viewing your application entirely differently. If you’ve been the type of homeowner who has always repaid their mortgage, making timely payments and consistently, then you should encounter a smoother experience when it comes to buying another home.

High risk mortgages are generally offered to individuals with bad credit, and the easiest way to avoid only being able to qualify for such a mortgage, is to improve the factors that make you a risky borrower. That said, credit scores cannot be altered much overnight, and even if they could, another event such as defaulting on another loan, could you find you catapulted right back into high-risk territory.

Taking advantage of low interest rates (historically low, in Canada’s case) is possible with a mortgage pre-approval, and while it doesn’t provide you with a guarantee that you’ll be approved for a mortgage, it does give you the opportunity to lock in a low interest rate – if only for a matter of weeks.