Mortgage 101 – Financing your Recreational Property

Dan Ahlstrand and Clinton Wilkins discussed an upcoming event on May 24 focusing on reverse mortgages.

Dan Ahlstrand
And we’re back to Mortgage 101. I’m Dan Ahlstrand. He is Clinton Wilkins, and Clinton, that was a pretty informative couple of segments that we did there. I know there are a lot of people who are out in the market who have had a lot of questions about reverse mortgages.

Clinton Wilkins
We could do an hour about reverse mortgages, and there would probably still be more questions. So we’re gonna solve a little bit of this for our listeners. We’re having an event. So, an event, you can come and hang out with Dan and me, and we’re gonna have Trevor from Home Equity Bank, and we’re doing an afternoon for mothers, fathers, parents and grandparents on May 24, and you can register. You have to get a ticket. It’s free, but you have to get a ticket. And you can get it on our website, at Team clinton.ca/radio, it’ll pull up our website. And then you can click through to the Eventbrite and register. It’s going to be at the public on South Park. It’s really going to be a cool event from two to four on the 24th, and we’re going to talk a little bit about reverse mortgages. It’s not going to be a whole like event. We’re not doing a radio show or anything there. It’s mostly going to be like, have a tea, have a coffee, have a Caesar, a mimosa, maybe a couple of little finger sandwiches and a little treat, and it will be all good. And I think it’ll be good. I’m excited.

Dan Ahlstrand
And you can, if you have some questions that we didn’t get to, then we could talk. Good opportunity to answer those questions.

Clinton Wilkins
I think it’s maybe I’ll do a little fireside chat or something, but it’s not gonna be like two hours of us talking. Like, we’ll probably talk for like 15 minutes or half an hour maybe. We’re gonna talk more about reverse mortgages, for sure. And I really want to have it be a venue where you can go, and it’s going to celebrate Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and you can come and see what we look like and talk to us.

Dan Ahlstrand
An important conversation, too. Because, as we were talking about before, a lot of people don’t have that conversation with their parents about the state of their finances, and don’t know what kind of financial state they’re in.

Clinton Wilkins
I’m not saying, sneak attack, and bring your parents to my event. But like, if you want to bring them, that’s great, come. And I think Trevor’s probably going to give away some prizes and stuff. Like, we’re all about making a little fun event, and it’s rated between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. I hope it’ll be a really great weather day, and it’s directly across from the public gardens. So why not, like, come to our event for a couple of hours, from two to four and then go into the gardens, park at Park Lane or whatever, and walk around the downtown core. So I hope we’ll get some of our listeners out. We’re going to send an email out to all of our clients and, really, your business partners as well, because they know people who need reverse mortgages and need some advice. And it’s not just about, hey, let’s get Clinton some more transactions. I mean, sure, we always want more business, but I think the advice piece is just so important. And I think it’ll be a good chance, celebrate everyone and who doesn’t want a little like high tea, especially, we can have a most in a Caesar and a cup of tea and a couple of little sandwiches and stuff. And I think it’ll be fun. And not a lot of people have been to public. It’s a new restaurant, and it’s right on South Park. So come on, come on down.

Dan Ahlstrand
It’ll be fun. And you can say hi. And doesn’t have to be a reverse mortgage question. You can, it can just be a mortgage question, why not?

Clinton Wilkins
But we’re gonna get people to come probably for two, so then maybe, if they want to leave by 3:00 or 3:30, that’s cool too. So I think it’ll be, it’ll be good. It’s going to be on a Sunday, and May 24 will be here just in a couple of weeks.

Dan Ahlstrand
Right after the long weekend. And that gets us into the summer season.

Clinton Wilkins
Clinton, I know summer is literally right around the corner. I live for it. And, talking about summer and talking about spring, I think there’s lots on the go in terms of the real estate market, but people are really asking me to, there’s a big talk about renovations, and it’s kind of that hot season where people are changing their windows, or they’re paving their driveway, or they’re building it.

Dan Ahlstrand
On the way in to record the show, I drove through the south end of Halifax, and there were a lot of people with mulch, and we’re doing some mini excavators in their yard, and we’re doing the landscape for the summer.

Clinton Wilkins
I think it’s a great time to do some of that hardscaping and landscaping, like on your property. And, I think also, like when you’re buying a property, it’s a great time to have a look. We said that kind of thing on our previous segment,, it I think when you have that good weather, people are just more motivated to do things. It doesn’t matter what that thing is. It may be buying a piece of real estate, it may be refinancing their mortgage and getting their finances straight, or it might be improving their property. And, we’re seeing all those different customers.

Dan Ahlstrand
You mentioned it earlier, and it’s something that is in my realm these days, and that is a recreational property. You say that you regret getting rid of your cottage? A couple of times. What are the rules when it comes to recreational properties? Is it more difficult to get a mortgage? Do you have to have a bigger down payment on a recreational property?

Clinton Wilkins
So this is not going to be your primary residence. You can technically get a high-ratio insured mortgage with as little as 5% down. As long as this is not a rental, okay, if it’s really a recreational property, what we consider a type B property, that might be on post, that might not have a well, it might not have septic, it might not have your rent access grid. It might be off the grid. It might not have a central heating system. If it doesn’t have any one of those things, it’s a type B property. Those who need a minimum of 10% down may find it a little bit harder to finance. They’re a little riskier; those may not. They might not sell as quickly, but we do those types of transactions every single day. And there are some beautiful second homes that I see people buying and refinancing, and we do transactions on them.

Dan Ahlstrand
And we all work hard, and we all kind of need a place to disappear to. Or a recreational property so that I can, I can get, I’m an outdoorsy kind of guy. I’m out in the woods all the time, and it would be nice to have my own so well, especially everybody off.

Clinton Wilkins
Especially with your new job, and I know we kind of like joke about what we do here every day, but whatever we do, we’re working very hard. And I think sometimes you need to reap some of these benefits of your hard work. And probably some of our listeners are like, well, Clinton’s a scrooge. He says, Don’t borrow money. Don’t renovate my property. Don’t buy a second home. And, for me, I just want people to be safe and secure in their finances. I’m like, let’s do what is right for you and what’s right for you today may be different from what’s right for me a year from now, but I think it’s all about having a plan. And I think being safe and secure in those finances is really good. I see so many people who are sometimes in that financial hardship, and it’s sometimes due to some bad decisions. Usually it’s a health issue, matrimonial breakdown, loss of employment or something like that. But sometimes it’s just because they were reckless with their finances. And that’s why I think it’s important to, like, make a plan.

Dan Ahlstrand
Have a conversation with somebody like a mortgage broker, because then you can, you can lay it all bare, so to speak, when it comes to your finances, to your debt, to your equity. And you can figure out, okay, yeah, the economy’s in a bit of a tough stream.

Clinton Wilkins
And I think about that even in my own life, like our previous guest, Trevor. I’ve known him for 20, 21 years, and during one of the breaks, he’s like, Clinton, let me tell you, you impacted mortgage brokers here in Atlantic, Canada and probably across the country; no one was doing some of the stuff that you were doing. Yeah, guess what? I fell flat on my face so many times. I’ve had the losses, I’ve had the successes. And the one thing that I think really kind of set me and us apart as a business is that we always showed up. Not only did we show up for our customers and our business partners and our team, but I showed up for myself. And let me tell you, it is I’m exposed here being on the radio. I’m not a media personality, Dan. I’ve been on your show, live on the air, and people are coming in the studio.

Dan Ahlstrand
But on my show more than I’ve been on.

Clinton Wilkins
Maybe that may not be actually, come on a couple more times. Just kidding. Some of our listeners are like, “We don’t want to hear from this guy.” I am joking, joking, self-deprecating or whatever. It takes a lot of guts to like show up.

Dan Ahlstrand
It does.

Clinton Wilkins
And do it over and over again, and sometimes I say the wrong thing, sometimes I make a mistake. But what? Our listeners are so gracious. They’re so gracious to me. I even get some of these comments in that, what? I’ve never had a mortgage. I’m probably not gonna buy a piece of real estate, but I just love listening to your show because we talk about other things. It’s about personal finance. It’s about people’s lives. We try to make it as fun as possible, especially after all these years. But what I really like Dabout an is, as much as the show might have been built by Todd and me, we’ve kind of now made it our own, and now it’s a whole new kind of generation and a new set of listeners that are going to be experiencing.

Dan Ahlstrand
Mother’s Day is coming up. Don’t forget mom. Father’s Day is coming up. Don’t forget Dad. And a good way to do those of you who still have mom and dad.

Dan Ahlstrand
Nobody can really remember your mom and your dad during those days. I know sometimes that holiday’s tough, but this event that you have planned, I think, is right in a perfect spot, because it’s right in the middle between the two. And you can bring them out, you can show them a new restaurant, and you can meet Clinton, and maybe learn something more than you’ve learned on this edition of the show.

Clinton Wilkins
Yeah, exactly. And it’s like, let’s just come out and celebrate. If you don’t even care about reverse mortgages, I’ll, that’s fine. Come out, have a little lunch, have a drink, have a little afternoon high tea. And, we love to see people. I love to see our clients. I love to see our listeners. And I think it’ll be a good chance for us all to get together and celebrate the people who have really put the most effort into our lives. It’s our mothers, fathers, it’s our parents, it’s our grandparents, and we’d love to see people on the 20. We’ll be back next month. Until then, everybody be well and be kind to one another.