An Incentive for a First-Time Home Buyer
A shared equity mortgage, the First-Time Home Buyer Incentive, provides support for one of the largest investments of your life. The Government of Canada will share in both the upside and downside of the property value. To relieve some of the financial burden, eligible first-time home buyers can finance a portion of their home purchase, as long as they have the minimum down payment for an insured mortgage. The incentive can be repaid over a period of 25 years or when the property is sold, and there are no prepayment penalties. For the following home types, you can receive;
- Newly Constructed Home: five per cent or ten per cent for a first-time buyer’s purchase
- Existing Home (Resale): five per cent for a first-time buyer’s purchase
- Mobile/Manufactured Home (New or Resale): five per cent for a first-time buyer’s purchase
This allows for the buyer to save less for a down payment. Larger down payment = smaller mortgage = lower monthly costs. 
Fall Maintenance: Closing UpThe Pipes
As the cold weather approaches, there is an easy, yet very crucial task to complete for proactive homeowners this fall season. By shutting off and draining the pipes of your exterior faucets, you can prevent both internal and external damage to your home. To avoid having an unwanted pool party in your basement this winter, here is a general run down of how to decommission your outdoor water supply;
1. Locate all of your exterior faucets, disconnect and drain any hoses and store them.
2. Having noted where the faucets appear to enter your home, head inside to find the corresponding shut-off valves. Each interior supply line should have a lever valve and a bleeder cap (bleeder caps drain excess water and any trapped air). Shut off the valve.
3. Return outside to the faucets and open them to allow the remaining water to escape.
4. Lastly, head back inside to the valves and open up the bleeder caps to do a final drain, a bucket is suggested for this step to catch the extra water. Close cap.
If you do not seem to have a bleeder cap, don’t panic! You most likely have frost-proof faucets and are not required to drain your supply line from the inside of your home.
