Mortgage 101 – How to be a Smart Borrower

In this special “Best of 2025” episode of Mortgage 101, Clinton Wilkins breaks down the year’s biggest trends in homeownership and mortgage lending. Clinton shares candid advice on the responsible use of home equity lines of credit, emphasizing the importance of not treating your home as an ATM.

Clinton Wilkins
Welcome back to the Mortgage 101 Best of 2025 special. We’re breaking down what’s happened so far this year and all things about home ownership. In March, we tackled the often misunderstood world of home equity lines of credit. While they can be a useful tool for the right borrower, they can also be a financial trap.

Clinton Wilkins
I think some people in HELOCs should not be in HELOCs. And I can tell you, I see these clients, I bring them in, I pay them out, and I close them down.

Todd Veinotte
But responsible people like you, it’s great. You often said, Don’t use your house as an ATM.

Clinton Wilkins
Yeah, don’t use your house as an ATM, you know, there are people that just refinance all the time, and even some of my own clients, some of my own clients, refinance, and then sometimes I think they don’t come back because I feel ashamed. Is that right? Yeah, I found out about one today that ended up going to another financial institution. Which doesn’t happen very often. Once in a very blue moon, Clinton lost a client. Breaking news: I lost a client. And when I found out that I lost them, I was actually a little bit like, shocked and saddened, because I have a long-term relationship with these people, and I would look back in their file, and I’m like, they refinanced a lot. I think it just got to the point where they’re like, we feel bad, and we don’t want to go back. I’d rather someone come to me and I give them the advice, because I probably would have said, Okay, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. Let’s get you on track. So I don’t know what kind of advice they got somewhere else, but I always say, Come to me. We’re we have an open door. Email me, call me. You know, I’m always willing to talk through a scenario. I never want people to feel, you know, bad about their situation in my job. I always want to put people in the very best possible situation I can.

Todd Veinotte
All right, so outside of, if people need equity or cash or to do upgrades, it is outside of a HELOC. What other options are there?

Clinton Wilkins
Sometimes people just do a straight refinance. Straight refinance, yeah, and that happens a lot at renewal. Sometimes that renewal, sometimes mid-term, Todd. It just depends on people’s situation. And a standard standalone mortgage is good for a lot of people. The people who would want to do this for improvements are doing the work right away. The rate on our mortgage is going to be lower than it is going to be on a home equity line of credit. So if they need the money right away, sure, do it as a standalone mortgage. Then sometimes, you know, even if I do the standalone mortgage, I still give them the home equity line if they don’t need all of the available equity, just so they have a fallback position. But you know, if they need the money right away, put it with the mortgage, because that rate will be less.

Todd Veinotte
What percent of people who are qualifying for mortgages, uh, pay their mortgage and don’t default? It’s astronomically high numbers, like 99% Yeah, 99% right?

Clinton Wilkins
And I mean, just throwing 99, that’s like a maybe I might be actually above 99, is that right? Yeah, it’s a very high percentage. And the Canadian Bankers Association thought that we would see more defaults, up to about a 4% range. We’ve not seen that. I think there are more arrears today than there were over COVID because there are so many programs. And that’s one thing that we need to be very cognizant of going into the tariff situation. You know us seeing our economy, uh, go into recession, there can be more losses and more defaults. Ask for help before you get into a default situation.

Clinton Wilkins
In April, we welcome Keith Kenny from Century 21 to chat about which neighbourhoods offer good value and how the areas of Dartmouth and Fairview are evolving.

Clinton Wilkins
We’d love to have this market knowledge. We’ve had Realtors on before, and that is not true. We’ve had some really great Realtors on. All our guests have been good. I’m trying a little part. And there’s just so much going on right now, I find, and real estate is such a hot topic. Mortgage Lending is such a hot topic, and I’m glad that we are here with you to be a part of the conversation.

Todd Veinotte
So, Keith, when it comes to parts of the community, parts of HRM that are really, obviously, the peninsula is the potential, right? That’s a different kettle of fish. But are there any places like, I don’t know, on the outskirts of Brie field, wherever that are still really a good buy? Where can you get good buys?

Keith Kenny
I think so. I think Dartmouth downtown is still a great investment opportunity. The location is amazing.

Clinton Wilkins,
Absolutely, there myself, that’s beautiful. And the office is there.

Keith Kenny
There you go. Fairview, of course, is still an incredible value. Fairview is up and coming, you know. And if you look back 20 years ago, nobody really wanted ago, nobody really wanted to live in the North End, Halifax, and now it’s bump in Fairview, location-wise, close to the bridges.

Todd Veinotte
What about North Street? Because I go down North Street, and you get that vibe that it’s still got some grit to it, but you just also get the vibe that that’s going to be a gentrified area.

Keith Kenny
You know, what? With the center plan, with the corridor zoning, and a lot of different zoning changes, you’re going be see some larger buildings going along a grid and North Robie Street, Windsor Street.

Clinton Wilkins
Really, they have, like, the skyline looks so different from it did even, like, five years ago.

Keith Kenny
And they’re concentrating on those main thoroughfares to really increase the density to add some more vibrance to the city. And of course, unfortunately, it does lose some of the character. But, you know, I’m used to improving the infrastructure of Halifax; it’s a bit necessary.

Todd Veinotte
This is very important.

Keith Kenny
You know, the challenge with Halifis was not built to be a large city. It was built a long time ago. So we’re dealing with even thinking about the population growth we’ve had the last couple of years. It’s really difficult, but you know, let’s just think about the internal infrastructure of Halifax. The more density we can improve on the peninsula itself, and the less urban sprawl, the less you know, we’re going to have the service, whether it’s snow plowing or municipal water and sewers or this kind of thing. So it’s good business, but it is tough for people who live in Halifax to see some of the, you know, older structures get removed.

Clinton Wilkins
Back in April, we were touch-and-go with the Canadian federal election and tariff talks… But I still held out hope that it would continue to see a lower key overnight rate.

Clinton Wilkins
I kind of took the impression that it’s pretty good news about what’s going on. I don’t know if that would have been the same. We had that same update last April. I don’t think we would have so anyway, it’s good, I can tell you, in mortgage lending, it’s very busy, and one of the things that we’re talking about the most right now is what is going on with interest rates, right? What is going on? I mean, your guess is they’re on their way down. Are they not? They’re definitely on their way down. But there’s just so much uncertainty with what’s going on with the federal government. Obviously, we’re in an election cycle. What’s going on in the US, and how is that going to impact things? What I can speak to is what we know right now: rates are on a downward trend. Typically, when they’re on a downward trend, they will continue going down until we get to a place where they’re going to be stable. They’ll be stable for quite some time, and then the rates will go up, typically when inflation goes up, and they need to stop and they need to slow inflation again. The one uncertainty is that the inflation numbers were out, and inflation is up. I think that was maybe a little bit artificial with this HST holiday that we had earlier this year. So it’ll be interesting to see the changes with the carbon. There are just so many little things that are impacting things. And I mean, it’s little Donald Trump, the current prime minister, Mark Carney, going into the election. There are a lot of things that are going to impact what’s going on right now. What I’ll say to people is, I think the Bank of Canada is going to continue to lower the key overnight rate. A lot of economists think we’re gonna see that the rate will be 5075, basis points less, but the rates are way down. We are getting interest rates sometimes as low as 3.99 right now. Other rates are four and a quarter, four and a half. The rates are way lower than they were a year and two years ago. There’s not going to be some big revolution or something that the rates are going to be back at 1% I don’t think that’s going to happen. I think rates are in a more stable environment. I think they’re going to continue going down, but I don’t think they’re going to stay going down. So I think you need to be happy with what you get. And I think if you’re going to choose to transact with someone. If you’re gonna choose to transact with your bank, you’re gonna choose to transact with your unbiased mortgage professional. Be loyal to the person you know. Get the advice. Get the advice that works for you. I think of developing a relationship. I think the relationship is more important than anything else. I think the relationship is key. And I think there’s just so much noise that people hear that they’re like, Why do you talk to this? And you talk to thnd it and it almost gets to a situation that people just can’t make a decision.

Todd Veinotte
I would add to that, Clinton, that you develop a relationship, but also know when a relationship isn’t working for you, totally right?

Clinton Wilkins
And I mean, that’s that, I think that’s on both sides. On both sides exactly. You need to have someone that you’re going to trust and that you’re going to stay with. Gonna stay with them. It’s not a, you know, a one-and-done, at least for us. I’ve had clients that I’ve been doing business with for literally 20 years, and these clients are loyal. They’re not blindly loyal. And I’m not blindly, you know, thinking that they’re just gonna trust me carte blanche. We’re gonna do the best for them for their specific scenario, but their situation also changes, and the advice that I give them today may be different from what it is a month or two from now, but mortgage lending is really a snapshot in time. Stay tuned to find out more about how 2025 is looking up. Plan for more expert insights on this Best of Mortgage 101 show.