Mulcair re-mortgages Hse 11 times, wtf ?

mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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You bought your house for 58,000...now it's worth 100,000. Rather than attempt to get a mortgage for a theoretical rental property, remortgage your existing home, and buy whatever rental property you want. The rent now pays your mortgage, and you own the rental outright. Lather, rinse, repeat. I've seen it done plenty. It's not 'abnormal', it's perfectly legal, the banks love you for it, and you're merely moving your investments around as you see fit. Just because someone else wouldn't choose to do it the same way doesn't mean diddly squat.

So this isn't a financial blunder then?
 

captain morgan

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First off, it's fine to say that election expenses are reimbursed to the individual, but in most worlds, you do have to pay your bills, so it's not inconceivable that the house was used as collateral. I know people who ran in elections, and had to do that, because most creditors actually want some security.

They don't hold elections every 1 and a half years. Second, the riding association will pay those expenses from he riding treasury for the incumbent (which Mulcair was for many years), it's the challengers that generally have to finance their runs on their own nickle.

Second, I don't have a mortgage, so that question is moot. We built our new place and didn't need a mortgage, we paid for it as we went. Amazing what you can do with investments.

We're not talking about you here, but since you bring it up, did the adults in your household draw 2 professional salaries for 30+ years? Not knowing what your occupation is/was, I can't comment, but in Mulcair's case, both he and his wife were/did have that kind of income.

BTW - Investments can be either amazing or heartbreaking... It goes both ways.

I can't say what I would think of one of my kids remortgaging, because I don't know WHY he did so.

That's the $64,000 question... Ironic though as there is a good chance that $64k was one of the refinancings for Mulcair

If you can explain all of Mulcair's financial transactions and the reasons behind them, then you can discuss it. Until then, you don't actually know what you're talking about.

Interesting comment when considered with the dodge above relative to your children. Can I take it that you deem it's normal for someone to refinance their home 11 times in a couple of decades simply because you don't know the reason?
 

mentalfloss

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How does one determine if his financial behaviour is abnormal or your financial behaviour is abnormal or mine or anyone elses? If you're not in jail or in bankruptcy court, you must not have crossed any lines....

I don't know the exact ramifications of something like this, but beyond the abnormality of it all, is it really a bad idea, financially?
 

karrie

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Jan 6, 2007
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So this isn't a financial blunder then?

I wouldn't do it. But I have friends who do. Their portfolios are a lot bigger than mine, but, they also have rich parents as safety nets... hubby and I don't. We stick with investing cash in hand, but, we also make more percentage in investments than we pay on our mortgage, so we don't rush to pay down our mortgage (which some find a bad financial stategy.... "pay down all debt dammit!").
 

mentalfloss

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I wouldn't do it. But I have friends who do. Their portfolios are a lot bigger than mine, but, they also have rich parents as safety nets... hubby and I don't. We stick with investing cash in hand, but, we also make more percentage in investments than we pay on our mortgage, so we don't rush to pay down our mortgage (which some find a bad financial stategy.... "pay down all debt dammit!").

Thanks Karrie.

I agree with the consensus that he isn't doing something dastardly wrong, or that it should even matter when it comes to public policy.
 

lone wolf

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I don't know the exact ramifications of something like this, but beyond the abnormality of it all, is it really a bad idea, financially?

I wouldn't do it - simply because I can't afford the loss should (sh)it happen. He wrung something like 300 grand out of 65 thou and the bankers aren't worried. Doesn't sound like a bad idea in personal financing....
 

captain morgan

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Whether you agree with the notion or not, I've seen plenty of investment strategies that include remortgaging your home to invest.

You're dead right, but doing so as often as Mulcair has puts him into an entirely different risk profile relative to the investments he seeks to acquire. The banks will definitely look at the frequency along with the nature of the investments.

In the end, there is too much that doesn't make sense in comparison to the suggestions made.


You bought your house for 58,000...now it's worth 100,000. Rather than attempt to get a mortgage for a theoretical rental property, remortgage your existing home, and buy whatever rental property you want. The rent now pays your mortgage, and you own the rental outright. Lather, rinse, repeat. I've seen it done plenty. It's not 'abnormal', it's perfectly legal, the banks love you for it, and you're merely moving your investments around as you see fit. Just because someone else wouldn't choose to do it the same way doesn't mean diddly squat.

Remortgaging your primary residence to buy an income property eliminates the ability to write-down the financing and take full advantage of the tax benefits. Further, the rental income will not be offset by the financing expense and the owner pays more in income tax than they needed to. Factor in the mortgage's interest rate is on the primary residence and the economics are negatively impacted on that basis as well.

The point I'm driving at here is that the household has 2 high income earners and they would (should) have enough disposable income to to finance the down payment through a numbered ltd company and get full exposure to all of the available write-downs and shelter themselves from the direct liabilities.
 

mentalfloss

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I wouldn't do it - simply because I can't afford the loss should (sh)it happen. He wrung something like 300 grand out of 65 thou and the bankers aren't worried. Doesn't sound like a bad idea in personal financing....

I guess he has the collateral in case of a shortfall.
 

JLM

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Have you remortgaged your home every 1.5 years for the last 20 years?

If one of your kids kept doing it, would you have enough concern to question them on it?

I would think it would be safe to assume he did it to improve his financial position.
 

captain morgan

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I guess he has the collateral in case of a shortfall.

The formula that I spelled-out is pretty standard practice. If the bank sought additional collateral then there is a reason that the banks wanted additional security

I would think it would be safe to assume he did it to improve his financial position.

Or finance a life style or possibly to finance new investments to make up for losses in the past. There are a raft of reasons why he made that choice, but ask yourself this JLM; who do you know that have refinanced their home that many times in a (relatively) short period of time?
 

JLM

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The formula that I spelled-out is pretty standard practice. If the bank sought additional collateral then there is a reason that the banks wanted additional security



Or finance a life style or possibly to finance new investments to make up for losses in the past. There are a raft of reasons why he made that choice, but ask yourself this JLM; who do you know that have refinanced their home that many times in a (relatively) short period of time?

It is not something I'd be the least interested in knowing, actually of all the people I do know, I know very little of their private financial business. However I think you've answered your own question......................."their are a raft of reasons why he made that choice", so why not just let it go at that?
 

captain morgan

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Have you seen something about the bank seeking additional collateral?


MF speculated on the possibility

It is not something I'd be the least interested in knowing, actually of all the people I do know, I know very little of their private financial business.

Have you ever taken an interest in the qualifications of an electrician you've hired? The ability of a surgeon you (or family) has needed? How about the truck you bought recently, any interest into looking at the track record of the company, or was that of no interest?
 

Walter

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No it's not, a line of credit is cheaper, and if your going to use it as an investment, you can deduct the interest on your income tax. So it makes no sense to take out a larger mortgage unless your in financial trouble, and you can't get a line of credit..
My mortgage is 2.25%, my LOC is prime plus 1. Mortgage is much cheaper.

Why is this a topic? Why is it any of our business how many times Mulcair remortgages his house. Do
you not think this is Mulcair's business and nobody else's?
We need to know how our elected leaders handle money.

Bull. His salary is public information. His private financing of his house is not.
It's public now.

Smells like scared conservatives.
We're always scared.

What's the balance on all of Harper's credit cards? Has he ever in his life not paid them all off each month? We need to know, so we can decide if he's responsible or not.
You're right; go find out.
 

mentalfloss

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He most certainly could be loaded, although it would be unusual for him to secure so many refinancings for what is relatively small amounts for a guy that is supposed to be wealthy

Who says they are relatively small amounts?