Financing Home Renovations

Tracy Head • February 10, 2023

My last column I talked about looking at refinancing your home to consolidate debts or pull money for

renovations to your home. It struck a nerve with several people – I’ve had great conversations with

people I wouldn’t normally have connected with.


February 25 and 26 I will be at the Kelowna Home Show at Prospera place. As I’ve been busy preparing

the subject of home renovations and products has been very much on my mind. If you are going to the

trade show you may come away with ideas for new projects you want to tackle at your own home.

One option that you may not be aware of is a Purchase Plus Improvements mortgage. The short version is that you add the cost of renovations into your home upfront when you buy.


Here’s how this can work.

Let’s say you found a home in a terrific neighbourhood that checks almost all of the boxes on your wish list. The home has a great layout, is in the right school catchment area, and is central to all of the things you like to do in your spare time. The only thing is that the house is really dated inside. Or maybe you want to renovate the basement to add a rental suite.


You have scrimped and saved for your down payment but there is no chance you can come up with

another $40,000 to renovate the kitchen and bathroom and change out the flooring. The house has

great bones but you would like to invest in a home that you will be happy to come back to at the end of your work day.


A Purchase Plus Improvements mortgage can be a brilliant option for you. Here is how the program

works. You find a home priced at $400,000. You do some homework and know that for $40,000 you can give the main floor a complete overhaul and update.


We would put your new mortgage together to reflect your purchase price of $400,000 + $40,000 for the renovations. Your down payment would be $22,000 – only $2,000 more than if you did not add in the renovation budget.


In the first scenario where you buy the home with no renovation funds your monthly payment would be about $2,229. 26. (based on a 5 year fixed rate of 4.69%).


Adding the renovations funds in your payment would be $2,452.19.

For a difference of $222.93 per month, you could move into a freshly updated home that suits your

tastes and family needs.


The additional renovation funds will be held in trust with your lawyer or notary until the renovations are complete, so the challenge can be paying for the work and materials upfront but there are options

available to help with that. If you come to the home show – which is free admission this year – pop by and say hi.


If you’d like to talk about how a Purchase Plus Improvements or a refinance for renovations might be the right fit for I’m happy to answer your questions.

Tracy Head

Mortgage Broker

GET STARTED

Changes Affecting Financing

By Tracy Head • November 14, 2025
I consider myself a lifelong learner, which is part of the reason I love my work. Every day there is something new and exciting to learn, or in some cases re-learn. When I first came back to the mortgage world a more seasoned broker gave me a copy of a handout she used with clients. It talked about the ten most important things NOT to do between removing your financing subject and finalizing the purchase of your home. At the time I remember thinking that the handout sounded patronizing and I assumed clients just understood they shouldn’t do any of the ten things. You know what they say about assuming things. Once or twice my clients have made decisions that have almost jeopardized their financing. The reason this came up for me right now is that I am working my way through a training course which is geared towards helping me re-design my team and my workflow, with the ultimate goal of providing even better support to my clients. One of the changes I am going to implement is adding a list very similar to the original ten things not to do list to my signing packages so that we are all on the same page and avoid any potential challenges down the road. What are the ten things? I won’t go over all of them, but here are a few of the things that have surfaced recently: If you change the closing date on your purchase or if you receive the Notice of Completion on a newly built home, advise your mortgage person right away. Never assume your realtor will do this for you. Do not go out and finance anything without checking with your mortgage person. If you are pushing the upper limit of your buying power even a small loan for furniture might put your financing at risk. Many lenders pull your credit again shortly before your mortgage finalizes. Along the same lines, make sure all of your payments are made on time. Do not co-sign a loan for anyone. Do not quit your job or change employers without talking to your mortgage person ahead of time. Do not spend any of the money you have tucked away for your down payment. If you have money sitting in higher-risk investment better to move them to something more stable in case of market fluctuations. Most people think that once they get the ok to remove their financing subject that their mortgage is a done deal. The small print on every mortgage commitment includes a clause that says something along the lines of “Your financing is based on your current situation. Material changes to your situation prior to the funding of your mortgage may affect your approval.” I’m currently working with a young lady that decided to purchase a boat between the time we had our pre-approval conversation and the day she wrote her offer to purchase. She had decided not to buy a home then found her dream property. We’ve had to look at a few options as the boat payment threw her ratios out of line. She is fortunate that her parents are very supportive and are going to gift her the money to pay off the boat loan, but if she didn’t have that back up plan the new loan would have reduced her borrowing power by over $100,000. The reason I added the comment “without checking with your mortgage person” in the bullets above is that every client’s situation is unique and some of those changes might be just fine. Some might not, and the last thing you want to do is find yourself scrambling to figure out a Plan B shortly before closing.  Best to have the conversation and be certain.

Mortgage Options

By Tracy Head • November 1, 2025
In past columns I’ve covered when no means no and when no means maybe there’s another option. There are many aspects of my work that I love. One is that I learn something new each and every day. No two clients are the same and no two applications are the same. Some are easier than others to put together. Another thing I love is that we have so many options to consider when working on our files. I do find immense satisfaction when I tackle a complicated file and find a great solution for my clients. I am working with an amazing young couple as they build their portfolio of rental properties. They are relatively young but both work incredibly hard and really have their ducks in a row. The plot twist they have is that they both transitioned from salaried positions to being self-employed over the last year. Their credit scores are both in the high 800s (900 is a perfect score), they are both making substantial income, and they have saved over $100,000 for their down payment.  Seems like a slam dunk right? Because they don’t have two years of filed tax returns as self-employed business people our options are a bit limited. There is a program we use in this situation but their scenario does not fit within the guidelines. Their dream home just came on the market so they are wanting to buy and convert their current home to a rental property. This particular home came up in the neighborhood they really want to be in, and homes don’t come up very often. It is immaculate and has a legal suite. They had originally approached their bank and been told it was a hard no. I work with their realtor fairly often and she suggested they give me a call. Within 24 hours we had the approval in place for them. We ended up taking the application to an alternative lender for a two-year term. The interest rate is about .5 per cent higher than a chartered back and there is a 1 per cent fee charged. We weighed out the pros and cons of going this route versus holding off until their next tax returns are filed before purchasing another property. After chatting with their financial advisor and accountant they felt it was worth the slightly higher interest rate to be able to buy the home now. I will say I love straightforward simple applications but in reality those are few and far between. Most of the applications I work on these days seem to have some sort of plot twist like this one so I am very grateful there are so many options available to help clients who may fall a little outside of the standard lending guidelines.