Craig Spicer Mortgages

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Dartmouth, NS
Craig Spicer Mortgages

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Mortgage Broker Lic #3001025
Premiere Mortgage Centre Brokerage Lic #3000075
A referral from you is the greatest compliment you can give me.

10/31/2026

🎃 Happy Halloween!

Porch light on, bowl by the door, and a kid in a costume that took three weeks to make and ten minutes to abandon for a hoodie. Enjoy the night.

Craig

10/30/2026

Scariest things clients have said to me, ranked. 🎃

5. "We put the down payment on a credit card for the points."
4. "My cousin says rates are going to zero in the spring."
3. "The bank said I didn't need to read that part."
2. "We signed Friday. Is now a bad time to ask what a penalty is?"
1. "I'm sure it's fine."

All five got fixed. None of them were fine. Happy Halloween from Dartmouth, where the only thing that should jump out at you this weekend is a seven-year-old in a dinosaur suit.

Craig

10/28/2026

📊 The Bank of Canada raised its rate this morning, a quarter point to 2.50 percent. First hike since 2023. Here is what that actually means, three questions, no hedging.

Closing in the next 60 days? If you are pre-approved on a fixed rate, your hold is your hold. If you chose variable, your rate moves up a quarter point from your next payment date, and your lender's prime follows within days.

Renewing in the next year? Get the renewal number in writing this week and send it to me. The posted renewal rate rarely moves as fast as the Bank does, in either direction, and the Bank said today it may raise again.

If you called me right now, I would tell you: a quarter point is a cup of coffee a day on most Dartmouth mortgages. Do not panic, do not sign anything, send me the letter.

The next announcement is December 9. Between now and then, the fine print on your own mortgage matters more than the headline.

📞 902-209-4518 | craigspicer.com

10/25/2026

A couple in Cole Harbour called in September. 2 years left on a 4.89% fixed, and a new job in Bedford that made the bridge at 5 pm unbearable.

The bank said port it. Move the mortgage to the new house, blend the extra $180k at today's rate, no penalty.

I ran the other version anyway. Break it, pay the $4,200 penalty, start fresh on a 3 year term at a lower rate. Over the time they actually plan to be in the house, that version came out $2,900 ahead, penalty included.

They ported. Not because the math said so. They wanted the shorter closing window and the certainty, and that is a fine reason. The point is they chose with both numbers in front of them, before the listing went up.

Moving before your term is up is a two-number decision. Get both.

📞 902-209-4518 | craigspicer.com

10/22/2026

Three things I said to self-employed clients this week, in the order I said them.

"Your accountant is very good at making you look poor. The lender reads the same return."

"Two years of filed returns. Not two good months."

"Stop apologising for how you get paid. Tell me how you get paid."

It is Small Business Week, and about a third of my files are people who own the business on the sign. The bank's answer is often a shrug. That is a reading problem, not a you problem. Bring me the returns and I will tell you what a lender sees in ten minutes.

No pressure. Just good advice.

📞 902-209-4518

10/12/2026

🍁 Happy Thanksgiving from Dartmouth.

The part of this job I am most thankful for is not the closings. It is the question people are embarrassed to ask their bank, and ask me instead.

Every one of those questions is the start of the real work.

Thank you for the trust. Enjoy the weekend.

Craig

10/09/2026

📂 The Full Picture: your income isn't complicated. It's a pattern.

Fishers whose year lands in two seasons. Tradespeople whose busiest months are July and August. People running a business from a truck. All of you apologize to me in the first ten minutes. There is no need!

Lenders look at two years and average them. What shrinks that number isn't your line of work. It's writing everything off and then hoping. That's an accountant-and-broker conversation, and it works best in the same month.

Which lender reads your pattern best is the real question.

🔗 craigspicer.com

10/02/2026

🧩 The rate is one number. Here's every other number that matters.

I say this a lot, so I finally wrote it down. When people call me, the first question is almost always about rate. That's fair. It's the number every ad shows you. But it's one line on a mortgage that has a dozen, and some of the others will affect your life more than the rate ever will.

The penalty formula decides what it costs if your plans change mid-term. Prepayment room decides what you can do with a good year. Here in Nova Scotia, the heating estimate on an older oil-heated house in Dartmouth can move your qualification more than a small rate difference would. And deed transfer tax lands on closing day whether anyone warned you or not.

None of this is complicated. It's just rarely explained in one place. So I put it in one place.

Swipe through, save it, and send it to whoever in your life is about to sign something.

🔗 craigspicer.com

09/30/2026

September 30. The Shubenacadie residential school closed in 1967.

That's inside a lifetime. Survivors live here in HRM. Their kids and grandkids do too.

I talk about home for a living. Today I'm listening instead.

Craig

09/26/2026

💡 The Full Picture: Breaking your mortgage early is not always a penalty. Sometimes it is a strategy.

Most homeowners hear "break your mortgage" and immediately think of thousands of dollars in fees. That is fair. Penalties can be steep, especially on a fixed rate with a big bank.

But here is what most people do not consider: if the savings from switching to a better rate or a different product outweigh the penalty, you come out ahead. Sometimes significantly.

The math depends on your lender, your product, and how much time is left on your term. A variable rate penalty is typically three months of interest. A fixed rate penalty can be calculated using the interest rate differential, which is more complex and varies by lender.

This is not a decision you make from a blog post. It is a conversation where someone runs your actual numbers. That is what I do.

If you have been wondering whether it makes sense to make a change before your term is up, let's look at the full picture.

📞 (902) 209-4518 | craigspicer.com

Address

610 Wright Avenue Unit 2
Dartmouth, NS
B3B0H8

Telephone

+19022094518

Website

http://www.craigspicermortgages.ca/

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