RateHub Helps You Find the Best Mortgage Rates in Canada
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A couple of days ago I found myself in a discussion with a good friend from university about renting versus buying.
His contention was that people our age shouldn’t even be looking at buying a house or condo until we’re more settled. I disagreed.
I threw at him all the arguments you might expect. “Renting is throwing money away. Why not save enough for a down payment and start building wealth? It forces you to save instead of spend.”
He countered with some interesting points. You still “throw money away” when you buy a house because of insurance, property tax, and maintenance. Not to mention interest on the mortgage. Add to that the costly fees when you sell your home to access all that wealth you’re building, and it gets pretty expensive. Plus, we’re at pretty unstable points in our lives. Grad school is in the near future for both of us. Buying only pays off if you stay in the same home for several years. Both of us expect to move away before that–be it for grad school, careers, or the sake of traveling. It doesn’t make sense for twenty-somethings like us to think about buying right now.
Even though he’s convinced me to not buy a home any time soon, I’m still intrigued by RateHub, a Toronto-based startup that compares the best mortgage rates in Canada. A few weeks ago I had a chance to sit down with RateHub founder Alyssa Richard and get the scoop about how her company is using technology to change the real estate industry.
What I’m intrigued by is the set of mortgage and tax calculators as well as the education centre made available on RateHub. The calculators in particular exemplify web technology that enhances user experience, thereby drastically changing the home-buying process. Not only is the website a comparison service similar to elements of America’s recently-gone-public Zillow, but RateHub goes the extra mile by helping visitors to understand the headache brought on by the mortgage buying process.
It’s all part of a wider trend empowering consumers to make financial decisions about their homes from their keyboards. I mean, let’s look at the facts. Lenders and brokers across Canada are making their websites more user-friendly. At the end of last year, the national multiple listing service became available to the public. New condo listings sites like The Red Pin and Buzz Buzz Home fill a niche left unmet by the MLS. And now RateHub centralizes mortgage information for consumers, thus taking out much of the hassle in finding a new home.
The website is a pretty impressive feat for a team of just three staff and three interns. It was tough to find any flaws. The biggest problem I could find is that some pages contained information overload. The site provides detailed instructions on how to get tax credits for which you are eligible, comparisons between banks and brokers, and closing day instructions. You know, stuff about which you’d talk to somebody in person. When it comes to actually buying a mortgage, I expect this “problem” will become my favourite part of the site because I have an unhealthy obsession with research. But the point stands, it might be too much information for some people to handle. Unless you’re like me, fixated by this kind of stuff for the sake of learning.
For now, though, I’ll be looking to rent. But it’s nice that something like RateHub exists to make my life easier when purchase time comes around. Now that I know about it, I can’t imagine any reason why I won’t visit the site when I’m ready to buy. And that’s good news for brokers and lenders on RateHub. It’s good news for RateHub, too.
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