What I did not know about mortgage insurance

As a real estate agent I am not directly involved with mortgages or their insurances.

I had a visit the other day from a lady who used to be a real estate agent,Wanda Zayachkowski. She used to work at the same office I did years ago. 

Since that time,  Wanda has changed careers, she is now selling insurance and during her visit, she told us a bit  of what she is doing now.

She told us that some of her findings may be of interest to us, regarding mortgage insurance.

As I am always open to learn and get new ideas, I was all ears, and so was my colleague Dee Pedwell.

Wanda gave us some interesting information that was very interesting and frankly puzzling.

It was information of interest to agents and people who are buying a home and considering buying mortgage protection insurance with their mortgage.

As most people, I had considered buying mortgage insurance a good idea, why wouldn't i be? . But Wanda posed the question;, " is it necessary? and more importantly will it do what you think it will do for you?" 

She told us that people often believe that mortgage protection insurance is like life insurance.

People believe, as I did that buying mortgage insurance meant that if they become sick, or if one of the people on title dies, that the mortgage will be protected or paid for. 

After having been on that path for a long time, paying the mortgage payments for many years, why or how could you not be protected?

After all, wasn't that is why you got the insurance in the first place?  So that in the case that you became sick and unable to work that you will be protected.

Apparently that is not the case, after all . Both Dee and I were down founded by Wanda's claims. 

Wanda who is probably used to people looking surprised at her claims, continued;   "You do not have to believe me", she said. She told us to watch this video from CBC to learn the truth about this type of insurance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe61HVGIwUo&feature=youtu.be.

I watched the video from Market Place and realized that because this type of insurance is what the industry calls " Post claim underwriting", it does not guarantee that you will qualify, although you are qualified to make payments on it.

Although you may think that you are covered, you may be totally uncovered in any kind of eventuality to protect the security of your lifestyle, by protecting your mortgage.

In Wanda’s experience switching to life insurance can save you money.

"I will have to look into it." and read more about it. We told her.

She added, "why pay premiums for mortgage protection insurance that might not pay when a claim is made?"

She also said that depending on needs the cost for life insurance is often less than mortgage protection insurance. Interesting stuff! 

Post claim underwriting, who knew?

It is good to always be open to learn from the people that are the specialists in their fields, that is another reason why networking with other professionals is a smart thing to do.

We are so lucky to live in such a wonderful community.

 Sitting in my home office during the ice storm last night, I spent quite a bit of time working on my files and multitasking.

I was reading the messages on Facebook from one of the East end community groups that I have recently joined.

It is interesting to notice that some of these groups have a  unique personality, different from other groups.


The  Danforth-Woodbine group  is the last community group I have joined. It is a very welcoming and friendly group. Last night it became clear that the group consisted of very caring individuals.


It was refreshing reading the posts that were being posted  every few seconds from caring people about things like, "watch your step out there" or  "it's very icy and slippery on such an such a street, be careful" or wanting to share and warn others of things like "our lights just went out on Queensbury, get your candles ready" and others saying  "our lights are flickering on Queensdale", " Then someone would say right after " so are ours"  and another response came quickly after hers,"mine too, we must be neighbors, lets get our emergency kits ready".

The sense of community was so strong, we were together,  united by our computers and smart phone screens, sharing our experiences, total strangers, being united by the storm, by our proximity to each others, by our humanity, by our shared experience.

It was nice to sit with a warm drink by the fireplace and know that many of the wonderful strangers I was getting to know, were doing the same thing, some alone, some with their families, their kids, their pets.

I imagined that some of them may had been sitting by their computers in the safety of their homes, with a warm drink,and maybe with a throw warming out by the fireplace. Some others communicating  with the smart phones while starting to cook dinner or while getting their children to settle down.

But one thing was bringing us all together, the desire to help each others. It gave me such a great feeling to see that neighbors were trying to help other neighbors, most of which were strangers,  but strangers who were linked with each others thanks to their community Facebook group. It warmed my heart and made me happy to be part of such wonderful community. I love my city!