The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

My home, your home or our home When considering your living accommodation after you're married, there's nothing quite like owning your own home together. It's not yours or mine; it's ours, and maybe a place to start a family. If you are lucky enough to have received money for a down payment as a wedding gift, or one or both of you owns a house or condo you're considering selling to tradeup to a family home, it's really worthwhile talking to a mortgage expert before you talk to the real estate agent. Gathering relevant financial information is your first step to home ownership. Before you fall in love with a home, you'll want to know that your financing has already been arranged, and the following questions have been answered: · How much can we afford? · What's a comfortable mortgage payment for us? · What are the additional costs? · How fast do we want to pay down our mortgage? In fact, many real estate agents may encourage you to get a pre-approval before they begin working with you; and, when you have your mortgage financing arrangements in place it indicates to prospective vendors that you are a serious buyer. It also gives you the security of negotiating a house price that falls comfortably within your budget. Consider applying for a CIBC PreApproved Mortgage Certificate and shop for your first home together with confidence. You get a guaranteed interest rate for 60 days from the date of the preapproval certificate (or 90 days if you are considering buying a new construction home), plus the lowest CIBC rate that occurs for that mortgage during the guaranteed period-- whether the mortgage rates go up or down. A CIBC advisor can discuss your specific situation and give you all the information you need, or visit www.cibc.com/mortgages for useful mortgage calculators and articles to help you with your research.