Do I Qualify
Overview of the qualifying process that you and I will go through together:
- We meet for an hour to go through a mortgage application together. This consists of me asking you questions about your financial situation, as well as understanding your goals and objectives for obtaining financing
- I run your credit report, as this is a key factor in determining what interest rates a lender will offer you
- You provide me with certain key documents that verify the information you’ve given me
- I then put your entire application together in a package, to present to various lenders
- Once you give me the green light, I begin the shopping and negotiating process until I find the lender who is truly eager to have our business
- If we run into any challenges or road blocks with getting you approved, I work with you to come up with creative solutions.
- After I find the right lender, they issue me a written mortgage commitment that you and I review and sign together
- We provide the lender with any additional documents that they need as per the mortgage commitment issued
- Your financing is complete
Common myths:
If I don’t have a down payment saved, I cannot buy property
In Canada, the minimum down payment is 5% of the purchase price
However, I have access to certain lenders and mortgage insurers who offer programs that allow you to borrow the down payment
If your immediate family is willing to help, I work with lenders that will allow them to ‘gift’ or loan you the down payment
If I’m self-employed or a contract worker, lenders will not approve me
It’s true that lenders are conservative by nature, and see “non-guaranteed income” as a greater risk I have creative strategies for assisting self-employed people and contract workers, as well as access to lenders who are more willing to do business with people in these situations.
If I’m a certain age (young or old), lenders will not want to approve me for a mortgage
Neither me, nor any of the lenders that I work with, participate in age discrimination
Since I have all of my accounts and investments with one bank, it makes sense for me to get my mortgage through them, too
While this sounds good, it’s not necessarily sound business advice
Diversification of your investments is a strategy that’s recommended by many successful financial advisors
Sometimes, it makes good business sense to have some of your investments with one lender, and some with another. That way, if one lender changes their policies in a way that doesn’t work in your favor, you still have options
If I get a mortgage through a different bank or lender, I will have to move all of my accounts and investments over to them
This is simply not true.
I can help you find a good mortgage with a new lender, without causing you to make any changes with your existing bank accounts and/or investments
If I have credit challenges or have declared bankruptcy before, I cannot qualify for a mortgage
Thankfully, this is not true either
For people with credit challenges, I have creative ways of helping you to supplement your credit in order to balance out existing challenges
For people that have declared bankruptcy, I have access to lenders who will make an exception to the 2-year discharge period that is usually required
