This month’s feature file falls into the self-employment category. A builder that I have worked with on some tricky files called me from their showhome with a buyer. This buyer had a few considerations that needed to be addressed on her file:
- She had gone through a life event a few years previously
- She was self-employed
- There were some credit issues that needed to be mitigated
- The client had 5% down
The advantages the buyer had included:
- She had re-established credit
- She had been self-employed for quite a few years
- The reason for the credit issues were tied to the life event and made sense
- The down payment was from her own resources
These advantages were ultimately what I was able to focus on with the lender to get her approved.
What I can’t stress enough based on this scenario is the importance of clients telling me the full story. It’s easy to think about mortgages as nothing but numbers, when in reality, there is a compelling story that we tell the lender. It’s not about fictionalizing the story to make it sound better, but about explaining to the lender why the file looks how it does.
The lender does not have the benefit of meeting you, getting to know you, meeting your children, or even understanding what homeownership means to you and your family. A good mortgage broker will take the facts that you’ve provided and tell the compelling story to your lender. But first, your broker must have all of the facts (even the difficult ones!)