Primary Home Mortgage

Why getting a mortgage or refinance as a business owner can seem more difficult

Up to the 1950s, bank loans were provided by bank managers at your local bank, where they knew their clients personally and knew how much money they made because they could see the details of their accounts over time. Starting in the 1950s, lenders started using computerized credit scores to assess “creditworthiness.” Over the subsequent decades, loan approval processes were more and more automated, which allowed for a higher volume of loans made. These automated processes were mostly geared to W2 employees, since they make up an estimated 90 percent of mortgage borrowers in the US.

Business owners and self-employed professionals tend to have unique income and expense patterns, and they may own “unusual” assets or have complex income streams, including seasonal fluctuations. These “deviations from the norm” are not easily understood by the computerized processes and algorithms favored by today’s mainstream lending industry. Additionally, because business owners have many deductible expenses, their tax returns often do not reflect their full financial picture. This makes it more challenging to prove your income using tax returns, as is required by most “mainstream” lending programs.

We specialize in servicing self-employed borrowers, and we have developed a multi-prong approach to get our clients qualified for institutional mortgages with excellent rates, including:

• We partner with specialized lenders who cater to self-employed borrowers. Thanks to our extensive research and experience, we know which lenders and programs to use for very specific loan scenarios.

• We keep up-to-date with programs and lenders on a frequent basis, as these continually change over time.

• We are experts in “packaging” the loan application so that it is easy for underwriters to digest. We anticipate questions and provide complete information in the way they like to see it.

• We preflight the loan in-house and only submit the application to the lender when we believe the loan will get approved. While we can never guarantee loan approval because the lender is the final decision maker, we have a 97 percent approval rate on loan applications submitted to lenders.

• We assist borrowers in improving their credit score so they can get a better interest rate. This is a free service we provide to our clients as part of the loan application process.

• We offer many ways borrowers can qualify in addition to tax returns.