Mortgage Rollercoaster

Tracy Head • June 3, 2024

So I ran into an odd situation recently.


I’ve been working with clients whose application is not completely straightforward. Their credit is squeaky clean and they have their down payment well in hand. They faced two significant challenges:

  1. One borrower had only rental income reported (some lenders are not keen on this as the only source of income)
  2. The other borrower is self-employed and showed minimal income on her tax returns


Another broker had actively worked the file without any luck so their realtor asked if I might be able to take a look with fresh eyes before they collapsed their offer.


Once I started working on the file I decided to take a different approach and use the business for self stated income program.

For borrowers that are self-employed and have a minimum of ten per cent down, we are able to consider what they report on their tax as compared to industry standard income for the same type of work. We also look at what they have written off as expenses and present a slightly higher income (provided its reasonable).


This is a very simplified explanation but this program has worked brilliantly for many of my clients.

I restructured their application and submitted to one of my favorite lenders. The key pieces all lined up with respect to income, down payment, and community that the home was located in.


Plot twist: the insurer declined the application due to marketablility of the home.


What does this mean?


In the event that a mortgage ever goes in to foreclosure and a sale is forced, both the bank and the insurer (ie: default insurer / CMHC, Sagen, or Canada Guaranty) want to make sure they are dealing with a home that would appeal to a wide number of potential purchasers.


After all of the hoops this couple had jumped through trying to have their mortgage approved this was something we did not see coming.


We do have an approval in place now with a local credit union but I will say that this has been a roller coaster of a week.


Why am I sharing this?


As I sat back after a particularly challenging week of working on the file I realized that not everyone realizes that no doesn’t always mean no. Sometimes it might.



But sometimes it may be well worth your time to explore your options with an experienced mortgage broker if your bank has said no.

Tracy Head

Mortgage Broker

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By Tracy Head June 12, 2025
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By Tracy Head June 2, 2025
Its been a while since I wrote about the importance of your credit report. This topic popped up twice this week so I think a refresher is not a bad idea. When we submit a mortgage application lenders look carefully for a few specific things: Is the home you are looking to buy or refinance readily marketable / appeals to a wide range of potential buyers? Do you have your down payment in order? Do you have consistent income to repay your mortgage? Does your overall financial profile show you manage yourself responsibly? Does your credit report reflect a history of payments made on time and as agreed? When they are reviewing your credit report they are also looking for a few specific things. How long have you had active credit facilities (credit card/line of credit/mortgage etc)? Do you have a history of making your payments on time? Do you pay most of your credit card balances off regularly or do you run with cards maxed out all the time? Lenders fully understand that sometimes life happens and we can sometimes explain one-off blips or issues. If you have a consistent history of late payments that can become a bit more challenging to explain. One thing that I chat about with my clients is how making your credit card payment a few days ahead of your statement cutoff date can really help boost your score. Over the last few years it has become more common that people use their points cards for everything over the course of the month then pay their card in full once they get their statement. If you operate your credit card this way your credit report only picks up the balance as reported on your statement so it can look like you are always carrying a significant balance even though you always pay in full. For most people this is not a big deal, but if you are working on improving your credit score this small tweak can have a huge impact. The other issue that popped up this week was incorrect information on a client’s credit report. Part of her first name was missing and the birthdate was incorrect. The client was able to confirm everything on her credit bureau for me right down to previous addresses, employers, and old loans that had been paid off. Lenders would not move forward until her credit report was corrected and in this case because two items were wrong the client needs to correct it herself (normally we can help make changes fairly quickly). Its always a good idea to review your credit report at least once a year to make sure that all of your information is reporting correctly. If there is an issue you can catch it early and correct it before you are in a panic midway through a mortgage application. Changing topic a wee bit as my daughters are on evacuation alert already … If you are in the process of buying a home as we move into fire season please make sure you have a clause in the agreement as to what will happen should there be an active fire nearby. Nail down your home insurance as early as possible because once there is an active fire close by securing an insurance policy can be very difficult if not impossible.