Life happens

Life isn’t predictable – regardless of how much planning we do.

Major life events can be stressful; they have a huge impact on our day-to-day lives and the ability to get approved for a mortgage. That’s why getting your client’s story is so important. As a broker you want to paint the full and honest picture of your client’s circumstances.

Why? Because underwriters aren’t just knowledge machines, they’re humans too! Which means they’ve experienced some life events themselves – just like your clients. It’s given them the ability to see beyond the paperwork. Take a look at Jackie’s story below and how we were able to help her.

Jackie’s story

Jackie took a year off to take care of her ailing mother. Near the end of that year, her mother passed away. During that time, Jackie received compassionate care benefits only equivalent to 40% of her regular income. She was unable to keep up with bills and started missing payments, and eventually entered a consumer proposal.

After returning to work full-time following her year off, Jackie felt she was ready to buy her own home. We were able to help Jackie with her purchase by using the estate proceeds to cover the consumer proposal and allocate the rest to a down payment on a new home. Other factors were taken into consideration, such as her spouse’s standard salaried income and her return to work.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen borrowers’ credit suffer after experiencing a life-changing event. It was easy to see that Jackie’s credit issues began while caring for her mom as all her payments were paid on time before that. We were happy to support Jackie and her goal of becoming a homeowner.

Our help doesn’t stop with first-time homebuyers; we look at all deals using the same lens to interpret a borrower’s story. Stay tuned for more real-life stories.