More mortgage changes are commented on, particularly, those for self employed people:
Transcript of Video Blog:
Hi everybody, Rowan Smith at the Mortgage Centre. So once again, there’s been another rule change that’s come down and this one deals specifically with self-employed people.
I have heard statistics, and I have nothing to back this up, but I have heard statistics that over 60 percent of the people in BC are self-employed or have some self-employment income. So, if that’s the case, this rule is going to effect a lot of people.
Previously, if you had a very good credit rating, and I mean pristine. You were able to put five percent down and if you were self-employed, you could state your income. You did not have to document it. You did have to document that it was reasonable, that that number was not just something that you fictitiously pulled out of the air; because that would be mortgage fraud.
You had to document simply that you had a business for the last couple of years, or that you’ve been in the field for a couple of years. You can’t do five percent down under that program any more. The fact is on April 19th, you are only going to be able to do 90 percent financing. You will require 10 percent down as a self-employed person, if you can’t document your income under traditional rules.
Now how many of these deals are out there and how many people are affected by this? Generally, self-employed people, I would say, they’re usually putting down 10 percent or more down. I did not get a lot of five percent down self-employed stated income programs.
I have seen, I can count on my hands in the last 40 years, so I don’t think that this change is necessarily going to affect a lot of people in the market as a whole, but it will bring some stability back again. This is the whole purpose of the government’s changes, is to prevent speculation and there has been a lot of it in the last while and some of these stated income programs have certainly been taken advantage of by some banks, lenders, and brokers.
So, if you have any questions about stated income, or if you’re self-employed and you’re thinking of buying a place and you’re not sure if you qualify under the new guidelines, please give me a call. It’s Rowan Smith from the Mortgage Centre.
