Summary
Unlocking Mortgage Solutions: Overcome the Stress Test with Loewen Group. Qualify based on your actual mortgage rate, not the inflated stress test rate. Explore alternative lenders, credit unions, and extended amortizations for increased borrowing power. Find your stress-free mortgage solution the smarter, not harder, way.
Transcript
James Loewen:
Hey guys, welcome back. Are you stressed? Because I know we've been stressed, in so much that we've been using the stress test. You probably heard this term in the media a lot, so just to recap what that means.
You gotta qualify at the banks for two whole percent above your actual mortgage rate. If your mortgage rate is 5%, you gotta qualify as if it's 7%. Well, put your stress to the rest, you're with the Loewen Group, and we're the best. I'm James Loewen; let's get that stress test going. This is Smarter, Not Harder.
All right, so let's start with why the heck do we even have a stress test?
Well, not so long ago, we had interest rates that were at or even below 2% for a fixed interest rate. People were qualifying for quite a considerable amount. The government being slightly conservative and pragmatic, decided to create a way to be able to test if people could qualify should interest rates at their maturity or renewal be higher.
There began the stress test. If your mortgage was 2.5%, we qualified at 4.5%, which was actually quite smart, if I'm being honest to be able to prepare for that. Let's fast forward to today.
Interest rates now are around 5.5% to even 6%. That means you're gonna have to qualify at 7.5 to even 8%. Well, the amount people can qualify for has just considerably shrunk. So we have been lying a problem right now. Our hope is that they remove it in the future. Until that time, we're sitting in this scenario right now. Thankfully, we got a solution. We can get around the stress test.
Banks, you might have heard me say this whenever you're qualifying at a bank. Now we work with the banks, but banks are stuck and have to be governed underneath the bank act. We, however, have lenders that are not. So our solution is actually three parts.
Number one, we can use lenders like credit unions. They're not governed by the bank act because they're a credit union and services their community. Which means we can actually qualify, not at the stress test, but by your actual or contract rate.
Number two, where the banks generally have to qualify up to a maximum of about 40% to 42% of your total gross income, we can qualify with some of these lenders, 45% or even 50% of your gross income. Now we're really moving.
Number three, this one is kind of big. I'm gonna be the first to tell you, we have access to 40-year amortizations. So we can actually put together a combination of all three of those things. Increase if you're wondering, somewhere in the 20 to 25% increase. If your mortgage you qualified for was $700k, now we're looking at $850k, maybe even $900k. That's a pretty big change.
So what does this all mean for you? Well, it means that we've got options. We've got solutions; we got workarounds, which is what we love to do. Reach out to us, and what we can prepare for you is a custom report that'll have the top bank lenders and what you qualify, the payments on that, in addition to some alternative lenders, credit unions, and trust companies, showing you the variety of options you have available, the amounts and the payments as well.
Stop your guessing, throw away that stress’n and come over to Lowen Group. This is Smarter, Not Harder.
