The Situation
The clients, a married couple with an eight-year-old, moved to Canada less than three years ago and had recently become permanent residents. They had about $906,000 in cash and a further $110,000 in a verified crypto wallet, excellent though thin credit files, and almost no debt. They found a detached house on a large lot in Metro Vancouver at about $2.05 million and put 35% down, keeping roughly $245,000 in reserve after closing: enough to cover the entire two-year term's payments and taxes.
The Challenge
Income is what a lender qualifies on, and the clients had just restarted theirs: a new full-time role at a $75,000 base plus bonus that was one week old, and a part-time instructor's contract at about $42,500 that had not yet begun, with a second contract in negotiation. Measured against a $1.3 million mortgage, the ratios on paper were about 105%. Thin Canadian credit, new jobs and a large mortgage is a decline at a bank, whatever the down payment.
The Solution
An alternative lender's non-conforming program prices a file for what it is rather than declining it, and reads reserves and down payment as the risk offsets they are. We documented both employment letters, the previous roles and the ten years of industry experience behind the new one, the full $1 million of liquid assets and the reserves left after closing. The lender approved about $1.34 million at 65% loan-to-value on a 30-year amortization and a two-year fixed term with no lender fee. The exit is written into the file: once both incomes have a year on record, refinance with a bank under an extended-ratio program, where 65% loan-to-value qualifies.
The Outcome
The family completed on their first Canadian home with $245,000 still in the bank and payments they intend to carry from salary, not savings. Two years at an alternative lender's pricing with no fee is the cost of buying the month the jobs started instead of waiting two years to prove them. For newcomers with capital, that is usually the right trade.