Mortgages Aren’t One-Size-Fits-All.
Neither Are We.

A bank employee has one lender's products and one lender's policy. That is not a criticism, it is just the job they have. A broker takes your file to a whole network of lenders and puts it in front of the one whose rules actually fit how you earn and what you own. On a simple file that difference is small. On a self-employed file, a rental portfolio, a commercial property, or anything with a recent credit event on it, the difference is the entire outcome.

On a normal residential file with an A-lender, no. The lender pays the brokerage when the mortgage funds. Alternative, private and commercial files can carry lender and broker fees, and those genuinely vary by deal. You will see them in writing before you agree to anything. Nobody should ever find out about a fee at signing.

Usually, but not down the same road a salaried borrower takes. Lenders read business income very differently from each other. Some add the deductions back. Some work from your bank deposits. Some accept a stated income declaration with supporting evidence, and a few will not look at the file at all. The work is knowing which is which before we submit rather than after. One thing to be clear about: this is structuring a file to qualify under B-20 properly. It is not getting around it.

A pre-qualification is an estimate built from numbers you give me. Useful for setting a realistic budget before you start looking. A pre-approval means a lender has reviewed actual documents and usually holds a rate for a set period. Neither one is financing. Final approval always comes down to the lender's full review of the file and the property, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.

It depends on the lender, how complicated the file is, and how fast documents come back from you. A clean A-lender purchase and a commercial file needing an appraisal and manual underwriting are not in the same universe. You will get an honest timeline once we have looked at the file, not a number designed to make you feel good.

There is no single number, which is a frustrating answer but a true one. Insured purchases generally require a higher minimum than uninsured ones. Credit unions and alternative lenders set their own thresholds. With some lenders a strong down payment or well-documented income offsets a weaker score. If you have a recent bruise on your credit, that is a reason to have the conversation, not a reason to skip it.

No. We are licensed in British Columbia and Alberta, and files come in from across both. Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, the Island, Calgary, Edmonton. Most of the work happens by phone and secure upload anyway, so where you live rarely changes how the file gets handled.

Use whichever broker will actually answer the phone at 6pm when the file gets complicated. What you get here is direct access to a broker who has been doing this since 2012 and who specialises in the files banks find awkward. You will not be handed to a junior. And if your file turns out to be simple and your bank has given you a strong offer, I will tell you to take it.