Securing a self-employed mortgage in Surrey requires proving income through documents lenders can verify, starting with filed tax returns and notices of assessment. That is often two years of tax returns and the notices of assessment. Deposits in the business account do not replace those returns on a bank file. If the returns are low because of write-offs, the amount you can borrow follows the returns. The Surrey page is the city page. The self-employed page and the self-employed article go further into the same problem. If a bank file will not work, the B lender page and the private lending page are the next two stops, and they cost more.
The business can be busy and the tax return can still be thin. Lenders do not lend on gross sales. They lend on the income they are allowed to use. That number is on the return and the notice of assessment. Bring those first. A profit-and-loss statement you typed last week will not override two years of filed returns at a bank.
Documents to Pull for a Self-Employed Mortgage in Surrey
Get the last two years of T1 returns if you file personally, and the T2 returns if the company files on its own. Get both notices of assessment. If you owe tax, the notice will show it, and a balance with the CRA is a debt. A payment arrangement is still a payment. Put it on the debt list.
Then pull three to six months of business bank statements. A bank may not use them to qualify you. A B lender might. Either way, the statements show whether the deposits match the story on the return. If you pay yourself a salary, the pay stubs and the T4 sit beside the company return. The lender will say which number they are using. Do not add the salary and the company profit together unless that lender has said the program allows it. Counting the same dollar twice is a common way these files fall apart.
How long you have been self-employed
Many bank programs ask for two years. Some will look at less when the history before the business was in the same line of work, and some will not. There is no single rule across the lenders Chad uses. Say how many months you have been filing, and what you did before. A one-year file is a different product from a five-year file. Pretending it is the same product wastes the subject-removal window.
If you incorporated halfway through last year, the paper trail is split. Send the personal returns for the years you were a sole proprietor and the company return for the year you incorporated. Explain the change in one paragraph so the underwriter is not guessing.
When the bank number is too low
A B lender can use other records, including bank statements, on programs a bank will not touch. The rate is higher. There is often a fee. Both belong in the budget before you remove subjects on a Surrey house. A higher rate that lets you buy is still a higher payment every month. Run it on the mortgage calculator with the rate the lender actually offered, not with a bank rate you did not qualify for.
A private lender is a further step. The term is often short. The fee is part of the cost. You need a way out: a sale, a later bank mortgage once the returns are stronger, or another lender. If you do not have that way out, the private loan becomes the problem. Read the private lending page before you treat a private mortgage as a normal five-year bank term.
Rent from a suite can be part of a Surrey file when there is a lease. The rental page describes how lenders treat that income. A suite you might build later is not rent. Send the lease and the municipal paperwork if the suite is supposed to be legal. An illegal suite may be ignored by the lender even if a tenant is paying you.
Two years of personal tax returns and notices of assessment.
Company returns, if you have a company, for the same years.
Recent business bank statements.
A short note on what you do and when you started.
The purchase contract, once you have one, before subject removal.
Any CRA balance and the payment you make on it.
Subject removal is the real deadline
Self-employed files take longer to read. Send the returns when you start looking, not on the day you write the offer. The lender cannot confirm a two-year history in an afternoon if the returns are in a box at the accountant. If the accountant has not filed last year, say so. An unfiled year is a hole. Some lenders will wait for it. Some will decline until it is filed.
Chad Watts is a mortgage broker with TMG The Mortgage Group. One application goes to more than 50 lenders. You do not pay the broker fee. The lender does. His BCFSA licence number is 142612. He has worked in Vancouver mortgages for more than 15 years. If you are preparing to secure a self-employed mortgage in Surrey, use the contact page or online application to send your returns and get started. The about page and the questions page are the short background.
How to send the file so it can be read
Label the documents with the year. "Return 2024" is usable. "Scan 3" is not. Put the notice of assessment next to the return for the same year. If the accountant adjusted the return after you filed, send the adjusted version, not the copy you signed in March. Underwriters compare the income line on the return with the income line on the notice. If those two numbers differ, say why in one sentence.
Write a short description of the business: what you sell, whether you have staff, and whether the income is steady or lumpy. A contractor who invoices three times a year looks different from a shop with weekly deposits. The statements should match that description. If a large deposit was a loan from a relative, mark it. Otherwise it can be read as income you cannot repeat.
If you are buying with a partner who is employed, send their job letter too, and say whether you want the file built on both incomes or only one. Adding a partner late, after the lender has already reviewed the self-employed returns, restarts part of the file. Decide that before subject removal.
Questions on a Surrey self-employed mortgage
Can the lender use my sales instead of my taxable income?
A bank usually cannot. A B lender sometimes can, through statements, and the price of that program is a higher rate and a fee. Ask which number that lender is using before you remove subjects.
Do I add my salary to the company profit?
Not unless the program says so. If you already paid yourself, that salary may be the income number, and the profit may be separate. Adding them without being told to is double counting.
What if I have only one year of returns?
Say so at the start. Some lenders will look at one year with a matching work history. Many bank programs will not. The file should be aimed at a lender who accepts one year, not at a bank that will decline it on day three.
Who pays the broker fee?
On a bank file the lender pays the broker fee. On a B lender or a private file, ask what fees you pay. Those fees are part of the cost and should be on the worksheet.
