Mortgage Brokers in Alberta

A mortgage broker takes your situation once and shops it to many lenders instead of one. Banks, credit unions, monoline and alternative lenders all price and assess the same application differently, so the answers differ too. The broker does that legwork, explains what each option really means, and handles the paperwork through to closing.

Your bank can only offer you your bank. A broker puts the same application in front of dozens of lenders, which matters most when your file is not straightforward — self-employed income, a short credit history, or a property outside a city.

If your situation is simple and your bank is competitive, they may well win. A broker just means you found that out rather than assumed it.

On a standard residential mortgage in Alberta, nothing. The broker is paid by the lender when the mortgage funds. Where a file is the exception — some private or commercial deals — you are told before any work starts, not after.

Sometimes, and not always, and the rate is only part of it. Lenders compete for broker volume, so broker channel pricing is often sharp. But the prepayment terms, the penalty calculation if you break early, and whether the mortgage is portable can cost far more over five years than a small rate difference.

A good broker will show you where a cheaper rate is buying you a worse mortgage.

There is no single cut-off. Most prime lenders want to see a score in the good range and a clean recent history, but alternative and B-lenders work further down than most people expect. What usually matters more than the number is what caused it and how long ago.

In Canada the minimum is tiered: 5% on the first $500,000 of the purchase price, 10% on the portion between $500,000 and $1.5 million. Above $1.5 million, default insurance is not available and 20% down is the floor.

Under 20% down your mortgage is insured, which adds a premium but opens the door earlier.

Yes. On an uninsured mortgage — meaning 20% down or more — federally regulated lenders qualify you at the greater of your contract rate plus two percentage points, or 5.25%. You are approved against a payment higher than the one you will actually make, which is why an approval can come in lower than expected.

Insured mortgages, where you are putting down less than 20%, are qualified differently. Credit unions and alternative lenders do not all apply the same test either. Working out which test your file falls under is one of the things a broker does for you.

Usually a day or two once your documents are in, sometimes same day. The slow part is almost never the lender — it is gathering pay stubs, notices of assessment and ninety days of down payment history.

About four to six months out. Most lenders let you lock a rate that far ahead, and it leaves time to switch lenders without rushing. The renewal letter your bank sends is an opening offer, and signing it back on the deadline is how most people end up paying more than they needed to.

Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons people end up with a broker. Business-for-self income looks smaller on paper than it is in life, because good accounting does exactly that. Several lenders assess self-employed applications on different criteria, and knowing which ones is most of the job.

No. One bank declining you is one lender applying one rulebook on one day. It is among the most common reasons a file reaches a broker, and often nothing was wrong with the application beyond where it was sent.

All of them. Enrich has brokers working in Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Lethbridge, Fort McMurray, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, Airdrie, St. Albert and the towns and acreages in between. Head office is in Calgary.