Guiding you forward
If you’re self-employed in BC, the broker you choose matters more than it does for almost any other borrower — because self-employed files aren’t approved by formulas, they’re approved by advocacy: knowing which of dozens of lenders reads a file like yours generously, which program turns your real cash flow into qualifying income, and when a “declined” is actually just an unfought battle. Here’s an honest framework for choosing a mortgage broker as a self-employed borrower — the five tests that separate a specialist from a form-filler — plus how we measure against them, and who we’re not the right fit for.
1 & 2. The methodology, published. Our guide to self-employed mortgages in BC lays out the five different ways lenders read the same file — add-backs, gross-ups, retained earnings, bank-statement programs, and the two-year average’s trap door — in the open, because a method you can read is a method you can hold us to. We analyze bank statements with AI-powered tools to establish true revenue and expenses quickly and defensibly.
3. The New Math, in writing. We publish the taxes-vs-rate comparison most brokers won’t: sometimes accepting an alternative lender’s costs beats handing the CRA $40,000 to impress a bank — and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s arithmetic, run with your accountant, and we show the framework before you ever call.
4. The battles, fought. Thirty-eight years of files means thirty-eight years of declining-year appeals, exception pleas, and lender-by-lender knowledge of who listens. “Declined for one down year” is very often a fight that simply wasn’t fought — we fight it, and we’re honest when it can’t be won.
5. The exit, guaranteed in structure. Every alternative placement we arrange carries a planned graduation back to prime, and every mortgage we fund — prime or alternative — goes into HomeBrew, our free lifetime management system tracking your equity, rate position, renewal horizon, and penalty timeline. Your graduation date is on our calendar, not just your hopes.
And one more, from the same side of the table: we’re self-employed too — not “used to be,” are. Michael has run his own businesses for decades and still does today: he engineers his own tax planning, files as a business owner, and knows firsthand what it feels like when a bank formula misreads the result. That perspective isn’t borrowed for marketing; it’s how every file here gets built, by people living the same structure you are.
Michael Lloyd has been in mortgage lending since 1988 and independent brokering since 1999 (BCFSA licence #087740). He founded and built DLC Canadian Mortgage Experts into one of Canada’s largest brokerages — 130+ brokers, $1.8 billion in annual volume, over $10 billion lifetime — as a self-employed entrepreneur himself, before deliberately returning to full-time client work. Today The HomeHappy Team @ Canadian Mortgage Experts co-brokers under Indi Mortgage, serving business owners, contractors, and professionals across BC with strategy-first mortgage planning and lifetime mortgage management.
The longer version — banking from 1988, brokering since 1999, the franchise years and why they ended — is on the about Michael Lloyd page.
For prime placements: typically nothing — lenders pay brokers on funded mortgages. Beyond prime, the fee structure steps up with the risk, and we’d rather you read it here than discover it later: alternative (B) lenders normally charge a lender fee of about 1%. Private lenders and MICs typically charge about 2%, shared between the lender and the brokerage — and higher-risk files or second mortgages can run more. Every dollar is disclosed in plain English, in writing, before anything proceeds — and always weighed openly against the alternatives, including the tax bill it would take to qualify at a bank instead. No surprises is the entire point.
Test for five things: they ask about your business structure before your tax return; they can explain multiple ways lenders read self-employed income (add-backs, gross-ups, retained earnings, bank-statement programs); they run the taxes-versus-rate math alongside your accountant; they can point to declined files they turned into approvals; and every alternative placement they arrange comes with a planned exit back to prime rates. A broker who fails these tests is running the same formula your bank already ran.
The gap between an average outcome and a specialist outcome is wider for self-employed borrowers than for almost anyone else — because the answer depends on lender selection, program knowledge, and advocacy rather than a formula. The same file can produce a decline at one lender and a six-figure-larger approval at another. Specialist knowledge is literally the product.
About the business: structure (sole proprietor or incorporated), how you pay yourself, what the company earns and retains, how the last three years trended, and whether taxes are current. If the first questions are only about your credit score and declared income, you’re getting the bank’s process with a different logo.
Frequently, yes — not by magic, but because the bank ran one formula and dozens of other lenders run different ones. Add-backs, retained corporate earnings, and bank-statement programs can double the qualifying income the bank’s formula saw. And a decline over one soft year can sometimes be reversed with third-year averaging or current-year evidence. Bring the decline; it’s useful information about what to do differently.
Earlier than salaried buyers — ideally months before you shop. Self-employed files need document assembly (tax returns, corporate financials, bank statements), sometimes benefit from timing decisions across tax years, and deserve full upfront verification rather than a stated-numbers pre-approval. Starting early converts every complication into a plan instead of a crisis at offer time.
Prime placements typically cost you nothing — the lender pays the broker. Alternative (B) lender placements normally carry a lender fee of about 1%. Private and MIC lending typically runs about 2%, shared between the lender and the brokerage — with higher-risk files and second mortgages priced higher. Everything is disclosed in writing before anything proceeds. The honest comparison isn’t fees versus free — it’s the all-in cost of each path weighed against the alternatives, including the tax bill required to qualify at a bank, and that math frequently favours the fees.
Usually, yes — and a situation that doesn’t fit almost always means one of about a dozen specific things, not something mysterious. Income that arrives as retained earnings or dividends rather than a T4. A file that needs two lenders instead of one. A down payment that’s partly gifted and partly borrowed. A purchase that has to close before a sale does. A property with a suite the last lender wouldn’t count.
Each of those has a named structure behind it, and each has a lender who reads it differently. That’s the work: not persuading a lender to bend, but knowing which one already reads your situation the way it actually is.
There’s a line, and it’s worth stating plainly. Creative reading of a file is legitimate craft. Creative writing is fraud. We won’t misstate income, inflate a value, or hide a debt — Michael holds the BCFSA licence this brokerage runs on, and nothing in a single file is worth what’s been built since 1988.
Whether a bank already said no or you’re planning eighteen months ahead, the first step is the same: let your file get read by someone who knows all the ways it can be read. Start with our full guide to self-employed mortgages in BC, or check what you can actually afford vs. what you’ll be approved for.
Call or text 604-833-4663 (HOME) or book a free, zero-pressure strategy session — bring your NOAs, your structure, and the story. Own a home already? Get your free HomeBrew report and put your equity to work in the plan.
About the author: Michael Lloyd has been in mortgage lending since 1988 and a licensed mortgage broker since 1999 (BCFSA licence #087740). He founded and led DLC Canadian Mortgage Experts to over $1.8 billion in annual mortgage volume before returning to full-time client work. Michael leads The HomeHappy Team @ Canadian Mortgage Experts, co-brokering under Indi Mortgage, serving homeowners across British Columbia with strategy-first mortgage planning and lifetime mortgage management. In 2017, he testified before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance on Canada’s mortgage rules — two of his three recommendations became federal policy in 2024.
