Equity Financial Trust (EFT) has begun accepting mortgage applications and now has about 200 individual brokers signed up.
The company will commence with Alt-A and B financing with 1-, 2-, 3-, and 5-year fixed terms. EFT will lend up to 80% LTV. Here’s more info on the mortgages in which EFT specializes: Deal Types.
EFT will consider BFS borrowers, stated income, ex-bankrupts (no waiting period on discharge), consumer proposals in progress (borrowers don’t need to pay them out), new immigrants, and people with no credit.
CEO Nick Kyprianou tells us: “Overall we take a common sense approach to lending. The real estate is the key to our lending. The property must be marketable.”
Pre-payment privileges include 20% lump-sum (once a year on anniversary date) and a 20% annual payment increase option. Terms are fully-closed barring a bona fide sale (in which case standard penalties apply), but borrowers can refinance at EFT if needed.
Rates will generally be posted + 0.25% to + 1.5%.
Kyprianou told CMP: “Our target for year one is to do $100 million in closed business, and we think we should achieve that goal.” Our guess is that they’ll probably blow right past it.
EFT will lend in Ontario only for now—mostly on properties within an hour or so of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). An expansion is planned to other provinces (including BC and Alberta), but that’s a few years off, Nick says.
Rob McLister, CMT
As a mortgage customer orphaned by GMAC (my term is up this June), I’ve been scanning the mortgage news for options like this. I have a consumer proposal in progress, but am otherwise a good qualifier. Two years ago, the only option for a customer like myself would have been a private mortgage, and even that was chancy.
Although I had heard that Resmor (a GMAC holding) was renewing “selected” GMAC mortgages, and mine was an insured 25-yr product with a perfect payment record, I never had faith that Resmor would offer me a renewal. I was right – the letter I received this week from GMAC was very vague and said that Resmor “was willing” to renew GMAC mortgages. A phone call to Resmor confirmed what I suspected – GMAC customers are required to re-qualify with Resmor, under Resmor’s ‘A’ mortgage guidelines.
Luckily, I had recently learned that two credit unions in my community (and, I’ve heard, CIBC as well), like Kyprianou above, are offering mortgages to customers who are currently paying consumer proposals, without insisting that the (interest-free) proposals be paid out. It pays to make local inquiries.
Kudos also to this forum for helping keep me informed.
Wendy REALLY NEEDS to talk to a Qualified mortgage broker. Things are never as bad as they seem and they have probably seen a lot of lifes “speed bumps”in their time.