Orphaned Borrowers - And Why First Foundation Doesn’t Do Subprime Mortgages

We’ve often been asked over the years why we don’t offer borrowers with beat up credit, unverifiable income, loads of debt, or other financial difficulties a mortgage.

After all, mortgage brokers can make a lot of money charging high fees and/or earning big commissions on sub-prime mortgages, because they’re usually offering them to people who are desperate. Justifying their actions is easy, because the broker is really that person’s only hope.

We don’t do it. We never have. We can’t justify it. Taking advantage of people who need help is never justified and we refused to do it – even when we walk away from handsome paydays to do it.

This issue is a touchy one for me. In the past, when subprime lending was in it’s glory in Canada (don’t let anyone tell you it was just happening in the States), we refused to do it and had lenders laughing at us. Laughing, because we were “leaving money on the table”.

Today those lenders are out of business. Bankrupt. Morally, in some cases, and financially in almost all cases. Good riddance.

I’m very proud to say that we’re not getting calls from orphaned clients saying, “My lender is out of business so I can’t renew my mortgage, and nobody else will offer me a loan! I can’t sell my house because the value is under water and I don’t qualify anywhere else! I’m going to lose my home!”

Not only am I proud that we don’t have any of those skeletons in our closet, but I’m proud that the lenders we choose to associate ourselves with aren’t asking for a Billion dollar bailout from taxpayers.

Pick your mortgage broker wisely, because the lenders they choose to work with can have an impact on you. At First Foundation, we only work with the best.