Brokers, prepare to serve this market

Rising self-employment numbers are creating a lucrative opportunity for brokers, who have much more to offer these clients than big bank counterparts, according to one industry player.

“If people have less choice with their bank, they need to find an alternative, and that is often to go to a broker,” Bryan Guertin, a mortgage broker with Mortgage Intelligence, told MortgageBrokerNews.ca. “We have alternative financing options, whereas the banks have one program and clients have to qualify under that program.”

It’s no secret that for self-employed clients constitute excellent business for brokers – Guertin estimates these clients make up 60% of his own business.

But recently released stats point to just how much this segment is growing. According to Statistics Canada, over half a million Canadians become self-employed every year. And that number grows when general unemployment ticks up.

“Canada has a relatively large group of self-employed individuals who operate unincorporated businesses,” StatsCan said in a report released earlier this month. “In 2014, there were more than 1.5 million Canadians engaged in unincorporated self-employment activities, accounting for 9% of total employment.”

And while self-employed deals pose unique challenges, brokers certainly seem up to the challenge.

“Often we have to put self-employed clients with b-lenders and qualify their gross income instead of theirnet income,” Guertin said. “When we go to a b-lender, they ask for 12 months’ worth of bank statements and that’s how they qualify the client.”

MBN

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