Getting a Mortgage for an Influencer is a fairly new term in the mortgage industry but whilst the term maybe new, the source of income is not as big a deal to lenders as many would think.
A couple of months we received an enquiry from someone who was self employed and had 3 years accounts but in the latest year they had received a significant jump in income. In order to get the mortgage they wanted we needed to find a lender who would lend based on the latest years figures.
This in itself is not a problem, the bit that starts to become difficult is getting the mortgage at normal rates where we are using just the latest years income with a small deposit (in this case 10%).
The applicant did have an occupation beyond being an influencer, they had built up Influential status because of their job which they were very good at, they have won awards and been invited to travelled the world showcasing their skills.
Because of these awards and their reputation growing their business had jumped by around 50-60% in one year to the point where they were booked up for 6 months with a waiting list of over 100 people on top of that!
What did we do?
We used all of the above to our advantage. We could have gone down the easy route and obtained them rates of around 3.5% but that is not what we do.
We did some research on the applicant and built up a story – this is what we call packaging – for most people packaging is just getting bank statements, payslips and having explanations for anything quirky. In this case however we built up a story of how the applicant had a successful business for the last 3 years but then he started to win awards which in turn resulted in his followers growing significantly and bookings going through the roof which had no signs of slowing down.
We then discussed the case with some of our account managers and within 48 hours we had a couple of options, at rates of around 2.5% (so already a 1% saving on the easy option) but we also had one option at 1.98%! Under 2% with a 10% deposit using the latest years figures only is almost unheard of.
Once we had our options, we then put an application in with the normal documents and our explanation of the situation in order to sway the underwriter to approve it…Success! They did! So we have a Mortgage at a rate of over 40% lower than the easy option, all by spending a little extra time to understand the applicant and their circumstances.
Summary
This is not specific to Influencer’, as we have had similar cases for professional sports persons and recruitment consultants, as it also does not need to be glamorous occupations.
Where there is a story and an explanation that can be evidenced we can have these conversations with our account managers and get them to be a little more flexible on their criteria. Evidence can come in all shapes and sizes, from newspaper articles to letters of intent from customers etc.
If you find you are in a similar situation and in need of some advice on getting a Mortgage for an Influencer, lets have a chat.
We may be limited to the higher rates mentioned above, but if we think there is potential to get you through at normal rates we will put the time in and try to get an underwriter on board.