You shouldn’t have to become a mortgage expert to finance a home.

A bank or direct lender can only offer you its own products and pricing. A mortgage broker works on the wholesale side and can compare mortgage rates, fees, and guidelines across dozens of lenders, then place your loan where it fits best. And worth knowing: many companies that call themselves brokers are actually correspondent lenders funding loans in their own name. We’re a true wholesale mortgage broker, and whatever you call the other side, mortgage bankers, home lenders, mortgage providers, or mortgage loan companies, the broker vs bank difference is the one that matters. Same loan programs, more places to shop them, one application.

Here’s a technicality worth knowing. True mortgage brokers are the only channel in lending with a hard cap on compensation, roughly 3 percent, set by federal rule. Retail banks, direct lenders, and correspondent lenders have no such cap on what they can build into the back end of your loan. We’re paid by the wholesale lender at closing, we disclose exactly how that works in writing, and you can draw your own conclusion about what a hard cap plus dozens of competing lenders does to pricing. And if you’re chasing today’s mortgage rates or the lowest mortgage rates you saw advertised, remember an advertised rate isn’t a quote for your file. We’ll show you real pricing for your actual scenario.

We just need a little info to see what’s possible. Sometimes we can pull your information digitally and send you a couple of things to click. Sometimes we need pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements, and ID. It all depends on your unique scenario, but we make it super simple, and when you’re ready to apply for a mortgage we’ll send you the exact document checklist for your situation so nothing is guesswork.

We can close in a couple of weeks when it counts, and if you get us your paperwork the same day, we can often have your preapproval done the same day. From application through underwriting, appraisal, and closing, speed mostly depends on how quickly documents come in, and we’ll give you a realistic timeline up front for your specific loan.

It depends on the program. Conventional loans have no set minimum score and use the whole file, and we’ve been seeing approvals lately at scores lower than most people would believe. FHA reaches lower than most banks will tell you, and every lender layers its own rules on top of the base program. If another lender quoted you a score cutoff, that was their overlay, not necessarily the program’s rule, so it’s worth a second opinion.

Affordability comes down to your debt to income ratio, your down payment, and the program you use, not a single rule of thumb or an online mortgage calculator. A real preapproval answers it precisely, and it’s free. Not ready for a full preapproval? We can run some quick numbers to see where things stand, no documents needed yet.

Yes. Self employed buyers and 1099 contractors can qualify with tax returns, bank statement loans, or asset based programs. Retirement income, Social Security, and SSDI all count as qualifying income, and if you’re of retirement age, even retirement assets themselves can qualify you through asset based programs. The right structure depends on how your income actually flows, which is exactly the conversation to have with us first.

Usually, yes. You do not need two years at the same job, and in many cases you don’t need two years of history at all. We wrote a full guide on buying a house with a new job that covers offer letters, job changes, and employment gaps.

There are set waiting periods after a bankruptcy or foreclosure, and they’re shorter than most people assume. In fact, with 12 months of on-time payments, FHA and VA can work while a Chapter 13 is still active. It’s much more accessible than people think, so tell us your dates and we’ll map exactly which programs are open to you.

Closing costs include lender, appraisal, title, and escrow fees plus prepaid items, and the prepaids, your taxes and insurance set up front, along with title fees usually make up the bulk of the number. They can often be offset with seller credits or lender credits, which is exactly what a no closing cost refinance means: the costs are covered through the loan’s structure rather than paid in cash. We’ll show you every option side by side.

An assumable loan lets a qualified buyer take over the seller’s existing mortgage instead of getting a brand new one, most commonly on FHA and VA loans. Whether an assumption actually pencils depends on the loan’s terms and the equity gap, and we can walk through the math with you before you chase one.

Whether you call it a house loan, a home loan, or a home mortgage, there is no single easiest one, because easy depends on what’s holding you back. FHA is forgiving on credit, VA and USDA remove the down payment, and non QM programs solve income documentation. The easiest loan is the one matched to your specific obstacle, which is the whole point of working with a broker.

Generally around 20 to 25 percent down, though it varies with the property’s rents and your credit profile. DSCR loans are for investment properties only, and because they qualify on rental income, strong rents can improve your terms. Details are on our DSCR loan page.

Yes. Manufactured home loans are one of our deepest specialties, including older and twice-moved homes, and we handle land loans, lot loans, and construction financing as well. Start with the manufactured home loans guide or just describe the property in the form above.

Being denied a mortgage or turned down for a home loan by one lender usually means that lender’s rules didn’t fit, not that no loan exists. Because we shop many lenders, the file that failed one set of guidelines often passes another without changing anything about you. Tell us what the other lender said and we’ll tell you what we see.

We’re based in Bend and lend across all of Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. If you searched for a mortgage broker near me from Bend, Redmond, or anywhere in Central Oregon and Deschutes County, we’re local. In Colorado we work the whole state: Denver and Colorado Springs, the resort towns from Breckenridge and Vail to Steamboat, Salida, and Pagosa Springs, and the high country land markets like Park and Teller County where we finance manufactured homes and cabins on acreage. That includes Colorado first time home buyer programs and second home and short term rental purchases in resort areas. Everything we do works just as well by email and phone.