How Sarah and Ben Bought Their Surrey Home with a Net Worth Mortgage

Complex Income and Future Investment Goals

Sarah, a teacher, and Ben, a business owner, were recently married and ready to buy a home in Surrey, BC. Sarah had a stable teaching income, and Ben had strong business assets, but his income mainly came as dividends from a holding company.

This made mortgage qualification more complex than a typical salaried file.

At the same time, they wanted to:

• Maximize their buying power

• Keep a large portion of Ben’s funds available for future investments

• Potentially use rental income and net worth to help them qualify

Deciding What to Do with the Delta Property

Ben owned a property in Delta, and they had two main paths to consider:

• Keep the Delta property as a rental and use the rental income to help qualify

• Sell the Delta property, free up equity, and use it to increase their down payment

Keeping the property meant more complexity and slightly lower purchase power. Selling it meant a larger down payment and a cleaner, more powerful mortgage structure.

They needed to choose the option that would let them buy the home they wanted in Surrey while still keeping flexibility for future investments.

Using a Net Worth Mortgage and Business Dividends

To find the best structure, we built the mortgage around their overall financial picture instead of just their T4 income.

For Ben, this meant:

• Using his dividend income history

• Showing his 50% ownership in BlueSky Solutions

• Providing proof of his company’s retained earnings and cash reserves

• Showing equity that would be freed up from the Delta property sale

For Sarah, we used her steady teaching income as a strong base, even though it wasn’t enough to carry the full mortgage on its own.

Together, their net worth, business assets, and income structure were packaged as a high-net-worth mortgage application.

Choosing the Best Strategy: Sell vs. Keep the Delta Property

We walked through two main scenarios:

Scenario 1 – Keep the Delta Property as a Rental

• Target purchase price around $1.6 million

• Use $3,200/month expected rental income from Delta to help qualify

• Combine rental income with net worth assets for the down payment

• More complicated structure and lower overall purchase power

Scenario 2 – Sell the Delta Property to Maximize Purchase Power

• Free up equity from the Delta property sale

• Target purchase price around $2 million

• Use the sale proceeds plus savings for a larger down payment

• Add a HELOC for extra flexibility

After reviewing both, Sarah and Ben chose Scenario 2. Selling the Delta property freed up $850,000 for a down payment and allowed them to qualify for a larger mortgage.

Final Mortgage and HELOC Structure

Their new Surrey home was purchased for $2,053,000. With the equity from the Delta sale and personal savings, they:

• Put down $850,000 as a down payment

• Qualified for a $1,203,000 mortgage at 5.51% with a 30-year amortization

• Set up an additional $184,400 HELOC at 7.20% for future investment opportunities

This structure gave them the home they wanted and kept access to credit available for business or investment needs.

Dream Home Purchased with a Clean, Powerful Structure

With lender approval in place, Sarah and Ben closed on their Surrey home for $2,053,000.

They secured:

• A $1,203,000 mortgage at 5.51%

• A 30-year amortization that kept payments manageable

• An extra $184,400 HELOC for future opportunities

Strong Home and Investment Position

By selling the Delta property and using a net worth mortgage approach, they were able to:

• Buy a more valuable home than if they had kept the Delta property as a rental

• Simplify their mortgage structure instead of juggling multiple properties and rental income calculations

• Maintain flexibility through the HELOC for future business or investment plans

They ended up with a home they loved in Surrey, a mortgage that fit their real financial strength, and access to funds for their next goals.