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                      We may be a financial services company, but our primary business is serving people.

                      With honesty, transparency and profound respect.

                      We understand that borrowers can come to us out of sheer necessity. That doesn’t mean they should receive anything less than exceptional service.
                      We specialize in delivering creative, flexible solutions for your client’s unique circumstances, resolving their challenges while enhancing their financial well-being.

                      Every deal includes an “exit strategy” designed to ensure their future financial success.

                      Casey and Jessie’s story

                      How one couple got to stay in their home even though the pandemic stole their income

                      Casey and Jessie are proud homeowners. They worked hard to save up for their semi-detached house in Toronto and have been caring for it since the day they moved in. When COVID-19 hit, they both lost their jobs. Although the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) filled in some gaps, it didn’t fully take care of their mortgage payments.

                      Desperate to stay in their home, they approached a mortgage broker, who was a long-time partner of Josie Milanetti, CMI’s Director of Underwriting. Josie immediately set to work to find a solution that would help the couple avoid losing their house.

                      The first step was determining whether there was enough equity in the property to provide enough funds to pay out the mortgage, debts, cover fees and advance funds to ease their temporary financial burden.

                      “If there’s enough equity in the property, it makes sense to prepay the mortgage and clear any debts so the borrowers don’t need to worry about making payments while they work on getting their jobs back or selling the property,” said Milanetti.

                      A CMI-directed property appraisal confirmed the value of the property would provide the necessary amount of collateral to bring some financial relief.

                      This meant Milanetti was able to underwrite a new first mortgage, which paid out their existing mortgage and other high-interest debts and improved the couple’s overall cash flow for the next 12 months.

                      Casey and Jessie were able to remain in their home and have some financial relief while they worked on next steps.

                      “Our job is to be the solution to a borrower’s current financial problem and help them in the short term so they can get to the next lending platform, whether it be moving to a B lender or an A lender or getting out of the real estate market in and of itself,” she said.

                      Like most of CMI’s mortgage solutions, the term is 12 months and has a clear exit strategy for the borrowers. “One of the first questions we ask ourselves is, ‘How are they going to get out of this situation?’ We don’t want clients in a long-term private lending situation because interest rates are high. Our goal is to get them to the next lending platform,” said Milanetti.

                      “In this case, we could have offered a 6-month solution but, given the opening and closing of businesses due to COVID-19, we felt the best solution was offering them a full year to make sure they have everything in order and can be back to work to then save money.”

                      About 3 months before the term is up, Milanetti will reach out to the borrowers’ broker to remind them that the mortgage is coming up for maturity. They can then confirm that the broker is sourcing new financing for their client to pay out CMI, or if they will looking for a renewal.

                      Either way, CMI will be there for their mortgage broker client and the borrowers to help finalize their deal.

                      Property description LTV Exit strategy
                      Semi-detached owner-occupied home 75% Refinance with a traditional lender once back at work.
                      Value
                      $975,000
                      Mortgage Solution Terms
                      $731,250 Paid out the mortgage and other debts and prepaid for the term of the mortgage. 12 months. Closed. Open for repayment on three months’ prepayment. 12 months prepaid

                      Diane’s story

                      How a mother and her four kids kept their home

                      It was the end of a long day and Diane and her four kids had just pulled into their driveway in St. Thomas, Ont. She was thinking about what she would make for dinner and reminded her oldest daughter that she had soccer practice in 30 minutes when she saw that a notice had been taped to the front door of their house. Squinting, she could make out the word FORECLOSURE. With the baby in her arms and the other kids crowding around her, she lifted the paper off the door and read that the locks would be changed in one week.

                      Diane immediately understood that her ex-husband had stopped making mortgage payments as ordered by the courts. They had been through a long and contentious divorce. He decided that if he couldn’t live in the house, she and the kids wouldn’t either.

                      With a shoddy financial history, largely due to her ex-husband’s actions, Diane was unable to find a mortgage broker that would work with her. She found CMI by Googling ‘foreclosure assistance’. Here’s how Business Development Manager Jason Richardson was able to help Diane and her four children stay in their home.

                      He immediately set to work to find a creative mortgage deal that would help Diane fix not just the foreclosure, but her overall financial problems. Because she had an infant and three children attending school virtually due to COVID-19, Diane had been unable to work for months.

                      While she planned to go back to work in the Fall, she wouldn’t have income to make mortgage payments for months. She was using her credit cards to get by.

                      Jason had the house appraised and was able to create a first and second mortgage bundle that wiped out the bank’s mortgage and all credit card debts and prepaid her mortgage for a year.

                      “This solution was designed to help her get through the summer, get settled into work in the fall and get long past the three-month probation period at work so she could have financial stability when the [mortgage bundle] comes up for renewal,” said Jason.

                      “Diane showed me her T4s from 2019 when she was still employed. I used that income information to create a viable exit strategy. Next year, she’ll be able to approach a trust company or credit union to pick this mortgage up, rewrite it and buy us out.”

                      The threat of imminent foreclosure added an element of urgency for this deal.

                      “Foreclosure was going to happen in one week. In the mortgage world, we know that Diane’s ex-husband had not made a mortgage payment for the better part of six months. He was hiding this from her,” said Jason.

                      “Her lawyer informed the bank’s lawyers about her ex-husband’s deceit, and they agreed to work with me. We gave them proof of approval and proof of the commitment we signed. And we were able to rush through the appraisal.”

                      Thanks to Jason’s quick work and partnership with a legal team and a kind appraiser, the foreclosure was stopped and Diane and her kids are safely in their home.

                      Property description LTV Exit strategy
                      Semi-detached owner-occupied home 73% Refinance with a traditional lender at maturity once Diane’s ex-husband’s obligations related to the mortgage non-payment have been settled through the courts.
                      Value
                      $720,000
                      Mortgage Solution Terms
                      $570,000 A first mortgage that settled the arrears 12 months closed; open for repayment on three months’ prepayment

                      Hi Kiersti, thank you for the email. I really enjoyed working with yourself and Mary on this one. I remember receiving a pretty quick response from you when I submitted the file and received an approval within a few hours. Pricing, as well as LTV were good given the entire scope of this file. The conditions list was quite reasonable as well. I will most definitely be considering CMI for any private financing my clients need and will strongly recommend CMI to other agents/brokers.

                      Simon Legault
                      Ottawa-Carleton Mortgage

                      Submitting your mortgage deals

                      Not sure how you can submit your mortgage deals to us? We’ve provided detailed information that outlines how you can submit deals to us via Lendesk, Velocity and Filogix.

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