Mortgage Agent · Builder · Developer · Ontario
We help everyday people finance real estate differently.
Through creative financing strategies that most agents don't think to offer. Mortgage strategy is about more than just approval. It's about setting you up the right way from the start.
Why work with us
Anyone licensed can fund a mortgage. Few brokers sit down and walk through the strategy that fits the next ten years of your file, not just the next renewal.
Three seats, one operator
Mortgage Agent Level 2, licensed Ontario builder, real estate developer with rentals I still own. Most brokers can talk rates. Few can talk rates, build costs, and rental yields in the same conversation.
Strategy first, application last
We map what you own and what you're trying to build before we talk product. The honest answer sometimes is “do nothing for now,” and that's a valid outcome of a strategy call.
Education over pitching
Calculators on this site exist because we'd rather you understand the levers than take our word for any of it. The strategy plays only matter if you understand them well enough to live with them.
Files I've underwritten myself
Construction draws, alt-A and private lending, rental income qualification, the Investment Leverage Strategy, cash damming. These aren't talking points. They're structures running on my own balance sheet.
Self-employed and business-owner files
T1/T2 returns, BFS programs, alt-A bridging, draws vs salary, retained earnings, add-backs. The files banks decline because their underwriting was built for T4. I read these returns the way I read my own.
No pressure, ever
Compensation comes from lenders and the brokerage, not from you. The pace of every conversation is your pace. You'll never feel chased for a signature.
Who you'll work with
I work alongside Samantha so nothing falls through the cracks. I handle the strategy and the lender side; she handles the day-to-day so your file actually moves.
Trevor Hough
Mortgage Agent Level 2 · FSRA #13120
Real estate investor, licensed builder, and Mortgage Agent Level 2. Strategy, deal structure, and lender relationships. Files with moving parts (self-employed income, construction draws, leverage, refinances) are where he does his best work.
Samantha Walker
Mortgage Agent Level 1 · FSRA #13120
Born and raised in Southern Georgian Bay, with a background in automotive finance and construction project management. Samantha is your day-to-day point of contact, handling application coordination, document collection, and lender follow-up so things actually move.
The Calculators
The standard tools every borrower wants before a real conversation. Run the numbers, then let's talk about what they mean for your file.
Mortgage Payment
Estimate your monthly, bi-weekly, or accelerated payment with Canadian semi-annual compounding built in.
Open calculator →Affordability
Run the math the lender runs. Income, debt, down payment, and the federal stress test, all in one place.
Open calculator →Closing Costs
Ontario Land Transfer Tax, legal fees, title insurance, adjustments, and lender fees, all summed for your purchase.
Open calculator →All calculators are for educational illustration only and do not constitute financial advice. See full disclaimer.
Not sure where to start?
Run the Strategy Triage.
Eight diagnostic questions about your file. Ranked output across the four Canadian deductibility strategies (Investment Leverage, Cash Damming, Debt Swap, Cash-Out Refinance) with an approximate 10-year impact for each. About five minutes. The conversation gets a lot sharper once you know which strategies actually apply to your situation.
Run the Strategy Triage →Recently writing about
Plain-English deep dives on the strategies clients ask about most. The math, the trade-offs, and the parts most articles skip.
September 14, 2026· 7 min read
The 95% Buyout Nobody Tells Separating Couples About
A cash-out refinance stops at 80% of value. A co-owner buyout does not, because it is underwritten as a purchase, and purchases insure to 95%. On a $700,000 home that is $560,000 of borrowing room versus $665,000, which is often the whole question of whether one person keeps the house. Sagen's own policy also extends this past spouses to any co-owners on title, which almost every article on this topic misses. Plus the Ontario PST on the premium that cannot be added to the loan.
Read the post →September 4, 2026· 8 min read
Buying a Second Home or Cottage in Ontario: The 20% Down Rule That Isn't One
All three default insurers will insure an owner-occupied second home to 95% of value, which on a $750,000 property near Collingwood means about $50,000 down instead of $150,000. Several of the pages ranking for this say CMHC won't insure a second home at all, which is not what CMHC's own program page says. The Type A versus Type B split that decides your minimum, the occupancy condition that rules out the short-term rental plan, and what the premium actually costs you.
Read the post →September 4, 2026· 8 min read
Can't Afford Your Mortgage Payment? What Your Lender Is Actually Expected to Do
Since September 2025 the FCAC has set out in writing what every federally regulated lender is expected to consider before a file goes near default, and most borrowers have never been told the list exists. The four named relief measures, who is covered and who isn't, the penalty waiver on sale that nobody volunteers, and the real price of extending your amortization: $386 a month now, roughly $74,000 later.
Read the post →From the case files
Anonymized walk-throughs of real files. How a deal was structured, what the alternative path would have cost, the 5-to-15-year math. Strategist content, not marketing.
May 5, 2026
RefiThe Self-Employed Refinance the Bank Declined
A Southern Georgian Bay business owner walked in 60 days from renewal with a bank decline in hand. Same income, same property, same credit file. Three weeks later: approved at a monoline at a competitive rate. The lender was the problem, not the file.
Read the file →May 1, 2026
BuildThe Garden Suite That Almost Didn't Pencil
A Simcoe County family weighing a Bill 23 garden suite on conservative numbers. Three lenses (broker, builder, tax) on the same kitchen table at the same time. The file pencilled, but barely, and that was the right answer. Anonymized illustration.
Read the file →Where we work
Based in Southern Georgian Bay, funding deals Ontario-wide and Canada-wide where the file calls for it. Local knowledge in Simcoe County and Grey County, with lender relationships that cover the rest of the province.
When you're ready, let's talk it through.
The calculators give you the picture. A strategy call turns it into a plan. No pressure, just a conversation.
Book a Free Strategy Call