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In the mortgage lending business, everyone has their niche. Our niche at Pillar is to provide support to mortgage borrowers facing a challenging financial situation and they need flexibility from lenders to help them transition to a better position.
We outline here a clear overview of Pillar’s role within the mortgage lending ecosystem and how we differ from the other lenders in this space.
As a short-term lender, Pillar serves as a stepping stone for transitional borrowers who are facing financial challenges. Sometimes these challenges involve financial difficulty, such as a discharged bankruptcy or low credit score. Other times they involve borrowers with a financial situation that simply falls outside banks’ normal lending criteria, such as self-employed or seasonally employed individuals.
At Pillar, we provide support with mortgages that have 1- or 2-year terms so that these borrowers can find their feet financially before making the transition to an institutional lender. It’s not about long-term lending, nor is it about gouging vulnerable borrowers. Rather, our approach is focused on helping mortgage borrowers make the shift to a better financial position.
Our approach comes down to flexibility. This means that we make concessions on parts of a deal where banks may be rigid and simply choose not to lend:
While we embrace flexibility, there are several things that we don’t do:
While flexibility is central to our approach, it should not be confused with low standards. Since we always aim for our borrowers to make a smooth transition to an institutional lender within 1–2 years, we need to ensure that they’ll be in a position to meet institutional lenders’ criteria. As a result, our application process is rigorous and calls for more extensive documentation compared with many other private lenders.
By building strong partnerships with our broker network, we support borrowers with transitional mortgage lending and genuine care for their financial well-being. From tackling tough cases with flexible terms to providing mortgages with up to 80% LTV in rural areas, we set ourselves apart within the market as a solution-based lender.