Non-QM and ITIN loans in Fort Lauderdale — outside the box, done by the book.

Who non-QM lending is actually for

• ITIN taxpayers — homeownership with an ITIN instead of an SSN
• Asset-rich, income-light — retirees and savers, qualified by asset depletion
• Recent credit events — bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale inside conventional waiting periods
• Foreign nationals — buying Florida property without U.S. credit history
• Interest-only and 40-year structures — payment flexibility for the right borrower
• Self-employed borrowers — though most belong on a bank statement loan, the deepest lane of James's practice

Why the lender choice is the whole game

There is no Fannie Mae of non-QM. Every lender writes its own credit box — seasoning, expense factors, asset rules, property types — and prices its own risk. The same file can be a decline at one shop and a clean approval two points cheaper at another. That spread is why this market belongs to brokers: James shops your actual scenario across the wholesale non-QM market and places it where the guidelines already fit.

He'll also tell you when non-QM is the wrong answer. A file that squeaks into conventional or FHA almost always prices better there — underwriting fluency is knowing the cheapest box you fit in, not the most exotic one.

The programs, in working detail

ITIN loans

Real mortgages for taxpayers filing with an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. Expect 15–25% down, two years of tax filings under the ITIN, documented income (pay stubs, bank statements, or both), and credit built through traditional or alternative tradelines — rent history, utilities, remittances. South Florida's ITIN market is one of the country's largest, and the lender pool here is deeper than most originators realize. The file lives or dies on documentation discipline, which is a process problem James solves weekly.

Asset depletion

Your liquid assets divided by the program term become monthly qualifying income — the math in the calculator above. The fine print that matters: checking, savings and brokerage usually count near 100%; retirement accounts are often discounted (commonly to 70–80%, sometimes age-dependent); recent large deposits get sourced. A retiree with $1.2M across accounts and modest Social Security can qualify for far more house than their tax return suggests — this is the program that fixes the "asset-rich, income-light" trap.

Recent credit events

Conventional waiting periods after bankruptcy or foreclosure run two to seven years. Non-QM compresses that — some programs lend one day out of a completed event with 20–30% down. The pricing curve is steep but it decays fast: every year of seasoning and every point of credit-score recovery reprices the loan. James often maps a two-step: buy now on a recent-event program, refinance conventional when the waiting period clears. The math on waiting versus buying depends on your market's appreciation and your rent — it's a spreadsheet conversation, not a slogan.

Foreign nationals

No U.S. credit, no U.S. income, still financeable: foreign-national programs qualify on passport, visa status, foreign income documentation or asset strength, typically at 25–30% down with reserves. Condo-heavy coastal Broward is the natural habitat — which means the building warrantability review rides along on almost every one of these files.

What non-QM costs, and how you exit it

Pricing runs above conventional by an amount that tracks the story: light documentation flexibility costs less; day-one-out-of-foreclosure costs more. Down payments of 15–30% and meaningful reserves are the norm. The discipline that makes it all worthwhile: almost every non-QM loan should have a written exit — the refinance trigger (seasoning reached, credit rebuilt, documentation matured) that graduates you to conventional pricing. James writes that plan into the first conversation and diaries it, because a bridge you never exit isn't a bridge — see how the refinance side works.