Growth & Jobs | Vendor or day’s worker? You can get a mortgage. Here’s how

For many self-employed people who informally ply their trade, whether as streetside vendors or ‘day’s workers’ (domestic workers), owning a home is a lofty idea. Many believe this may never come to fruition except by diligently building, over time, on a piece of land gifted to them or that they otherwise acquire.

However, mortgage expert, Petal Hall, insists that they can qualify for a mortgage. Her institution, JN Bank, has helped several people to own a home with the right advice, resulting in a significant percentage of the self-employed people to whom the bank has provided mortgages being entrepreneurs in the micro sector.

“Start by opening a savings account,” the JN Bank chief product officer for mortgages advised patrons at the recent NHT Home It Expo put on by the National Housing Trust at the Harmony Beach Park, Montego Bay, St James recently. “By opening an account in which you place the monies you earn from your daily business, you will create a footprint that you can use as evidence of the income you earn.”

The monies which pass through the account can become a record a bank or the NHT can rely on and use to determine whether self-employed applicants can afford a mortgage, she said.

“At a later stage, the institution will be able to use that information to help you determine the price house you can afford, so that you can start to prepare to acquire one,” Hall explained.

And some financial institutions, including her own bank, make it easy to open an account online. At JN Bank, anyone can open an account at their own convenience in the ONE JN Passport app, which they can download from the Google Play Store or the App store, for Apple device users, on to their phone or other smart devices.

If someone is informally self-employed, they should open an account which is used for depositing the proceeds from their business, Hall advised, and they should establish another account exclusively for saving.

“You have to be in good financial shape when you’re ready to get a mortgage or purchase a house because, unlike a personal loan, you’ll have to undertake a variety of costs before you receive the mortgage proceeds to purchase the house,” she said. “It, therefore, means you have to save diligently.”

“You have to think about the deposit for the house, for example, which can be anywhere from five per cent to 10 per cent of the price of the house or land you’re buying. And there are many other costs, including paying a lawyer, which is highly recommended. You’ll need to survey the property and do a valuation. These are things you will have to pay for yourself and provide to the bank or the NHT so that they can consider your mortgage application.”

They may also need money to furnish the house at a later point, she pointed out, which she encourages applicants to also save for, as best as they can.

“No matter whether you sell fruits on the street, you’re a helper, gardener … you can own a home,” she assured. “Follow the steps thoroughly by saving and you will achieve home ownership.”