THE FIELD
MANUAL
Everything a real estate agent or financial advisor needs to answer a client's financing question without picking up the phone. The products, the math, the tax position, and the exact process a Bison file runs through.
WHY YOU WERE
GIVEN THIS BOOK
Because the fastest way to lose a client's confidence is to say "let me check with the lender" three times in one conversation.
We believe expertise without empathy is failure. That belief cuts both ways. It is not enough for us to know this business cold if the people sitting across from the client have to guess. You are in the room. You get the question first. This manual exists so you can answer it.
Everything here is built to be used in front of a client. The product pages are written in plain language. The calculator carries taxes, insurance, and mortgage insurance, because a payment quote without them is not a payment. The tax section shows the deduction math the way a CPA would frame it, so you can raise the subject without overstating it.
Use it, mark it up, print it. Nothing in here is confidential. It is meant to leave your hands and end up with your client.
TWO TRACKS, ONE BOOK
Track A / Real Estate Agents
Your questions are transactional and time-bound. Can this buyer close. What does the payment look like at this price. What happens if the appraisal comes in low. Parts 02, 03, 04 and 07 are yours. Part 08 is the objection handling.
Track B / Financial Advisors
Your questions are balance-sheet questions. Whether the client should put down more or keep the cash invested. How a business owner documents income. What the mortgage does to their tax position. Parts 05 and 06 are written for you.
WHAT MAKES BISON DIFFERENT, IN ONE PARAGRAPH
Bison Ventures is an independent mortgage bank, not a broker shop. We underwrite, process, and close in house. That means when your file has a problem at nine at night, the person who can solve it works here, and there is no third party to wait on. It also means the answer you get from us is the answer, not a guess about what someone else will say.
HOW A MORTGAGE
ACTUALLY WORKS
Four components, five levers, and one number that decides most of it.
THE FOUR COMPONENTS OF A PAYMENT
When a client says "my payment," they mean the whole thing. When a rate sheet says "payment," it means principal and interest only. That gap is where most bad expectations are born.
THE SIX LEVERS THAT SET THE RATE
There is no single market rate. There is a base rate, and then a stack of loan-level price adjustments, the LLPAs, that the agencies add on top of it. Every lever below is an LLPA, and they are cumulative. A client with two or three adjustments working against them can be well above the rate they saw advertised, and none of it is negotiable. It is a grid.
| Lever | Why it matters | Rough sensitivity |
|---|---|---|
| Down payment | The lever the client actually controls, and usually the largest single swing available to them. More down means a smaller LLPA, a smaller mortgage insurance factor, and a smaller loan. Twenty percent removes mortgage insurance outright. | Meaningful steps at 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 percent down |
| Loan to value | How the down payment is expressed on the rate sheet, and the axis the LLPA grid is actually priced on. Both the rate adjustment and the mortgage insurance factor step at the same thresholds, so crossing one line moves two costs at once. | Breaks at 80, 85, 90, 95, 97 percent |
| Credit score | The other grid axis, priced in tiers rather than on a slope. A 739 and a 740 are priced very differently on conventional. The LLPA is set where the credit tier and the loan-to-value tier intersect. | Tier breaks at 780, 760, 740, 720, 700, 680, 660 |
| Occupancy | Primary residence is the benchmark. Second home and investment carry real add-ons that stack on top of the credit and loan-to-value adjustment. | Investment property typically prices meaningfully above primary |
| Property type | Condos, multi-unit, and manufactured homes each carry their own adjustment and their own approval questions. | Condo and two to four unit add-ons are common |
| Points | The one adjustment the client buys deliberately. Discount points reduce the rate permanently. A lender credit does the reverse, raising the rate to pay closing costs. | See Part 03, discount points |
THE ONE NUMBER: DEBT TO INCOME
Approval is mostly a debt-to-income question. Take the client's total monthly obligations, including the new housing payment, and divide by gross monthly income. Most agency programs are comfortable to roughly forty-five percent, and will stretch higher with strong compensating factors such as reserves or a large down payment.
What counts as debt: the new PITI, HOA dues, car payments, student loans, minimum credit card payments, child support and alimony, and any co-signed obligation. What does not: utilities, phone, insurance premiums outside the escrow, groceries, or a loan with fewer than ten payments remaining on most programs.
2026 LIMITS WORTH MEMORIZING
County limits vary above the baseline. Confirm the specific county with your Bison loan officer before relying on a limit in an offer.
EVERY PRODUCT
WE OFFER
Twenty-one programs, grouped four ways. Filter by family, or by the client sitting in front of you.
Filter by family
Filter by client situation
Figures shown are typical program parameters, not an offer or a commitment to lend. Guidelines, minimums, and availability change and vary by investor, occupancy, property type, and state. Confirm every file with your Bison loan officer.
THE REAL
PAYMENT
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance, mortgage insurance, and association dues. Change the loan type and the mortgage insurance rules change with it.
READING THIS OUT LOUD
Quote the total, then break it. Clients who hear only principal and interest feel misled at closing, and they blame whoever quoted it. Clients who hear the full number up front trust the next number you give them.
On mortgage insurance: conventional mortgage insurance is temporary and comes off. FHA mortgage insurance placed above ninety percent loan to value stays for the life of the loan and only leaves through a refinance. That difference is worth real money over ten years and is the single most common thing agents get wrong.
THE TAX
POSITION
Homeownership is only a tax event if the client itemizes. This shows whether they will, and what it is actually worth.
The standard deduction is large enough that most households no longer itemize. Telling a client their mortgage interest is deductible without checking that is how a professional loses credibility with their CPA. Run the comparison first.
| Deduction test | Amount |
|---|
THE FOUR RULES THAT DECIDE THE ANSWER
| Rule | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Acquisition debt cap | Interest is deductible on the first $750,000 of debt used to buy, build, or substantially improve the home, or $375,000 filing separately. Loans originated on or before December 15, 2017 are grandfathered at $1,000,000. |
| The SALT cap | Property tax and state income tax share one capped bucket. In high-tax states the property tax deduction is often already absorbed by state income tax before the house is considered. |
| Itemize or nothing | The benefit is only the amount by which itemized deductions exceed the standard deduction, multiplied by the marginal rate. Not the full interest figure. |
| Points are interest | Discount points on a purchase are generally deductible in the year paid. On a refinance they are amortized over the life of the loan. |
THE BALANCE
SHEET VIEW
Four conversations that belong to the advisor, not the agent.
1. HOW MUCH SHOULD THE CLIENT PUT DOWN
The reflex answer is twenty percent, to avoid mortgage insurance. The correct answer depends on what the marginal dollar earns elsewhere and what the mortgage insurance actually costs.
Frame it as a spread. If a client puts an extra fifty thousand dollars down, the guaranteed return on that dollar is the mortgage rate, after tax if they itemize. Compare that to the expected after-tax return on the same dollar invested, adjusted for the client's risk tolerance and their liquidity needs. Then add the cost of the mortgage insurance they avoid, which is real but temporary on conventional financing.
The trap: a client who puts every liquid dollar into the down payment and closes with no reserves. Reserves are both an underwriting factor and the thing that keeps a new roof from becoming a credit event.
2. DOCUMENTING A BUSINESS OWNER'S INCOME
This is where advisors add the most value, and where the most deals die. A client whose CPA has spent five years minimizing taxable income has, on paper, minimized their borrowing power. Agency underwriting uses net income after expenses, not gross revenue or distributions.
If a purchase is likely within twenty-four months, that is a conversation to have with the CPA before the return is filed, not after. Where the tax strategy should not change, the answer is a bank statement, profit and loss, or asset-based program. See Part 03.
Bank statement
Twelve or twenty-four months of deposits, with an expense factor applied. Best when revenue is strong and write-offs are aggressive.
Asset depletion
Qualifying income derived from liquid and retirement assets. Best for a retiree or a client whose wealth is not income.
DSCR
Investment property only. Qualifies on the property's rent against its payment. No personal income used at all.
3. WHEN THE HOUSE IS THE CHEAPEST MONEY AVAILABLE
A client with substantial equity and a funding need has several options, and the mortgage is not always the wrong one. A closed-end second or a line of credit preserves a low first-mortgage rate that a cash-out refinance would destroy. Compare the blended rate of keeping the first and adding a second against the rate on a new larger first before recommending either.
Where interest is deductible: only when the borrowed funds are used to buy, build, or substantially improve the residence securing the loan. Proceeds used to invest or pay off consumer debt do not qualify under the acquisition debt rules, regardless of what the loan is secured by.
4. THE RETIREMENT PURCHASE
A retiree with seven figures in assets and forty thousand dollars of reported income is declinable on a standard agency file and easily approvable on an asset-based one. Retirement distributions can be used as qualifying income when there is documented continuance, and assets can be converted to income under asset depletion. Neither requires the client to actually start drawing down the account.
WHAT ACTUALLY
HAPPENS
Sixteen steps, three stages, roughly three weeks from contract to keys.
ASSESSMENT AND
PRE-APPROVAL
- Introduction to the Bison team and a discovery call is scheduled.
- Discovery call. A senior loan officer learns the situation and consults on options.
- The loan officer updates you on that call and sets expectations.
- The client relations coordinator sends portal instructions for documents.
- Documents reviewed, options presented, pre-approval finalized.
- Pre-qualification letter issued.
SHOPPING AND
UNDER CONTRACT
- The coordinator checks in frequently on the search.
- Payment breakdowns provided on any property under consideration.
- Offers drafted, submitted, and negotiated on the client's behalf.
- Offer accepted. Timing and next steps reviewed with the client.
CLEARING AND
CLOSING
- The client is introduced to the production manager.
- Appraisal ordered and the file submitted to underwriting.
- Closing conditions cleared with the buyer.
- Final closing documents issued.
- Title company schedules the signing.
- Documents signed, funds disbursed, title and deed recorded.
WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO
| Role | Owns | Call them when |
|---|---|---|
| Senior Loan Officer | The client relationship and the loan structure | Strategy, structure, pricing, or anything that changes the approval |
| Client Relations Coordinator | Document collection and status | You need a status update or the client is stuck in the portal |
| Production Manager | The file from pre-approval to closing | Appraisal timing, conditions, or anything after submission |
| Underwriting and Closing | The decision and the documents | Through your loan officer, never directly |
THE FIVE MOMENTS THAT DELAY A CLOSING
New credit during escrow
A financed vehicle, a furniture account, or a card opened after pre-approval. Credit is re-pulled before closing on nearly every file.
Large unsourced deposits
Any deposit that is not payroll must be documented. Gift funds need a letter and a paper trail. Cash is not documentable.
Appraisal below contract
The loan is sized off the lower of price or appraised value. The gap is renegotiated, covered in cash, or the contract is cancelled.
Condo project review
The building has to qualify, not just the buyer. Litigation, investor concentration, and reserve shortfalls all stop a file.
Insurance binding
In wildfire and wind exposed markets, getting a carrier to bind can now take longer than underwriting the loan. Start it at contract.
A job change
Employment is verified again within days of closing. A resignation, a switch to 1099, or a new bonus structure all require re-underwriting.
FIELD
ANSWERS
The questions you get asked in the car, at the open house, and at the kitchen table.
THE LANGUAGE
Terms a client will hear during the file, defined the way you would explain them.
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