Send me your hardest files.
Self-employed buyer with K-1s and depreciation. Complex income that another lender priced out. Tight clear-to-close timeline. Credit on the borderline of the next pricing tier. I read these files early, run the math straight, and tell you and your client what is real.
Equal Housing OpportunityWhy realtors send me the hard files
You do not want to find out the file is dead three days before close. You want a broker who reads the file early, talks to your client like a person, and tells you the truth on the timeline. Here is what that means in practice.
I read the file before pre-approval
Income docs, credit, asset trail, and any prior denial letter. I tell you what is workable, what needs documentation, and what kills the file before your client falls in love with a house.
Conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, jumbo, DSCR, and complex-income review
I shop across a wholesale lender network and present eligible options with trade-offs explained. Bank-statement, manufactured-housing, down-payment-assistance, and commercial or 5+ unit material on this site is educational and does not state that Kellibrooke offers or can arrange those products.
One broker. One phone number. Mine.
No LO assistant. No processor handling questions I should be handling. You call me, your client calls me, you both get a response the same day. Most of the time the same hour.
Tight clear-to-close on real files, not promises
When the income is documented clean and the credit reads through, I work fast. When something on the file needs more time, I tell you upfront. No surprise extensions at the closing table.
From a real estate professional
"He put together this 'how payments change' and 'what to expect' sheet for me. It was way easier to track than trying to read through a bunch of emails and loan estimates and everything else."
Ashton sends me files with buyers who need a clear read on how loan estimates compare. I build the side-by-side, walk her and the client through it once, and she stops fielding line-item questions she should not have to answer.
That is the working pattern. I do the math, you keep doing what got you the client in the first place.
Co-marketing kit
Tools I am building for partner agents. These ship as I write them. None of these involve any value exchange for referrals. They are educational pieces I send to your buyers when you ask.
First-time buyer payment breakdown
Plain English walk-through of principal, interest, taxes, insurance, and PMI. What changes when rates move. What changes when the down payment moves. Want to model it now? Run the numbers in my calculators.
Coming soonSelf-employed qualifying-income guide
How tax returns, K-1s, depreciation, and bank-statement programs actually qualify income. Use it with the self-employed mortgage Texas guide when a buyer's returns understate cash flow. For larger files involving layered assets and liabilities, use the high-net-worth residential mortgage planning guide.
Coming soonTexas 50(a)(6) cash-out checklist
For agents working with sellers who want to pull equity before listing. The 80% LTV cap, the 12-day waiting period, and what disqualifies a Texas cash-out. Estimate it with my Texas cash-out refinance calculator.
Coming soonLoan program decision tree
When to send a borrower to FHA versus conventional. How credit profile, mortgage insurance, seller concessions, and cash-to-close can point two similar buyers down different paths. Quick reference.
Coming soonTexas market data dashboard
Monthly Austin metro data I pull anyway. Median sold, months of inventory, percent of listings cut, sold-to-list ratio. Source-cited, no spin.
Coming soonWhat I will not do
No referral fees or things of value for mortgage-business referrals.
RESPA Section 8 and Regulation X prohibit giving or accepting a fee, kickback, or other thing of value under an agreement or understanding to refer settlement-service business involving a federally related mortgage loan. The CFPB explains that an agreement may be inferred from a practice, pattern, or course of conduct.
What that means in practice for our working relationship:
- I do not pay referral fees, finder's fees, or any other compensation tied to the referral of a borrower.
- I do not use marketing service agreements. More generally, paid service arrangements must involve services actually performed, and payments must be reasonably related to the market value of those services.
- I do not split desk costs, lead-gen costs, or other office expenses in a structure that effectively pays for referrals.
- I do not treat a low dollar amount as an automatic exception for gifts or promotions; the CFPB says there is no exception based solely on value.
- I do not enter into joint ventures or affiliated-business arrangements structured to disguise referral compensation.
What I provide in ordinary collaboration is communication, file review, prompt pre-approval work, and accurate disclosures. Those services are not tied to referral volume or value. Whether any separate arrangement is lawful depends on its own facts, structure, and implementation.
Current sources: CFPB Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act FAQs; Regulation X, 12 CFR §1024.14. This is general educational information, not legal advice or a guarantee that any arrangement complies with RESPA.
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Questions agents ask
Do you pay referral fees or run marketing service agreements?
No. I do not pay or accept referral fees, and I do not use marketing service agreements. CFPB guidance explains that RESPA Section 8 prohibits giving or accepting a fee, kickback, or thing of value under an agreement or understanding to refer covered settlement-service business. Whether another service arrangement is lawful depends on the actual services, reasonable market value, structure, implementation, and specific facts. This is general information, not legal advice.
What files should I send you?
The ones another lender told no, the ones with a tight clear-to-close timeline, the self-employed buyer with K-1s and a CPA who knows what depreciation does to qualifying income, the buyer with credit sitting near a pricing break, or the residential investor who needs DSCR reviewed early. I focus on conventional, FHA, VA, USDA, jumbo, DSCR, asset-depletion, and complex-income files. If there is a supportable residential mortgage path, I want to see it.
How fast can you pre-approve a buyer?
Most files I can pre-approve in 24 to 48 hours from clean income and credit documentation. I do full pre-approvals with verified income, assets, and a credit pull. Not pre-quals. Pre-approvals sellers take seriously.
Who actually communicates with my client?
I do. There is no LO assistant who picks up when I am busy. No processor who answers loan questions. One broker, one phone number, one inbox. You get my cell. Your client gets my cell. We work the file together.
What if my buyer is borderline on credit or DTI?
Send them. I read the credit early. If a small score move could change the pricing tier, I tell you and your client what to document or address. I do not pretend the file works when it does not, and I do not refuse to look at a file because it is hard.
Got a file that needs another set of eyes?
Introduce yourself as the agent and tell me the broad outlines. Use your own contact details, and leave out borrower names, financial identifiers and documents.