The Tricky File

Episode 9 explores interest-only and flexible-payment non‑QM loans as strategic cash-flow tools for the right borrowers, covering IO periods, balloon options, best-fit scenarios, and a real-world case study. The episode also explains ATR and compliance requirements, major risks like payment shock and refinancing risk, and offers practical underwriting and client-matching tips to use these structur...

Episode 8 of The Tricky File with Yvette Misek breaks down 1099 and P&L-only loans designed for gig workers, contractors, and freelancers whose tax returns don’t reflect true cash flow. Yvette explains how these programs qualify borrowers using 1099s or CPA-prepared profit & loss statements, common documentation traps, a real freelancer case study, and practical tips to close more mo...

Yvette Misek shows how to save non‑warrantable condos and handle appraisal shortfalls using flexible non‑QM solutions, compensating factors, and creative gap coverage. The episode covers common condo red flags, lender strategies, a downtown condo case study, and practical steps brokers can use to turn declines into closed loans. Get actionable tips on pre‑screening, HOA documentation, gap solution...

Episode 6 breaks down ITIN and foreign national mortgage programs, CFPB guidance on immigration and ATR, and practical strategies to close non‑QM deals for immigrant borrowers and overseas investors. Learn documentation checklists, underwriting tips, a real case study, and actionable marketing and sourcing tactics to convert tricky files into closed loans in 2026.

Learn how asset depletion (asset qualifier) loans convert liquid assets into qualifying income so retirees, recent business sellers, and high-net-worth clients can get mortgages without W-2s or tax returns. The episode explains 2026 guidelines — typical haircuts, depletion periods (60–84 months), minimum assets, credit and down payment expectations, eligible assets, common pitfalls, and a real cas...

Host Yvette Misek explains how non‑QM lenders and smart compensating factors rescue borrowers with low credit scores, recent bankruptcies, foreclosures, or other credit events that conventional lenders reject. The episode breaks down program differences, real-life case study, and actionable tips — screening, lender selection, documentation, and stacking compensating factors — so broker...

In this episode, host Yvette Misek of 5th Street Capital explains how DSCR second mortgages let investors access equity without refinancing low-rate first mortgages, why this product is changing investor conversations, and how loan officers can leverage it to help cash-poor, equity-rich clients. The episode also covers tricky file scenarios—LLC vestings, cross-collateralization, reserve calc...

Yvette Misek of 5th Street Capital breaks down bank statement loans in 2026—how lenders use 12 or 24 months of bank statements and an expense factor to qualify self‑employed borrowers when tax returns don’t tell the full story. She covers program basics (credit scores, LTVs, DTI), common red flags that kill files, a real case study that closed in 22 days, and actionable pro tips to cle...

Welcome to the first episode of the Tricky File podcast with host Yvette Mieschek of Fifth Street Capital. This episode introduces the show's mission: helping mortgage professionals solve complicated, unusual, and last‑minute loan scenarios using creativity, experience, and the right investor structure. Yvette shares highlights from the California Mortgage Expo, talks through common tricky file ty...