Season 1 curriculum
Free roomThe Glossary - Learn the Language8 min · Jim

Lesson 6 · Glossary lesson

Non-QM in One Page

Explain Non-QM without making it sound like a last-chance junk drawer.

Scenario

A borrower is agency-ineligible, and the member needs to discuss possible alternatives without implying anything is approved.

Learner Outcome

The member can describe Non-QM as investor-specific lending with ATR, documentation, pricing, and risk tradeoffs.

Skool summary

Non-QM is not 'bad credit loans.' Learn the one-page version: ATR, alternative docs, investor rules, and tradeoffs.

1

Plain-English definition

Non-QM means the loan does not fit Qualified Mortgage standards or agency execution, but may still have an investor path if ability-to-repay, documentation, pricing, collateral, and risk appetite line up.

2

What not to say

Do not call Non-QM a guaranteed backup plan. It is a possible path to review under specific investor rules, and it often brings different documentation, pricing, reserve, prepayment, and product constraints.

3

Useful sentence

Say: 'Agency may not be the right box. We can review whether a documented non-QM path exists, but the answer depends on investor rules and the facts we can prove.'

Homework

  • Rewrite a declined-agency explanation as a possible-path review, not a promise.
  • Name the first document or source that would determine whether the path is worth pursuing.