Where I lend around Dexter
What actually makes a loan a jumbo
A jumbo loan isn't a category of house. It's a loan amount. There's a conforming loan limit that gets set once a year, and it isn't the same everywhere — it's set by county, and it moves. A loan at or under that limit for the county the property sits in can go the conventional route. A loan above it can't, and goes to a different set of investors with their own rules.
I don't publish the number here on purpose. It's reissued every year, and a stale figure on a web page is worse than none. I'll confirm the current limit for the county the property is actually in, before you're relying on it.
Plenty of Dexter buyers land just barely on one side of that line. If you're a little over, that's not the end of the conversation — there's more than one way to structure a file that sits slightly above the limit, and those versions are worth laying side by side. If you're just under, know it, because a change in what you're borrowing can move you across the line after you're already under contract.
Jumbo underwriting has a different character
It isn't harder in the sense of being a fight. It's heavier. More gets asked for, and it gets asked for earlier.
Expect more documentation — more statements, more pages of returns, more explanation of where money came from. Expect reserves to matter: jumbo investors generally want to see assets remaining after closing, sourced and seasoned rather than newly arrived. Expect income stability to get read closely, meaning not just what you earn but how long you've earned it that way.
The appraisal is tighter too. Jumbo files draw a closer review of the appraiser's work, and some files require a second appraisal outright. That's a normal part of the program, not a sign anything's wrong — but you want to hear it from me in the first week, not at the end.
Jumbo guidelines vary far more than conforming does
This is the part I'd underline. Conforming loans mostly read from one rulebook, so the answer in one place is close to the answer in another. Jumbo isn't like that. Reserve expectations, how self-employment is documented, how equity and bonus income are treated, property types, second-appraisal triggers — these genuinely differ from one jumbo investor to the next, and a file that's awkward at one is ordinary at another.
That's exactly where a broker is worth having. I'm not carrying one company's guidelines around and calling them the market. I can take the same file to several outlets and see who reads it properly. If someone's already told you no on a jumbo, that was one investor's overlay.
Professional and self-employed income, documented properly
In a market this close to Ann Arbor, a lot of buyers aren't straight salary. University and hospital staff, physicians, attorneys, engineers, people who own the practice or the firm rather than work at it, and people whose compensation shows up in pieces.
How that gets documented decides how much of it counts. Bonus income usually needs a history and some reason to believe it continues. Equity compensation — restricted stock, vesting schedules — is read differently depending on the investor, and the vesting paperwork matters as much as the statements. K-1 income means the entity returns get read alongside your personal ones. Business ownership brings in returns, year-to-date figures, and sometimes a letter from your CPA.
Bring me the messy version early. Almost none of it is a problem once it's documented right. The trouble I see comes from people assembling this in the last stretch instead of the first.
Appraisals in a mixed housing stock, and the river
Dexter's housing stock varies a lot inside a short drive — older homes in town, newer construction, larger parcels out in the townships. That variety shows up in the appraisal, since comparable sales have to be found for the actual property. An unusual home with few recent neighbors like it takes a more careful appraiser and sometimes a longer look.
The Huron River runs through this area, and river-adjacent property brings a flood zone determination into the file. That determination is made per property, not per town, and whatever is required follows from the zone it lands in. I'd rather order it and know than guess from a map.
Loan programs I use in Dexter
- Jumbo — for loan amounts above the conforming limit, shopped across multiple outlets
- Conventional — where most Dexter files start, and the comparison point for anything above the limit
- FHA — more flexible on credit
- VA — for veterans and service members, including on higher-priced files
- Self-employed and bank statement — for income that doesn't fit a W-2 box
- DSCR and investor — qualified on the property, not your tax returns
- Renovation — 203(k), HomeStyle, CHOICERenovation for homes that need work
First time buying? Start here.