Investors · Northern Michigan

Qualify on the rent, not your paycheck.

Michele closes DSCR loans, bank-statement and asset-only files, rehab financing, and purchases in a business name. Forty years in, across a resort market with a real short-term-rental and fix-and-flip segment.

Bring me the deal What she closes

Mortgage Loan Originator · Priority Home Mortgage · NMLS #139088

Michele Fulcher · NMLS #139088

40 years in lending Career mortgage banker

NMLS #139088 Verified on NMLS Consumer Access

Thousands of loans closed Who’s Who nominee, two years running

Former company owner President, A.S. Financial Corporation

Priority originates these programs directly and also brokers to outside lenders, so the fit is not limited to one lender’s guidelines. Program availability, pricing, and qualification still vary by lender and by file. Nothing here is a commitment to lend or an offer of a specific rate or term.

What she closes

Financing that does not ask your W-2 for permission.

Most of these exist because the write-offs that help you in April work against you in underwriting. Which one fits is a question about your file, and it is worth asking before an underwriter picks for you.

Investors whose tax returns understate what they can carry

Qualify on the Rent, Not Your Paycheck

The property is what qualifies. Underwriting compares the rent the property brings in against the payment it has to cover, which is why this is called a DSCR loan. Your employment and your tax returns are not the test.

Qualification from the rent the property produces, documented by lease or market rent
No employment verification and no personal income calculation
Useful when the schedule E write-offs that help you in April work against you in underwriting

Pricing and down payment on these differ from a primary-residence loan. We put both in front of you before you offer.

Investors buying property that needs work

Fix and Flip, Fix and Hold

The financing question on a project is not just the purchase. It is what the property is worth when the work is done, and what the exit is. Those two answers set the structure before you offer, not after.

Rehab financing for the acquisition, with the exit planned at the outset
The refinance into a long-term hold, priced before you buy rather than after
What the short-term-rental market in this region does and does not support, including the licensing a resort town requires

Priority originates these directly and also brokers to outside lenders, so the program that fits your project is not limited to one lender’s box. Short-term-rental rules are local and change: Traverse City licenses vacation rentals and restricts them by zoning district, so confirm the specific parcel before you count on that income.

Landlords and investors buying inside an entity

Closing in Your Business Name

Closing in an entity is a structural decision with three common reasons behind it. Which one applies to you changes how the file is built.

Keeping additional financed rentals off your personal debt load
Holding liability inside the business for tax purposes
Staying anonymous to tenants who deal only with a property manager

Entity structure is a question for your CPA and attorney. We handle the financing side and work with whichever structure they set up.

Self-employed borrowers and investors

When the Income Is Real but the W-2 Is Not

There is more than one way to document income. Which one to use is a question about your file, and it is worth asking before an underwriter picks for you.

Bank-statement qualification, personal or business deposits
Assets-only qualification
CPA profit-and-loss letters

Non-QM programs carry their own pricing and reserve requirements. Every one of these is a trade-off worth seeing in writing.

Run the numbers

Keep it as a rental, or sell it?

Rent it out and it has to cover the payment, the taxes, the insurance, and the months it sits empty. Sell it and the equity is liquid but the asset is gone. Put both sides in and compare them on the same page, before the decision gets made by whichever offer arrives first.

Compare renting against owning See all twelve calculators

Ready to move

Start the file.

If you have a property under contract or a portfolio you want repriced, the fastest path is to start the application and send Michele the addresses. She will tell you which program the file actually fits, and what it needs from you to clear underwriting.

Start your application Or bring her the deal first

Closing in an LLC or other entity name is routine here. Say so in the application and the file gets structured that way from the start, rather than being restructured later.

Opens the secure Priority Home Mortgage application in a new tab. Michele Fulcher, NMLS #139088. Equal Housing Lender.

This market, specifically

Grand Traverse County and northern Michigan.

As of August 2026.

Grand Traverse County closed 571 homes in the first half of 2026, about 12 percent fewer sales than the year before, with the median holding at $420,000. Supply sits near 2.8 months against a 6-month balance line, so it is still tight. Homes average roughly 50 days on market and close near 99 percent of asking.

Closings thin out through the winter. That is when a buyer who already has financing structured has the most leverage, and it is the opposite of when most people shop.

Before you underwrite the income

Short-term-rental rules here are local and they move. In Traverse City, as of August 2026:

Traverse City requires a Vacation Home Rental license (Ordinance Chapter 870) for any whole-home rental under 30 consecutive days. The application fee is $200, and every license expires December 31 regardless of when it was issued.
Whole-home vacation rentals are allowed only in the Hotel Resort, Office Service (C-1), Neighborhood Center (C-2), Community Center (C-3), Regional Center (C-4) and Development (D-1, D-2, D-3) districts. They are not permitted in the single-family residential districts. An owner who lives in the home can license it as a Tourist Home instead, but that path is closed to a non-occupant investor.
A license requires proof of $1 million liability insurance and a posted fire escape plan in each guest room. The property is inspected before a new license is issued and re-inspected every three years after that.
Budget about 11 percent in lodging tax: Michigan charges a 6 percent use tax on stays under 30 days, and a further 5 percent assessment is collected on Traverse City area lodging for tourism promotion. There is an active 2026 proposal to add a further local levy, so treat 11 percent as a floor rather than a settled number.

Neighboring townships and counties each set their own. Confirm the rules for the specific parcel before you count on nightly-rate income: a property that pencils as a short-term rental and one that does not can sit on the same street. This is a starting point for your diligence, not a substitute for it.

From a repeat buyer

What closing with her looks like.

From Google reviews

“Very professional, extremely responsive (every call was answered) and closed early.”

Jennise · June 2025

See all reviews on Google

Send the address

Bring me the deal.

Send the property and what you are trying to do with it. You get the structure, the pricing, and the exit in the same conversation, not after three rounds of email.

Buying somewhere to live rather than rent out? The move-up and refinance side is at buyupnorth.com/homeowners, and the first-time-buyer walkthrough is at buyupnorth.com.