The Man Behind the Sparks
Carlos Reyes, 41, has been an electrician for nearly two decades. He works full-time at a commercial construction company in Antipolo, Rizal, pulling in a steady monthly salary of 38,000 pesos. But for the past six years, he has also been running a small electrical repair and rewiring workshop out of a converted garage beside his home in Binangonan — taking on residential jobs, panel upgrades, and emergency callouts on weekends and evenings.
The workshop was never meant to be a serious business. It started as a favor to neighbors. But by 2022, it was generating between 18,000 and 25,000 pesos a month in additional income, with a growing base of repeat customers from nearby barangays. Carlos had even hired a helper two days a week to manage overflow jobs.
Still, to most banks, Carlos looked like a complicated case. His salary was easy to verify. His workshop income was not.
The Loan He Was Stuck With
Back in 2018, Carlos and his wife Maribel took out a home loan with a commercial bank to build their two-storey house on a 120-square-meter lot in Binangonan. The loan was for 2,400,000 pesos over 20 years. At the time, he accepted a fixed rate of 8.75% for the first five years without negotiating — he was just relieved to get approved.
When his loan repriced in 2023, the bank offered him a new rate of 9.25% per annum. His monthly payment jumped from 21,200 pesos to around 22,100 pesos. It did not sound like much on paper, but Carlos knew it added up. Over the remaining 15 years of his loan, that rate meant paying significantly more interest than necessary.
He started researching refinancing options. What he found was discouraging. Most banks he approached online said they would only count his employed income for the debt-to-income calculation. His workshop earnings — even with two years of documented receipts and a registered business name — were being set aside entirely. One bank told him his debt-to-income ratio was too high on his salary alone to qualify for a lower rate. He nearly gave up.
Finding Nook
Carlos found Nook through a Facebook group for homeowners in Rizal Province. Someone had posted asking whether banks count freelance income for refinancing, and another member replied with a link to Nook's guide for self-employed borrowers looking to refinance. Carlos clicked on it that evening after dinner.
He was surprised by how straightforward the information was. Nook explained that some banks in their panel do accept mixed-income borrowers — those who have both a formal salary and documented business or freelance earnings. The key was knowing which banks to approach, and how to present the income in a way that met each lender's underwriting criteria.
He submitted an inquiry that same night. A Nook mortgage advisor named Tricia called him the next morning.
Building the Income Picture
Tricia walked Carlos through what documentation he would need to build a complete income profile. For his salary, it was straightforward: payslips, a certificate of employment, and his latest income tax return. For the workshop, it took a bit more preparation.
Carlos had registered his business under his name with the DTI two years earlier, which helped. He also had official receipts from his jobs, a BIR registration, and a business permit from the Binangonan local government. Tricia explained that with two years of consistent documentation, certain banks on Nook's panel would accept his workshop income at a conservative blended rate — typically counting 50% to 70% of the average monthly net.
After reviewing six months of receipts and two years of ITRs, Tricia assessed his combined qualifying income at approximately 52,000 pesos per month. That number changed everything. His debt-to-income ratio, which had looked too high on salary alone, was now comfortably within acceptable limits. For anyone wondering whether a high debt-to-income ratio is a permanent barrier, Nook's resources on high DTI home loan refinancing are worth reading — Carlos's case is a good example of how the picture changes when all income sources are properly documented.
The Offers That Came Back
Nook submitted Carlos's application to four banks simultaneously. Within two weeks, three of them came back with offers. Here is how they compared:
- Bank A: 6.50% fixed for 3 years, then floating
- Bank B: 6.75% fixed for 5 years
- Bank C: 5.99% fixed for 3 years, with an option to renegotiate at end of term
Carlos and Maribel sat down with Tricia over a video call to go through each offer in detail. They were not just looking at the headline rate — they also looked at fixing periods, repricing terms, prepayment penalties, and processing fees. Tricia prepared a simple side-by-side breakdown and explained the tradeoffs in plain language.
They chose Bank C at 5.99% per annum.
The Numbers That Matter
With a remaining loan balance of approximately 2,050,000 pesos and 15 years left on the term, the difference between 9.25% and 5.99% was significant.
- Old monthly payment at 9.25%: approximately 22,100 pesos
- New monthly payment at 5.99%: approximately 17,300 pesos
- Monthly savings: approximately 4,800 pesos
- Annual savings: approximately 57,600 pesos
- Total interest savings over 15 years: approximately 864,000 pesos
The processing and appraisal fees for the refinance came to around 28,000 pesos in total — costs that Carlos paid directly to the bank, with no fee charged by Nook. At a monthly saving of 4,800 pesos, he recovered that cost in under six months.
What Carlos Did With the Savings
Carlos did not go on vacation with the extra 4,800 pesos a month. He was more deliberate than that. He put 2,000 pesos per month toward his two children's education fund. Another 1,500 pesos went toward upgrading his workshop tools — an investment that he said would help him take on larger and more profitable jobs. The remaining 1,300 pesos went into an emergency buffer, something his family had never had enough of before.
"Ang 4,800 pesos, malaki 'yan para sa amin," Carlos told Tricia after the loan was transferred. "Hindi lang savings 'yan — ito ay pagkakataon."
Translation: "The 4,800 pesos is a lot for us. It's not just savings — it's opportunity."
What Made This Work
Carlos's case came together because of three things that are worth understanding if you are in a similar situation.
First, he had taken the time to formalize his workshop income. A DTI registration, BIR registration, official receipts, and a business permit made his earnings documentable. Informal earners without these records have a harder time, though not an impossible one.
Second, he had two years of consistent income history from the workshop. Banks are far more willing to count self-employment income when it is stable and documented over multiple years, rather than sporadic or newly started.
Third, he used a broker — Nook — rather than approaching one bank at a time. A single bank rejection had almost convinced him to stop trying. By submitting to multiple lenders simultaneously, he was able to find the banks that were genuinely suited to his income profile, rather than the ones that simply defaulted to salary-only calculations.
If you are a tradesperson, contractor, or skilled worker with both employment and side business income, Carlos's path is replicable. The documentation takes effort, but the reward is a mortgage rate that reflects your full financial picture — not just the part that is easiest to process.