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Sean Bramble
  • Investor
  • United States
279
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202
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Construction loan underwriting question

Sean Bramble
  • Investor
  • United States
Posted Dec 3 2022, 08:23

Question for lenders (or anyone who understands how construction loans are underwritten). I'd like to know how to strategically order a series of transactions in order to qualify for a construction loan from a DTI perspective

Context:

I'd like to build a short term rental property, but don't have the DTI to qualify for a construction loan (left my job awhile ago). Commercial lenders also won't lend to me bc I don't meet the experience requirement (never developed before).

Enter my mom, who can qualify for a construction loan herself to get the process started (side note: I’m sitting on a mountain of cash, which de-risks this for her in case things don’t go according to budget).

She qualifies today based on her DTI, but plans on using her securities backed loc (margin acct) in the near future to temporarily fund unrelated investments. If she does this, it will alter her DTI such that she doesn't qualify for the construction loan anymore, but she plans on paying off the margin account soon after. So her DTI will increase temporarily, then go back to where it was.

Question:

What order of operations is necessary to qualify for the construction loan? Should she close the construction loan first before touching her line of credit, or is it alright for her to use the line of credit and then repay the amount, then apply for the construction loan? Is there a lookback period underwriters use where they count debts she's had within the last x months towards her DTI (even though she may have paid them off before applying)?

Thanks everyone!

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