Can’t find lender despite 4K gross/wk???
Member since 2023 · 11 posts · 0 votes
And 3.5k net/wk??! I’m a nurse with 14 years experience, but only RECENTLY started doing travel nursing starting this past 4/1/23. Lenders so far will approve me for a mortgage ONLY if I have 2 years travel experience or go back to a permanent staff position which literally pays 2x LESS. This doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, travel nursing contracts are generally 13 weeks long, but so what? There is ABSOLUTELY no shortage of jobs to choose from especially in the specialty that I work in. It is just nuts to me. Does anyone know a mortgage lender in Western Washington who may be able to help? I get paid every week and one check will cover the mortgage. Let’s do this already!
Maybe @Dave Skow will have an idea or 2. Good luck!
Maybe @Dave Skow will have an idea or 2. Good luck!
And 3.5k net/wk??! I’m a nurse with 14 years experience, but only RECENTLY started doing travel nursing starting this past 4/1/23. Lenders so far will approve me for a mortgage ONLY if I have 2 years travel experience or go back to a permanent staff position which literally pays 2x LESS. This doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, travel nursing contracts are generally 13 weeks long, but so what? There is ABSOLUTELY no shortage of jobs to choose from especially in the specialty that I work in. It is just nuts to me. Does anyone know a mortgage lender in Western Washington who may be able to help? I get paid every week and one check will cover the mortgage. Let’s do this already!
I was interested in mainly FHA loans first time home buyer. Would this type of loan be more strict requiring the aforementioned requirements (2 year travel nurse or permanent staff)? I would think my years working as a nurse would help some, but man, its tough going!
Maybe @Dave Skow will have an idea or 2. Good luck!
@Steve Vaughan-thanks
I was interested in mainly FHA loans first time home buyer. Would this type of loan be more strict requiring the aforementioned requirements (2 year travel nurse or permanent staff)? I would think my years working as a nurse would help some, but man, its tough going!
@Eric Boughner- unfortunately most lenders will have an issue with this for the reason you mention…we do ….possible solution would be to have a non occupant coborrower on the loan that is strong enough to make qualifying work
I was interested in mainly FHA loans first time home buyer. Would this type of loan be more strict requiring the aforementioned requirements (2 year travel nurse or permanent staff)? I would think my years working as a nurse would help some, but man, its tough going!
@Eric Boughner- unfortunately most lenders will have an issue with this for the reason you mention…we do ….possible solution would be to have a non occupant coborrower on the loan that is strong enough to make qualifying work
I think you will find banks only care about risk right now. If you are not the cookie cutter credit / employment profile, you are going to have a very hard time for the foreseeable future.
@Eric Boughner- thanks 1) having a non occupant coborrower is definitely an option....all debt and income for you and co borrower are factored into the qualification ratios .....your income will not be able to be counted in the debt/ income ratios until you have a min of 12 months of traveling nurse history or back to full time RN position ..also fyi - your co borrower is equally liable for the mortgage
@Eric Boughner- thanks 1) having a non occupant coborrower is definitely an option....all debt and income for you and co borrower are factored into the qualification ratios .....your income will not be able to be counted in the debt/ income ratios until you have a min of 12 months of traveling nurse history or back to full time RN position ..also fyi - your co borrower is equally liable for the mortgage
@Eric Boughner- thanks
I double checked with underwriting and as as long as we have a minimum of 12 months history of working the short term contracts with a reasonable likelihood of the income continuing- we will be OK
FHA loan are fine to use ( with or without a non occupant co borrower ) . IF you buy a condo - the complex the condo needs to be a FHA approved complex ( not all are ) ...min required down payment with FHA is 3.5% of the price ...There are conventional loan progrtams avaiable with as little as 3% down payment needed
The guidelines for travel nurses are followed across the board by most/ all lenders ....the issue isnt being able to provide loans to traveling nurses as there are plently of loans that are given to traveling RNS ...the issue is the length of time that one has been a traveling RN ...for RNS that have less than 1 years history - options are few . A letter explaining the siutation / profession is not going to change any lenders guidelines ( unfortunately )
I would advise trying to co borrower route ( if you have this option ) or if not - I would suggest getting conditionally pre approved based on present data with the condition you hit 12 months of history before a loan can close
I am checking with some broker sources to see if I might be able to locate some more out of the box options that can help now so more to follow
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@Eric Boughner- thanks 1) having a non occupant coborrower is definitely an option....all debt and income for you and co borrower are factored into the qualification ratios .....your income will not be able to be counted in the debt/ income ratios until you have a min of 12 months of traveling nurse history or back to full time RN position ..also fyi - your co borrower is equally liable for the mortgage
Hey Eric,
I recently tried purchasing a primary residence in southern California. I'm also a travel RN and the problem I ran into was the stipends that we receive. Lender would only consider my taxable income for preapproval, so it was really like half of my income used for pre approval which led me to small buying power. Not enough to purchase a home in socal so I was pretty upset. I've been a travel nurse for 1.5 months. They said if my employer would writer a letter that I've been getting stipends for 12 months and will continue for 3 years then MAYBE the underwriter will consider it. My employer didn't do this for me unfortunately. I read that if you do travel nursing for 2 years then they will include the stipend money but not too sure if that's true or not. Maybe some one here will confirm to that. BTW this is for conventional loan so this is based off Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae guidelines. I heard FHA (HUD) is even more strict. As of now, I'm just gonna wait another 6 months to get my two years.
Hi Eric, once you have 12 months under your belt as a traveling nurse, we can do your loan with FHA, without the need of a non-occupying coborrower. Please reach out to me so I can confirm all the details.
@Eric Boughner
Have you ever considered trying a different approach to acquiring a property other than the traditional financing?
There are many types of creative financing strategies out there that don't look at your income at all. It's how us "non-W2 earners" buy real estate. Some that might work for you are Seller financing or Subject To.
So many benefits to these methods!
I'm no expert but happy to help however I can.
Good luck!
@Eric Boughner
Have you ever considered trying a different approach to acquiring a property other than the traditional financing?
There are many types of creative financing strategies out there that don't look at your income at all. It's how us "non-W2 earners" buy real estate. Some that might work for you are Seller financing or Subject To.
So many benefits to these methods!
I'm no expert but happy to help however I can.
Good luck!
Never heard of it, but googled the term. Well, to me it sounds like exactly what I need and would love to do, but I can’t really see how I would find anyone to do that. That’s kinda like a rent to own. Sounds lovely in theory, but who would agree to it? Is it some kinda ruse??
People sell for all kinds of reasons and often times when they have little to no equity they would have to come out of pocket in order to sell in this market.
People also need to sell due to a sudden change like death, job, etc. With the current market, and depending on the location, it could be impossible to sell without losing money. subject to can help people get out of a house and walk away with more money than actually selling it the traditional way.
Sorry to hear about that, that is pretty ******. Find a mortgage broker who can shop around through dozens of different loan programs for different people. If you're in Washington check out Washington First Mortgage Loan - https://www.wafirstmortgage.com/
Im a veteran travel nurse of 9 years and dozens of contracts, and home ownership has long been a challenge for travel nurses, because stipends are not included in our tax returns, so stipends have not been considered income according to the mortgage lending industry. Pre-pandemic we typically made $20/hr plus full GSA per diem stipend, or similar. So only a third of our income was taxable, and at $20/hr income for 36hrs a week with occasional breaks in employment our reported annual income was like $35,000 a year. which gives us very little borrowing power. The pandemic changed this completely with travel nurses making $100/hr or more for 48-72hrs a week, plus max GSA per diem, so that 80-85% of our actual income was taxed and reflected on our tax returns.
Many of of us made $200,000 - $400,000 a year for a couple of years, and with 3% interest rates a lot of travel nurses were able to purchase homes for the first time, maybe 2-3. But the crisis contracts are over now. There are still some decent contracts out but not many. By good I mean $50-60/hr taxed pay rate for 48 hrs so maybe $120K/yr on tax return. The majority of contract is seeing are back to $20-30hr taxed :~( Unfortunately interests rates have climbed to 7.5% and rising which further limits our powering power, leaving a lot of travel nurses (and anyone wanting to purchase real estate) feeling like the ship has sailed and we missed the boat.
To address your specific questions, most lenders I have spoken to require two years of experience as a travel nurse (or even two years of tax returns so maybe almost 3 years of traveling) and treat the nurse as a 1099 independent contractor. Twice I've been told they average our income for the last two years tax filings, and extrapolate the last two months pay to determine an annual salary, and use whichever figure is less to assign our annual income for lending purposes. and Per Diem stipend would not be considered.
I've also been told that FHA (or any primary home loan) would be challenging because your intention is supposed to be to occupy the home and a full time traveler obviously isn't going to live in the home much of the year. I think some lenders are willing to bend the rule and others aren't. I would think its easer to qualify for the loan if the home is at the same location as your home of record where you are already duplicating expenses, rather than in a new state where you want to move but don't have roots.
Also, some staffing agencies have been willing to compensate you without per diem stipends, so that all of your income is taxed, and help you qualify for a larger mortgage. Most will not do this, however, because they save money by paying per diem since pay payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, etc is charged as a percentage of taxable wages. They also have to be careful if others are paid per diem and you aren't, as their legal department doesn't want the IRS to accuse the agency of "wage reclassification" which is tax fraud.
I think there has never been a more difficult time for a travel nurse to buy a home, or for anyone to buy a home. But it's still possible. Creative financing is probably your best bet and I'd read anything you can about it and there are some great BP podcasts on the subject. I'd also use the search feature on the facebook travel nurse groups, this subject is discussed frequently. Lastly, I would contact The One Brokerage. They offer a ton of different loan types with flexible conditions aimed at real estate investors. You can use a lone broker anywhere, they do not have to be in your home state or city, and will have many more options than local banks or credit unions.
All the travel nurses past and present have faced these same challenges to some degree. Don't give up and keep us posted on your progress. :~)
A DSCR loan would solve your issue. No personal income/pay stub requirements!
A DSCR loan would solve your issue. No personal income/pay stub requirements!
DSCR is for an investment property not primary residence
If your still having trouble LMK I might be able to help you out!