First time home buyer // have capital but not great income atm

[Mark Garcia]

Hi,

I am looking to purchase my first home but my income has been very low for the past 2 years due to my line of work slowing down. I think I brought in 80k total between 2022/2023. I was using this time to learn new skills in hopes of changing careers as my job requires constant travel and am sick of it. In 2020/21 when I was traveling I was making about 140k-180k as 1099 worker.

I have about 280k in cash that I have cycling in 4 week t-bills, excellent credit 800+(never had a late payment in my life) and almost zero credit utilization as I pay all my cards off twice a month.

I am looking to get a house under 350k max with 100k down payment.

Anyways, I spoke to a lender to get pre-approved and they made it sound like I didn't really have a chance due to not working atm.

I have almost 0 expenses besides what I pay in rent (1k a month) at a family members house and my own food/gas etc which probably brings my total to about 2k a month. I really need to get out of here as it's killing my mental.

What are my options here, if any? Feels extremely discouraging as there are people way worse off then me who put nothing down with bad credit yet somehow they have a house..

Sorry if I put this in the wrong place, first post here.

Thanks,

Mark