FHA Loan - Less than 2 years employment history

[Timothy Joost]

Background: I & the wife are looking to buy a MF 4 unit property priced at $250k via an FHA loan. One of the requirements for the loan is that we have a 2 year continuous employment.

I have a 1 year gap in income(i.e. I was employed but not paid because I wasn't working on any project) Anyways, after that 1 year gap, as of today i have been employed and earning for 1 year and 7 months. So I am short of the 2 year employment requirement by 5 months. We have good credit scores (715 - 750)

Question: Due to this we have been declined a pre-approval by one bank and asked to come back in 5 months time. Another major bank has pre-approved us(based on all the info i gave them on the phone), but I fear that once we start closing, they will start reviewing all the info i gave and decline the loan at a late stage of closing.

I don't want to wait 5 months and risk somebody else picking up the house in that time. Nor can i put down 25% as down payment on a conventional(non FHA) loan.

What kind of creative financing strategy can be done here?

I am in San Antonio,TX. So if anybody is aware of any hardmoney lender, transactional lender, lenient banks, credit unions with any lenient loan products or any kind of creative financing strategy, that would be very helpful.