Rental Property and Bonus Income

[Brittany Minocchi]

My husband and I are looking to purchase a STR with a vacation home loan. We do plan to occupy it ourselves for the 14 day/10% of rentable days requirement. I've spoken to a few lenders and while I understand the guidelines are the same across the board, the lenders' interpretation of the guidelines vary. 

We purchased one duplex last September, a second duplex in October, and our third this January. The first two have mortgages, the third does not. All three are currently rented with 12-month leases. 

Question 1: Are there any lenders that will allow us to use any of the rental income? I've seen that 75% is a possibility.

My husband is a W-2 employee with a base salary and is also paid quarterly bonuses. He started with this company in March of 2018. Although he was eligible to get bonuses, his branch was brand new with no established client base (he's in consumer finance), so he had to dig himself out of a hole before becoming profitable. He is paid 25% of his branch's profits. He was asked in October of 2020 to transfer to another branch where the manager was let go. From that point on, he has earned bonus income. The branch he transferred to was a 1.5M branch and that manager had been there for 6 years. It took my husband a year to grow it to 2.6M. So, he is consistently earning bonuses now and there is no reason they wouldn't continue (and get larger as the branch grows). So far for 2022, he is on pace to gross almost half of last year's bonus by May. The Fannie Mae guidelines state that 24 months of bonus history is preferred, but 12-24 months can be considered if the borrower demonstrates positive factors that offset the shorter history. He has a 780+ credit score, has never filed bankruptcy, never foreclosed, never missed a payment on anything. As far as debt, we've got our primary @ $1239/mo, minimum credit card payment of $40 (which will be paid off before a loan even were to close, the balance is only $500 or so) and a student loan payment of $161. We keep debts that make sense in my name so his DTI isn't affected as much, and we can continue to purchase properties. For that reason, I wouldn't be on the loan with him. I'm a SAHM for the time being, so my income isn't a factor.

Question 2: Are there any lenders that will accept his bonus income? If so, does it have to be divided over 24 months, or would it be divided for the time the bonuses were actually received? 

Any input from lenders in the group or referrals would be appreciated.