Less than 2 years of consistant employment

[Nick Cascio]

Hello all,

This will be my first post on BP, and will serve to pose a question to overcome my first hurdle on the road to owning and home and gaining beautiful equity. I'm 24, working in the Texas oilfields, have a Mechanical Engineering degree, and sitting on some cash. I also live at home with my parents when on my off days.

My issue lies here. I have been working my current job for 7 months. Do to the nature of oilfield work, my job pays me hourly + overtime. My hourly rate is very low, and I make most of my income from over time. I've spoken with a few mortgage lenders about FHA and conventional loans. They require 2 years of work before my overtime can be considered 'effective income'. The difference in pre-qualification between base pay vs overtime is significant enough for this to be a deal breaker. From what I was told by a Chase lender, most institutions use the same underwriters, who implement this 2 year requirement.

I understand that private lending could be an option, however, I'm not sure who would lend to me with favorable terms based on my lack of real estate experience. I have trustworthy friends who are interested this and willing to split a mortgage with me (I'm not sure if that's possible either). We'd basically be going half. I've been hesitant to go into business with friends, but it could be a powerful play, and a valuable learning experience. I'm also aware of the hard money approach, but do not know details of how that works.

I'm hoping to gather some community insight on this so please don't hesitate to leave a comment or even reach out directly. Thank you for reading.