Conventional mortgage with only 1 year 1099/W2

[Dan Mumm]

Hello all, I am looking to buy my first rental property locally here in Las Vegas. I am a full time real estate agent doing a good amount of business so I am very familiar with the market. I have good credit (around 770 right now) and have enough cash to put 20% down on the properties in my price range ($150k-200k). 

However, the problem is that I only have 1 year's tax return as a 1099 employee. I started real estate on 1/1/2015. So, I just got 2015's tax return, but I won't get next years until around March of 2017.

Prior to starting in real estate, I had well-paying W2 job for over 3 years with no gaps (I have W2's for 2012, 2013, and 2014). I went directly from that job into real estate with no gaps either.

From my understanding, conventional loans require 2 MATCHING W2's or 1099's. So I think I am out of luck. I would really prefer to use a conventional loan and not hard money/crowdfunding so that I can get a better rate. If I had a second year 1099 I could get 4.5-5%, with hard money I understand I would be paying 8-10% which is out of the question for me.

Do I just have to wait another year, or is there another option that anyone here can think of? I'm coming across some great opportunities which I would love to take advantage of. Prices are going up here as well so I would prefer to take action now if possible. Thanks so much for any advice!!

[Robert Adams]

If you go hard money make sure you have a solid plan with your traditional lender to get you out of the hard money ASAP. Be sure you are calculating your debt to income ratio on your net income not gross. If you 2nd year income declines you may see issues also. My point is make sure you can refi to get out of the hard money before you get into the hard money. Best of luck.