Qualifying for a conventional mortgage with unconventional income

[Christopher L Shannon]

Hi BP community,

Im a first time home buyer and I need some advise on where to start with seeking a conventional loan. My girlfriend and I are planning to buy a MF in either cape coral or port charlotte. We'd like to house hack for a year with an FHA loan before deciding if we like the area enough to buy our own home close by. So here's the problem; I'm a merchant mariner and my girlfriend is a travel nurse. Because we both work short term contracts, we cant show employment by one company for the last two years like all conventional lenders require. We have w2s and pay stubs to show that we earn cumulatively 150k annually for the past 4 years. We also can meet all other requirements for borrowers (credit score, DTI, etc). Will we have any problems qualifying? Would it be best to go to a small bank or credit union? Any advise is much appreciated.

[Chris Mason]

Originally posted by @Christopher L Shannon:

Hi BP community,

Im a first time home buyer and I need some advise on where to start with seeking a conventional loan. My girlfriend and I are planning to buy a MF in either cape coral or port charlotte. We'd like to house hack for a year with an FHA loan before deciding if we like the area enough to buy our own home close by. So here's the problem; I'm a merchant mariner and my girlfriend is a travel nurse. Because we both work short term contracts, we cant show employment by one company for the last two years like all conventional lenders require. We have w2s and pay stubs to show that we earn cumulatively 150k annually for the past 4 years. We also can meet all other requirements for borrowers (credit score, DTI, etc). Will we have any problems qualifying? Would it be best to go to a small bank or credit union? Any advise is much appreciated.

 It'll more or less be treated as self employment with the lesser of the average of the most recent two tax years over 24 months or YTD earnings over N completed months in the year, with one-off exceptions to the latter for industries known to be seasonal.... those reality TV Alaska fishermen making $100k in 2 months of work can get mortgages, and real estate agents can get mortgages in February even though their YTD is often $0. :)

Start getting a detailed list of employer start/end dates together along with all W2s/1099s.