Can't Get a Loan Due to Low Income

[Manco Snead]

Greetings all,

I'm up against a not uncommon scenario; can't get a loan from my credit union because of my low income. I'm hoping investors more experienced than myself may be able to steer me in a more productive direction:

Objective: owner occupy a single family for live-in rehab/flip for approx. one year then sell or refi.

Approx. price of single family: $150k - $200K

Anticipated down payment: 5%

Income/work history: $22,500/yr. Went back to school a few years ago, finished this June, now working part time in same field that I went to school for. Schooling can often be counted as work history. Have not found full time work yet.

Assets: duplex(both units currently occupied), purchased 6 yrs ago for $265k; close to $400k market value now.

Duplex total rent: $2,225/month

Duplex loan: approx. $150k remaning on loan (had put down large down payment)

Other debt: none

Cash assets: have enough for down payment and reserves for above mentioned single family

Credit score: good (don't know the #)

If anyone has ideas of how to approach acquiring the above mentioned property I'd greatly appreciate your thoughts. My low income seems to be the credit union's sole reason for not granting me the loan.

Much thanks.

[Chris Mason]

Assuming you aren't an astronaut (that 1 in 1,000,000 who can be successful at anything no matter what & I am not one of those people), real estate alone isn't generally a way to go from poor to rich.

It's a great way to bump yourself up a socioeconomic bracket or two, absolutely, over time. But not 5 brackets at once in a year.

Often times step #1 is focusing on that day-job. Real estate is capital intensive. I strongly suggest focusing on the basic personal finance stuff, like finding gainful full time employment. 

Gotta crawl before you can walk, gotta walk before you can run, gotta run before you can long-jump.