Question for Dallas, Shane, or Brian

[Anonymous]

I plan on applying for a mortgage in 2-3 months.  I am a state employee of many years so income is guaranteed.  Question I have is my salary will increase 3% in April 2009 and 4% in April of 2010, can the loan officer adjust my salary to add the 7% when I go to apply so I can be approved for a higher loan amount.  Thanks 

[Anonymous]

I'm no expert, but I think a lot of the Sub Prime loans that were written and defaulted on were written and approved on the basis of the borrower being able to afford more in the future. Again I'm no expert and hate to be negative. I believe lenders have now really tightened the guidelines and kind of go by "What you have is what you get"

[Anonymous]

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rjeps wrote:

I'm no expert, but I think a lot of the Sub Prime loans that were written and defaulted on were written and approved on the basis of the borrower being able to afford more in the future. Again I'm no expert and hate to be negative. I believe lenders have now really tightened the guidelines and kind of go by "What you have is what you get"

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I see what your saying but my scores are all close to 800 so I wont have to do subprime or fha.  Also Im not looking into for example I qualify for a house max of 175,000 but I want to qualify for 250,000.  The price I'm looking at will allow me to be able to put the 20% or more down.  The problem Im having is I live in NYS which has the second highest tax rate charged in the county and seeing how many cities and towns have again increased the school/property tax, it will lessen the loan amount

[Anonymous]

I too am no expert however, the only way my loan officer would let me include a raise was to show a letter from my work on their letterhead and then my most current paystub with that increase.  I doubt a LO will be able to adjust your income now to make it 7% more.  In theory you are asking to state your income without any proof of earning that amount currently, the troubles we are in now are due largely to stated income loans which are very hard to find these days.

[Anonymous]

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GonnaBeDebtFree wrote:

I too am no expert however, the only way my loan officer would let me include a raise was to show a letter from my work on their letterhead and then my most current paystub with that increase.  I doubt a LO will be able to adjust your income now to make it 7% more.  In theory you are asking to state your income without any proof of earning that amount currently, the troubles we are in now are due largely to stated income loans which are very hard to find these days.

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I'm a public employee so my raises are gauranteed by our governor and legislators. There's a signed contract stating these raises and neither the governor nor the legislature can say now that were in a fiscal crisis and cannot give them to you.  One of my raises will be added around the same time I actually close on my future home.  I am hoping they can do this since they dont count auto loans that have 10 payments or less towards your dti even though you still have to pay the monthly payment.

[brownee]

Hmm..well, couldn't you leave the job or something and then not have that money? How can they count money that really isn't guaranteed considering you could leave or get fired or anything?

I do hope it works out for ya, though!!!

[DallasLoanGuy]

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steelfan wrote:

I plan on applying for a mortgage in 2-3 months.  I am a state employee of many years so income is guaranteed.  Question I have is my salary will increase 3% in April 2009 and 4% in April of 2010, can the loan officer adjust my salary to add the 7% when I go to apply so I can be approved for a higher loan amount.  Thanks 

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No. Current income only.

[BrianB_The_Loan_Professor]

I have never seen them allow for future income. I have seen an fha loan where it was viewed as a compensating factor and an exception was granted.

While it is guaranteed think worst case scenario as thats how the bank looks at it.

What if:

they lose their job?

the state has a fiscal crisis and they use employees pay cut to make the budget (I know you said NY not CA)

etc..

Good Luck wish it were the answer you wanted

Brian