Mortgage banker helps nursing assistant verify part-time work

Mortgage broker: Chris Bartlett

Purchase process: $230,000

Loan amount: $230,625

Loan terms: 30-year fixed, 3.5 percent down, FHA mortgage

Backstory: Recently, a real estate agent contacted me about a woman who was denied a mortgage. Her application was conditionally approved, but her previous lender ran into some issues verifying her employment history.

For the past three years, she had been working at as a certified nursing assistant in three different facilities. She also provided homecare for a client two nights a week.

In August 2018, she became ill and decided to take a two-and-ahalf month break from the homecare job to rest and recover. When she returned to work, she requested a schedule change that could not be accommodated and left the position.

One week later, she found a new job where she could work that schedule but with fewer hours. The issue for her mortgage approval was the two-and-a-half month gap between the two jobs.

Federal Housing Authority guidelines require no gaps in the last 24 months to use income from secondary jobs. With that gap, the income from her home-care job could not be counted and she no longer qualified for the loan.

I decided to meet with her and look for options. During our meeting, she explained the reason she had left the home-care job was because of the hours. Her schedule was from 2 to 8 a.m. or whenever the morning nurse arrived. She felt these hours were contributing to exhaustion causing her to become ill.

Her new position was 7 p.m. to 12 midnight with a closer commute. After listening to her explanation, I requested a doctor’s letter detailing her illness and the dates corresponding with the gap in her employment.

I also requested she provide a letter from her new employer outlining the terms of employment. The income was enough to support her mortgage payment, provided we could make the case to use it.

Finally, we wrote a detailed explanation outlining why there was a gap in secondary employment with a letter of her employment and earnings history over the past three years.

With the letter from the doctor, the verification of secondary employment and her detailed explanation letter, I was able obtain an approval for an FHA mortgage to purchase the home for which she had previously been denied a loan.

The more information you provide, the better your chances at approval.

Chris Bartlett, EMM Finacial,

203-583-4933, cbartlett@emmloans.com