Gifts are an acceptable source of down payment, if the gift giver is related to you or your co-borrower. We will ask you for the name, address, and phone number of the gift giver, as well as the donor's relationship to you.

If your loan request is for more than 80% of the purchase price, we will need to verify you have at least 5% of the property's value in your own assets.

Prior to closing, we will verify the gift funds have been transferred to you by obtaining a copy of your bank receipt or deposit slip to verify you have deposited the gift funds into your account.

If you are purchasing a home, we will use the lower of the appraised value or the sales price to determine your down payment requirement.

It is still a great benefit for your financial situation if you are able to purchase a home for less than the appraised value; however our investors do not allow us to use this "instant equity" when making our loan decision.

If you were in school before your current job, enter the name of the school you attended and the length of time you were in school in the "length of employment" fields. You can enter a position of "student" and income of "0."

Having changed employers frequently is typically not a hindrance to obtaining a new mortgage loan. This is particularly true if you made employment changes without having periods of time in between without employment. We will also look at your income advancements as you have changed employment.

If you are paid on a commission basis, a recent job change may be an issue since we will have a difficult time predicting your earnings without a history with your new employer.

Typically, income from a second job will be considered if a one-year history of secondary employment can be verified.

Information about child support, alimony, or separate maintenance income does not need to be provided unless you wish to have it considered for repaying this mortgage loan.

Generally, two years personal tax returns are required to verify the amount of your dividend and/or interest income so an average of the amounts you receive can be calculated. In addition, we will need to verify your ownership of the assets which generate the income using copies of statements from your financial institution, brokerage statements, stock certificates or Promissory Notes.

Typically, income from dividends and/or interest must be expected to continue for at least three years to be considered for repayment.

If you own rental properties, we will generally ask for the most recent year's federal tax return to verify your rental income. We will review the Schedule E of the tax return to verify your rental income, after all expenses except depreciation. Since depreciation is only a paper loss, it will not be counted against your rental income.

If you have not owned the rental property for a complete tax year, we will ask for a copy of any executed leases and estimate the expenses of ownership.

Generally, only income reported on your tax return can be considered when applying for a mortgage, unless the income is legally tax-free and is not required to be reported.

Some lenders may offer a stated income program, which means you can be qualified for a loan based on the income you state rather than that which can be verified. Usually these programs require larger down payments and offer substantially higher interest rates than regular mortgage rates. We do not offer stated income programs at this time.

We will ask for copies of your recent pension check stubs, or bank statement if your pension or retirement income is deposited directly in your bank account. Sometimes it will also be necessary to verify this income will continue for at least three years since some pension or retirement plans do not provide income for life. This can usually be verified with a copy of your award letter. If you do not have an award letter, we can contact the source of this income directly for verification.