How to Qualify for a Kentucky Mortgage: Income and Employment Guide

How to get approved for a Kentucky FHA, VA, USDA and Fannie Mae Mortgage loan with Variable Income

Variable INCOME if your borrower is not hourly at 40 hours a week or salary do you fall within VARIABLE INCOME??

Yup we all dislike that is calculated by an averaging method..

Examples of income of this type include income from hourly workers with fluctuating hours, or income that includes commissions, bonuses, or overtime.

History of Receipt: Two or more years of receipt of a particular type of variable income is recommended; however, variable income that has been received for 12 to 24 months may be considered as acceptable income, as long as the borrower’s loan application demonstrates that there are positive factors that reasonably offset the shorter income history.

Frequency of Payment: us as a lender must determine the frequency of the payment Examples:
If a borrower is paid an annual bonus on March 31st of each year, the amount of the March bonus should be divided by 12 to obtain an accurate calculation of the current monthly bonus amount.

Note that dividing the bonus received on March 31st by three months produces a much higher, INACCURATE monthly average.

If a borrower is paid overtime on a biweekly basis, the most recent paystub must be analyzed to determine that both the current overtime earnings for the period and the year-to-date overtime earnings are consistent and, if not, why.

There are legitimate reasons why these amounts may be inconsistent yet still eligible for use as qualifying income. For example, borrowers may have overtime income that is cyclical (transportation employees who operate snow plows in winter, package delivery service workers who work longer hours through the holidays).

We must investigate the difference between current period overtime and year-to-date earnings and document the analysis before using the income amount in the trending analysis.

Income Trending: After the monthly year-to-date income amount is calculated, it must be compared to prior years’ earnings using the borrower’s W-2’s or signed federal income tax returns (or a standard Verification of Employment completed by the employer or third-party employment verification vendor).

If the trend in the amount of income is stable or increasing, the income amount should be averaged.

If the trend was declining, but has since stabilized and there is no reason to believe that the borrower will not continue to be employed at the current level, the current, lower amount of variable income must be used.

If the trend is declining, the income may not be stable.

Additional analysis must be conducted to determine if any variable income should be used, but in no instance may it be averaged over the period when the declination occurred.