Unusual job or employment situations

Loans while on probation period

Did you know that there are some lenders who don’t have much of an issue with you being on a probation period at all? While other lenders have a very strict view and won’t allow a loan to be granted at all. Generally, as long as you have been in the same field for a couple of years, being on probation will not stop you from getting a loan. You just have to know which lender to go with, and that’s where we can help.

The maximum loan to value ratio for a borrower on probation is generally 90% but we may be able to help you get a 95% loan in some cases.

Loans for the recently self employed

Most lenders require 2 years of full tax returns to approve a self employed borrower’s loan application. At Mortgage Experts, we have had loans approved for clients who have been self employed for just 2 weeks and another when the clients were self employed for just 4 months. While this would not work for every borrower, if there are reasons why your loan should be approved, we can work with you to prove it to a lender. We love getting a loan approved that is outside of normal lending policy!

Loans for contractors (PAYG & self employed)

Contractors are viewed by most lenders as self employed. However some contractors, such as IT professionals and doctors, are often what we call PAYG contractors. Meaning they are not truly self employed as the company that they are contracted to manages their tax affairs and the contractor does not take commercial risks – so in essence they aren’t running their own business.

If this is your situation, we can generally help with a loan. Conditions are that you have a track record of income that we can show a lender, and that the variance in your income from month to month isn’t too great.  Normal maximum LVR requirements apply.

If you are a self employed contractor on ABN for example, the same rules as being self employed apply.

Loans for the casually employed

The industry standard is to require casually employed borrowers to be in their jobs for at least 12 months and have two years continuous experience in their industry. However we have one lender who may consider a borrower with just 3 months in their job! Normal LVR requirements apply.

Loans while on maternity leave

Some lenders are still living in the 1950s when it comes to maternity leave. One of the major lenders won’t accept any income from a borrower on maternity leave, full stop. Their reasoning is they don’t know if the borrower will return to work! We think this is discriminatory to say the least and the good news is we have a number of lenders who have joined the 21st century and will allow the income of paid maternity leave to be considered. Normally they will require a letter from your employer detailing your planned return to work date and what income and tenure you will be on when you return.

For new mothers who are not lucky enough to get paid maternity leave, we suggest planning ahead well before the birth of the baby. Often having a small reserve to dip into will be better than applying for a repayment pause, as you are then at the mercy of your lender to approve the pause. They usually only approve them if you ahead on your repayments. So the best course of action if possible is sometimes to borrow a bit extra to put into the loan account or offset account. This can then be drawn on later to cover part or all of the loan repayments until your return to work. Obviously this is not a strategy that is sustainable for the long term!

Loans for those with multiple jobs

Having multiple jobs can make getting a home loan difficult with some lenders. The major stumbling block is the difficulty lenders have in quantifying your income and the fact that they may not assess 100% of your income. Some for example will only consider 50% of your income from a second job or only assess 60 hours of pay per week. As with casual employees they may also only take 48 out 52 weeks income to allow for unpaid holidays.

With some expert guidance from Mortgage Experts Online, we should be able to help you get your loan approved if you can document your various income sources. We have in the past got loans approved for applicants with 3 jobs – including 2 casual jobs and 1 job where they were on probation!

Getting your loan approved with Mortgage Experts