Currently a student at Cal Maritime. My wife and I have been looking into buying a condo recently and we decided it may be better to wait until I graduate and am working (although she has a pretty good salary/benefits/job security). Anyways, I was wondering, for example, what someone would do if they shipped out of a union hall and wanted to finance a real estate purchase. Do you show lenders a few years of W2s and tax returns? What is your experience?
Thanks!
%20 down and a few years of confirmed income.
I haven’t dealt with getting a mortgage while trying to ship out of the hall but even with a steady 3 or 4 week rotation, the cash flow can be confusing to lenders. Every time I have had to write a brief letter, in addition to providing my pay stubs/W2s, explaining how my pay worked (daily rate x 182.5, 21 paid days on, no pay while off, etc.) that has always worked fine.
Lenders will always talk to your employer to confirm/clarify compensation. Just another note I guess. But explanation on your own before like the other guy said helps. Plan on a few years of steady income history regardless.
Thanks for the info guys. I figured some explaining would be part of the equation. I hear of lots of relatively successful mariners with nice homes here in the Bay Area just by attending the academy (some of which are MMP), so I knew it wasn’t impossible at least.
I’ll do some more digging through fine print when the time comes, but perhaps one could go the route of saying you’re self employed (once again not sure if off-the-board shipping would meet the lenders’ definition of self employment) and just show income from previous years.
Regardless, consensus seems to be to produce evidence of income over the course of a few years and do some explaining. Thanks again!
I had to get a letter on company letterhead explaining why my pay checks were so different. the letter explained that we were paid by the day and did rotational work.
I tried posting a reply earlier and haven’t seen it come up, if it eventually does I apologize for the duplicate, but since I can’t remember exactly what I wrote in the initial response I guess it doesn’t matter… Thank you guys for your input! It is interesting for me to hear your experiences. I knew it was possible but wasn’t sure completely how it worked. I guess there’s the catch 22 of waiting until I have a few years of tax returns and pay stubs under my belt; I’ll be approved for a loan but housing prices might be even more astronomical than they are already here in the Bay Area, that is unless there is indeed a bubble, which would be nice in my case! (Doubt it though due to all of the tech workers who have actual cash $$$$)
Just bought my 1st house. Two years with same employer W-2’s Used the FHA 1st home buyer program. They have a pay cap to be eligable so I had to take an extra vacation to not go over on my income and my wife had to stay home, she’s mad…lol. My previous homes I paid for but were in my wife’s name. I had credit issues. Sailors with credit issues? that never happens…
Not no more! They recently changed a $hitload of the rules and it’s a biatch to get one. Closed two weeks ago. I thought it was NEVER gonna happen, damm paperwork.
I had more trouble trying to explain my job to the finance people to the point I was going to draw a boat and then draw a stick figure on the deck waiving a shovel, so they could understand. Duh.
Short version - Two years with one employer, pay stubs,W-2,10-99 etc al. And save your CASH!!! 10-20%(5% for FHA) down AND “closing costs,survey’s and inspections”
Recently bought my first home. Only been with my company for a year out of school. Went through QuickenLoans and the transaction went pretty smooth. Provided a W-2 and all pay stubs. Had to explain to a couple people how we get paid per day and the vacation time. They understood and it was never brought up again. Credit is everything though. Also they said because I went into the industry I went to school for, they could count that as time towards working. Good luck and have patience.
It helps to have a good mortgage broker, he can help answer any questions and in turn answer any questions the underwriters have in their language so you don’t have to repeatedly answer the same questions.
[QUOTE=HuangDi;178153]Currently a student at Cal Maritime. My wife and I have been looking into buying a condo recently and we decided it may be better to wait until I graduate and am working (although she has a pretty good salary/benefits/job security). Anyways, I was wondering, for example, what someone would do if they shipped out of a union hall and wanted to finance a real estate purchase. Do you show lenders a few years of W2s and tax returns? What is your experience?
Thanks![/QUOTE]
Buying a house/condo with mariner wages is not difficult once you explain the pay schedule to the underwriters. The more money you put down the less you have to explain. I would not advise any student to buy any real estate that is not self sustaining, like rental property, at the present time. Simply put you can likely rent for less once you consider taxes and insurance in most cases. Residential real estate is not historically that great of an investment, it appreciates at about the rate of inflation and right when you need to sell it because the economy has gone down the tubes no one wants it. Unless you can put 40-50% down there are better things to do with your money, especially at this stage of your life. Let your friends brag about what they owe the bank while you do smarter things. Let us say you have saved $25000 to put 10% down on a $250,000 piece of property. You get the financing and now your net worth just went from +$25,000 to -$225000. If hard times befall you when the economy tanks as it does on a regular basis you may find your net worth even further in the negative territory as your property has gone down in value also.
Save your money, take your time and build your net worth. When you have 40% to put down you will be wiser and getting a loan will be a snap.
add that 2 cents worth of advice to your net worth 
What about just sucking it up for a a few years and living out of your car and then just paying cash to build a small house exactly how you want it. After two years of couch surfing trying to pay off student loans I’m considering doing it more and more.
[QUOTE=GLMASailor;178340]What about just sucking it up for a a few years and living out of your car and then just paying cash to build a small house exactly how you want it. After two years of couch surfing trying to pay off student loans I’m considering doing it more and more.[/QUOTE]
Makes sense to me. It beats the heck out of being in debt ! There is a freedom associated with being debt free. Use the sun to make your electricity, heat your house and grow some of your own food. Use the money you have accumulated during good times to buy up other people’s distressed assets at cents on the dollar. If you live in the USA you have to put aside a large chunk for health insurance in case you fall off the roof but other than that you will have disposable income to actually enjoy life. You’ll experience freedom most working folks never know.
[QUOTE=tengineer1;178341]Makes sense to me. It beats the heck out of being in debt ! There is a freedom associated with being debt free. Use the sun to make your electricity, heat your house and grow some of your own food. Use the money you have accumulated during good times to buy up other people’s distressed assets at cents on the dollar. If you live in the USA you have to put aside a large chunk for health insurance in case you fall off the roof but other than that you will have disposable income to actually enjoy life. You’ll experience freedom most working folks never know.[/QUOTE]
This is solid advice. TAKE IT. So many people get “Caught up” in the "mercia dream, of a big house, giant yard, fancy truck-boat-truck with dual stacks, etc. You become a slave to “stuff” and are no where near happy at all. Look at me- $3600 jeep and I’m happy as hell. Sure I get “toys” but I trade,haggle,swap to make it happen. Here’s what makes me happy - when I can send a text message and see a 5 number balance before the decimal point in my checking account… it’s better than having any dual stack monster 4x4 in my driveway.
The house I just got totaled 81K total price. (+2500 sqf on 3 acers) The apprasial puts it at 190-240k it was a foreclosure. I got +100K in equity the day I signed the papers. I plan on fixing it up having fun and then when I’m ready to retire I’ll take out a reverse morgage and ENJOY my retirement add my 401k (10% of my pay +5% kick from the company = 15%), my whole life insurance (? my plan costs 134 a month and makes cash value after 20 years) and I’ll pay and extra 2-3000 on SS the last few years (if there’s anything left in Social Security) and I should be A-ok for the “golden years”. You will not find me on the deck of a freighter @ 67 years old screwing around with a shovel freezing my @ss off.
MAKE A PLAN… Today is the day.
*** This was supposed to go behind the 40% post ???
If your like me after you sweat and bleed to earn the %40 you’ll say screw that! 
I tell all the younger guys - get an RV you can drive. Then you can GO ANYWHERE you damm well please. Gold panning,trout fishing,Turkey hunting,Elk hunting, Diamond prospecting anything you can dream up. Most of us are used to living in a broom closet and an RV is like the presidential suite. Wayyyy cheaper than a house and you can go south when the snow starts to fall and have a ball doing it. But alas most of them just buy flashy cars and get drunk and support all the single moms (strippers)…lol. oh well I tried.
Say there Mr Drysdale sounds like you got some extra cash. Can I interest you in a truck boat truck, tricked out side by side ATV and gold plated hot tub? Asking for a friend…
[QUOTE=Fraqrat;178395]Say there Mr Drysdale sounds like you got some extra cash. Can I interest you in a truck boat truck, tricked out side by side ATV and gold plated hot tub? Asking for a friend…[/QUOTE]
Nope, used it all this AM to buy Brent Crude, gonna be the next Jed Clampett! Betwix that and that feller in Nigeria I should have 2 cement ponds in no time! One for swimmin’ and one for fishin’.
[QUOTE=Rebel_Rider1969;178386]This is solid advice. TAKE IT. So many people get “Caught up” in the "mercia dream, of a big house, giant yard, fancy truck-boat-truck with dual stacks, etc. You become a slave to “stuff” and are no where near happy at all. Look at me- $3600 jeep and I’m happy as hell. Sure I get “toys” but I trade,haggle,swap to make it happen. Here’s what makes me happy - when I can send a text message and see a 5 number balance before the decimal point in my checking account… it’s better than having any dual stack monster 4x4 in my driveway.
The house I just got totaled 81K total price. (+2500 sqf on 3 acers) The apprasial puts it at 190-240k it was a foreclosure. I got +100K in equity the day I signed the papers. I plan on fixing it up having fun and then when I’m ready to retire I’ll take out a reverse morgage and ENJOY my retirement add my 401k (10% of my pay +5% kick from the company = 15%), my whole life insurance (? my plan costs 134 a month and makes cash value after 20 years) and I’ll pay and extra 2-3000 on SS the last few years (if there’s anything left in Social Security) and I should be A-ok for the “golden years”. You will not find me on the deck of a freighter @ 67 years old screwing around with a shovel freezing my @ss off.
MAKE A PLAN… Today is the day.[/QUOTE]
Reverse Mortgage is the worst advice a person could give anyone. If that is what you want to do then fine, but don’t encourage someone into something as desperate as a reverse mortgage. If you need a reverse mortgage to retire you messed up somewhere along the line.
Buying a home is the thing to do, but do not finance a house for more than 15 years. If you can’t afford the home at 15 year payments you are out of your range. For primary residence the down payment can be as low as 3%, but the more the better and pay it off quickly. You don’t want that lingering over your head for years. Also never take out a home equity line of credit. If you can’t afford to pay for something with savings then you don’t leverage your shelter to get it. The idea is to pay off your house and never take another penny off of it ever again.
Reverse Mortgage is the worst advice a person could give anyone. If that is what you want to do then fine, but don’t encourage someone into something as desperate as a reverse mortgage. If you need a reverse mortgage to retire you messed up somewhere along the line.
Why??? It’s YOUR house. You worked hard for it. Enjoy it. What, I’m supposed to hand it down to the kids so they can sell it for 50% less - have your kids/relatives fighting over it. Not to mention the kids will sell it for little or nothing and blow it on crap. Why shouldn’t YOU get the $$ and enjoy your life???
I guess I’m just a greedy @sshole who’s just looking out for me and my wife.
Anyway, live your life how you want to, not how other people think you should. Iam.
Wow, thanks for all of the replies guys! I have a lump of money I saved from some deployments in the Navy that is loosing value due to inflation I’m looking to invest. At the same time, my wife works with a pretty good salary as I mentioned before. Lastly, the housing market here in the east bay is continuing to skyrocket …what I am thinking about now is should I try (keyword) to buy a condo now while I can somewhat (another keyword) afford it, or continue to flush $1500 down the shitter every month for a crappy one bedroom. I might wind up waiting until after school…hence the creation of this thread, in case I do wind up trying to ship out of the hall in two years time. You guys have given me a lot to chew on for now though, and again that is very much appreciated!