Nurses and people that work in the medical industry often struggle to get home loans (mortgages) with banks.
It’s not because they don’t deserve them, they actually do excellent jobs and generally work very, very hard. Of any professions, I think most people think nurses do deserve to be treated well by the banks and should be able to buy homes.
The problem with nurses, and many others within the healthcare is they earn a lot of their income from overtime and other allowances. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a nurse yourself or work in the healthcare, and so you know exactly how your pay is calculated. But unfortunately, many of the banks are so used to having a fixed salary that they don’t make the effort to understand how some sectors like healthcare get paid.
As a mortgage advisor, I have been explaining this to the banks for many years and with the right explanation they generally do accept what we calculate as your income.
How Much Do You Earn?
Just by looking payslips and an IRD statement doesn’t always show what you earn. It sometimes needs a little more of an understanding on what hours and shifts you work, and what allowances you are entitled to.
When you’re applying for a mortgage, and you have anything but the normal 9-to-5, 40 hour a week income, it needs to be explained well to the bank and supported with documentation that can prove that it is ongoing and sustainable.
If you look at this from the bank’s perspective, what they want to see is consistent income that can be relied on, not only now, but in the years ahead. They are looking at providing a mortgage for the next 30-years, and it’s very difficult to assess income over that longer term if it’s not permanent.
Logically, in New Zealand, we know that nurses and other healthcare workers are in high demand.
So realistically, there is enough work for you to do if you have the capability and the time to actually do it.
It’s quite unlike many industries (eg: like the banking industry) where they have a set 40 hours that they work, and then they go home. Their pay is easy as its based solely on the 40 hours that they work.
Hospitals and the healthcare workers do not operate on a 9-to-5 basis.
Sure, there may be some people in the administration that do but pretty much all of the people in medical care, nurses, doctors, orderlies, assistants are all working 24 hours a day to provide care for those people in need.
Those people in need might even be people from the bank, which is a little ironic.
Our Mortgage Advisers Are Experienced
At Mortgage Managers our team of mortgage advisers is experienced with this type of income, and have helped a huge number of people that work in the health sector with their home loans.
We will be asking for more than just the last few payslips or your IRD proof of income over the past two years. We will discuss your work in more detail and will be looking at determining what hours you work on a regular basis. Potentially we will be looking for the last three months, and maybe even longer if it’s been erratic.
We will then be putting a case together to explain this to the banks and show them why they can rely on that income as being consistent and unlikely to decline.
By doing this properly, we have a very good success rate with providing mortgages for nurses and other healthcare workers.
Don’t Get This Wrong!
Too often we see this has been done wrong.
We know that if we don’t present your income properly then the banks are likely to accept only your base salary, and that may not be enough to support your mortgage. This is the key reason that we see so many nurses and other medical professionals having their home loans declined.
In fact that was the wrong decision by the bank.
Had the bank been provided with the correct information that they could understand, the outcomes would most likely have been quite different.
What Bank Is Best?
The other thing that is important to realise is that there are various banks that an adviser can go to. We are not limited to one or two banks, and we are not going to just rely on the big banks that provide what they call special deals for hospitals and nurses.
Those special deals will be matched by other banks. They are not specific. And in many cases, the special deals are nowhere near as special as an advisor would be.
Of course, we still have to look at other parts of the mortgage application, including your deposit, including other debts, including student loans, and of course, looking at your previous history with credit and with how you think accounts have been transacted. These are all things that we would do with any mortgage application, but those are not specific to nurses or any other profession.
What is specific to nurses and those working in hospitals is more about ensuring that we can use your actual income, not just your base salary.
Mortgage Managers Can Help
We are the experts at arranging home loans for nurses and others within the healthcare industry and would love to have the opportunity to review and assess your mortgage.
It’s something that is done for you at no charge as we get paid by the banks on success only.
If you’re keen to have us look at your mortgage, or just to discuss it, click on the links below.
You can set up a quick discussion or you can send us an email. We will be happy to answer any questions you may have and remembering there is absolutely no obligation to proceed with us.
That decision is up to you.
The purpose is to assess your situation fully and report back to you as to what is possible.
