Can you obtain a mortage if you have no job and live off investment returns??

Yes.

We would treat you just like a retired person collecting social security and/or pension every month. The main thing to remember is we have to prove the income will continue for 3 years or more.

Let's say you have 100k that is liquid in a money market account and you have it setup to collect $1000 every month. We would take $1000 x 36 months (3 years) to show you have enough balance to support the $1000 income for the next 3 years. In this example, if you had 100k, I could use as much as $2777 as monthly income, because that balance supports the monthly income for 3 years. Remember, this is not even using profit returns.

If you want to use just the returns, we would have to go back and show an average of what you have been receiving on just those returns. 1 year of history on your returns would help, but if someone only has a few months, that should work as well.

Bottom line, you do not have to be employed to be approved for a mortgage loan. Many times, like this one, people have other sources of income. We just need to make sure we can prove the income with some sort of documentation.

Hope this helps!

If you live off investments, you will have to provide details to the bank, including the principal of your investments and a history of payments. Otherwise, the bank will generally demand a 25% down payment on any mortgage from an unemployed person, even if they get steady welfare checks.

But then, that was my understanding before the subprime mortgage crisis........

It depends on how much investment returns you have and for how long the returns will continue.

You don't have to have a job for a loan approval. Just a verifiable source of income for repayment of the debt. If you had 10 million dollars in the bank earning 5% interest per year, your income without lifting a finger would be $500,000 per year. You would show your tax returns with dividend / interest income and your set. Or maybe a brokerage statement to verify the assets. Either way, you don't need a job to qualify. You do however need to show that these investments are likely to continue, and you still have to meet debt ratio and credit guidelines.

If you can verify your income. They'll probably want complete records of your investment assets and several year's worth of income documentation.

Absolutely you can. Here's the exact language from the Fannie Mae Seller's Guide, which is the bible in the mortgage industry for underwriting guidelines:

"Interest and dividend income may be used as acceptable stable income if it is properly documented and has been received for the past two years and is expected to continue to be received for a minimum of three years from the date of the mortgage application. The lender must develop an average of the income received for the past two years to use in qualifying the borrower. Copies of signed federal income tax returns that were filed with the IRS or account statements may be used to verify this income."

"The lender must verify the borrower鈥檚 ownership of the assets on which the interest and/or dividend income was earned. Any assets used for down payment or closing costs must be subtracted from the borrower鈥檚 total assets before calculating expected future interest or dividend income."