Mortgages for physicians and medical professionals in California.
Some lenders will count the base pay in a signed employment contract before your first paycheck, when the start date is close and the contract has no open conditions. A medical career moves in stages: training pay, a first contract as an attending, sometimes a practice of your own, often with student loans along the way. Sam Batayneh works with physicians and other medical professionals across California, and explains how lenders read each stage.
What makes medical income different.
The income changes at each stage, and lenders read each stage differently.
Residents and fellows
Pay during residency or fellowship is a salary, documented like any other. The question is the step up that follows, and whether a lender will count income that has not started yet.
New attendings
A signed employment contract sets your base pay and your start date. Some lenders will count that pay before the first paycheck arrives, within limits they set.
Practice owners and partners
Once you own part of a practice, a lender treats you as self-employed. Income is then read from tax returns and K-1s, usually over about two years.
How lenders generally look at medical income.
Each lender sets its own rules. These are the questions most of them ask.
A contract before a paycheck
Many lenders ask for the full signed contract and want the start date to be near. Some will close a loan shortly before you start; others wait for a first pay stub.
What is fixed and what is not
Base salary is the simplest pay to count. Productivity pay and bonuses are often counted only after there is a history of receiving them.
Student loans
Lenders count a monthly payment for student loans, including loans in deferment or on an income-based plan. How that payment is worked out differs by loan type and by lender.
Savings
A down payment and money left after closing still matter. Gift money, and a signing bonus you have already received, can often be used when they are documented.
A practice of your own
For owners and partners, lenders generally read about two years of tax returns and count income after the practice’s expenses.
What to have on hand.
You don’t need all of this for a first conversation. It makes applying quicker, and your list may differ.
- The contract. Your signed employment contract or offer letter, with the start date and pay.
- Pay. Recent pay stubs and W-2s, if you are already working.
- Student loans. A statement for each loan, showing the balance and the repayment plan.
- Accounts. Recent statements for bank and investment accounts.
- A practice? Two years of personal and business tax returns, and your K-1s.
Programs to ask Sam about.
OriginPoint lists Physician loans among its loan options, for eligible practitioners, residents and students. The loan amount decides whether a loan is conventional or jumbo.
Program names are OriginPoint’s. Which one fits depends on your own file, and naming a program here is not a promise that a loan will be approved.
Plain answers.
Can I buy a home with a new employment contract and no pay stubs yet?
How do lenders count student loans?
Does OriginPoint have a loan program for physicians?
I am a resident. Can I buy during training?
How is income from my own practice counted?
General education only. Each lender sets its own rules, and they change. Nothing here is a promise that a loan will be approved or of any terms. This is not tax, legal or investment advice: for those questions, ask your own CPA, attorney or business manager.
Limits where you’re buying.
Each page has the county’s 2026 limit and what is different there.
Starting a new position?
Tell Sam your start date and how you’ll be paid. Sam will lay out your options in plain words.