You signed with a group at Banner Gateway, or you are starting at Mercy Gilbert, and the house you want is not built yet.
The sales office told you it completes in the spring. Your lender told you that you can qualify on your signed contract. Both are true, and neither of them mentioned that those two timelines have to line up inside a window with a hard edge on it.
The clock nobody shows you
Under CMG Financial's MedPro Premier guidelines (NMLS #1820, revised 09/11/2026), qualifying on future income from a fully executed employment contract requires that the start date be no more than 150 days after the note date. For a 1099 contractor position it tightens to within 60 days of closing.
Read that against a new build. The note date is closing, which is when the home is finished and delivered. Your start date is fixed by the hospital. So if your job starts in July and the build slips from March to June, the gap between note date and start date shrinks, which is fine. If your job started in January and the house completes in August, you are not using projected income at all any more, you are using pay stubs, which is a different and usually easier file.
The genuinely dangerous case is the reverse: closing early on a completed home with a start date far out. Because of this:
When projected income is used, you must document reserves covering the full monthly housing payment for every month between the note date and the employment start date, rounded up for partial months, in addition to the program minimum. The guidelines give the example directly: a 7/1/2026 note date against a 9/15/2026 start date requires three months.
Stack that on the minimum, which is three months above 95% loan-to-value from $100,000 to $1,500,000, and a physician closing three months before starting is documenting six months of housing payment, liquid, at the moment they are also furnishing an empty new build.
Builders do not think about this. Ask the question in the sales office, in writing, and then plan the cash.
Gilbert's second number: the dues
Gilbert is master-planned in a way Mesa largely is not. That means association dues, and in parts of town it means a community facilities district assessment layered on top of the property tax bill.
Every one of those dollars lands in your debt-to-income ratio. The A in PITIA is assessments, and the ratio ceiling does not move to accommodate them: 50% at 95% loan-to-value or below, 45% above 95%, and 45% on ARMs and 15-year fixed loans.
For a physician whose student loan payment is already counted, dues are frequently what pushes a comfortable file into a tight one. Two identical incomes buying two identically priced Gilbert homes can land on opposite sides of the ceiling purely on what the HOA charges and whether there is a district assessment.
Get the real numbers before you are emotionally committed: the monthly dues, any current special assessment, and whether the parcel sits inside a community facilities district. Those are knowable on day one and they change what you can afford.
The employer picture
Banner Gateway Medical Center sits at Higley Road and the US 60, with 286 private rooms, nine operating suites and a 43 room emergency department, and Banner MD Anderson Cancer Center on the same campus. Mercy Gilbert Medical Center is on South Val Vista Drive.
Two large systems, close together, in a town built for families. That combination is why Gilbert draws physicians who are buying the house they intend to stay in rather than a first step.
Which makes the long-horizon questions worth asking now:
Are you above or below the 720 line? At 680 you reach 100% financing to $1,500,000. At 720 you reach $2,000,000. Most Gilbert purchases sit comfortably under the lower ceiling, so 680 is usually enough, but if you are stretching toward a larger custom build the threshold is real and it is worth working before you apply.
Is a physician program even the right answer? The program notes set a minimum loan-to-value of 90.01%. If you sold a home elsewhere and are bringing real money to the table, you are below that floor and you are a conventional borrower. In a town where plenty of buyers are arriving with equity from a previous house, that catches more people than you would expect.
Building on your own lot, or buying acreage
On the eastern edges there is still land. Two rules to carry with you:
On ARM and 15-year fixed rate loans the maximum is 10 acres, alongside a 45% debt-to-income cap. Fixed rate products are not constrained by that same footnote, so the product and the parcel are one decision.
100% financing is one unit only, and above 90.01% loan-to-value secondary financing is not allowed and escrow accounts are required unless state law prohibits them. If somebody has suggested a construction loan taken out later with a second behind it, that structure is not available at the top of this table.
The order that works in Gilbert
- Get the build's estimated completion date in writing, and your start date in writing.
- Count the months between the likely closing and the start date. That is your gap reserve.
- Get the HOA dues and any district assessment, and put them in the ratio before you fall in love.
- Decide 95% or 100% with the ratio ceiling and the reserve table both in view.
- Confirm you are actually above the 90.01% floor before anyone runs credit.
Common questions
Can I use a physician loan on new construction in Gilbert? Yes. The constraint is timing: when qualifying on a contract, the start date must be no more than 150 days after the note date, and every month between closing and your start date requires an extra month of full housing payment in reserves.
Do HOA dues affect my physician loan approval? Directly. Dues and any community facilities district assessment sit inside PITIA and count against a debt-to-income ceiling of 50% at 95% loan-to-value or below and 45% above it.
What if the builder's completion date slips? It changes the gap between your note date and your start date, which changes your reserve requirement. It is worth re-running before closing rather than assuming the original numbers hold.
I am bringing equity from a previous home. Does that help? It may disqualify you. Minimum loan-to-value on this program is 90.01%, so a large down payment puts you below the floor and you should be priced conventionally instead.
Can I put a second mortgage behind a physician loan in Gilbert? Not at 90.01% loan-to-value and above, where secondary financing is not allowed and escrow accounts are required.
Related reading
- Physician and medical professional home loans, the full index for this topic
- Physician Home Loans in Mesa: What Banner Desert and Baywood Doctors Should Know Before They Buy
- Buying Before Your Start Date: The Contract and Reserve Rules for Physicians
- Physician Loan Reserves: The Requirement That Quietly Decides Your Price Range
Why bring this file to us
- We check the build timeline against the program clock first. A completion date that drifts past the contract window is the most expensive surprise in Gilbert.
- We put the real HOA number in the ratio, including any community facilities district assessment, before you are committed.
- We know Banner Gateway and Mercy Gilbert timelines, and we write the file against your actual start date rather than a guess.
- Broker model. Multiple investors rather than one bank's shelf, which is what a file like this needs when the first answer is no.
- You talk to the principal. Ricky Khamis is President of EPiQ Lending and a Certified Mortgage Planner, NMLS #173141, originating mortgages since 1999. Direct line: (480) 999-9842.
EPiQ Lending is NMLS #1936984, at 7975 N. Hayden Road, Suite A-101 in Scottsdale. Verify all of it before you trust any of it: Ricky's EPiQ Lending profile, the Scottsdale branch, and the license itself at NMLS Consumer Access. Hold every lender to that standard, including us.
If you are under contract on a Gilbert build, send me the estimated completion date and your start date together. Those two dates decide whether this works.
Program figures in this post come from the CMG Financial (NMLS #1820) guideline set named above, as published on the revision date given. CMG Financial is the parent company of EPiQ Lending. These figures describe one investor's program at one point in time. Other investors price and underwrite the same borrower differently, guidelines change without notice, and nothing here is an offer of any specific program or terms. Confirm current eligibility on your own file before you plan around any of it.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Rates, terms, and program guidelines change and depend on credit approval, property appraisal, income and asset verification, and other qualifying factors. Not all applicants will qualify. Non-QM, asset-based and business purpose financing carry different pricing, terms and consumer protections than agency financing. Consult your tax advisor regarding the tax treatment of any income or distribution strategy.
Find out what you qualify for before you start looking
Tell me where you are in training or practice and I will tell you which structure fits your file, what it needs, and what it does not. No credit pull to have the conversation.
