You matched, or you signed, and the job starts in three months. The house you want is on the market now and will not be on the market in three months.
Every lender you have called wants two pay stubs from a job you have not started.
You can close before day one. Under CMG Financial's MedPro Premier guidelines (NMLS #1820, revised 09/11/2026), qualifying income may be based on future income from a fully executed employment contract. That is the mechanism the whole physician relocation market runs on.
It has exact requirements, and they are requirements about a document you are probably about to sign. Read this before you sign it, not after.
What the contract must say
A fully executed employment contract or offer letter must be signed by all parties, and it must specifically state:
- Your position or title
- Your start date of employment, which must be no more than 150 days after the note date
- Salary and compensation details
- Compensation covering at least a 12 month period
Four items. If your offer letter is a warm paragraph about how excited the group is to have you, it is not a qualifying document, and the time to fix that is while the practice administrator still wants something from you.
The contingency rule that kills files
This is the one that catches people, and it is narrow by design.
The employment contract or offer letter may only include contingencies related to:
- Your receipt of your medical license, or
- Normal administrative requirements, such as background checks, drug testing and fingerprinting.
That is the complete list. A contract contingent on board certification by a date, on credentialing at a specific hospital, on a productivity threshold, on completion of a fellowship, or on anything else is a problem. Not a delay. A problem.
Most physicians never read their contract with this lens, because nothing else in their life turns on it. Your mortgage does.
If a contingency has to be there, get it looked at before you submit a loan application, because the sequence matters: contract executed, then application, then offer, then closing timed against the start date.
The 150 day outside limit
The start date must be no more than 150 days after the note date. Roughly five months.
Which sounds generous until you realize the note date is the closing, not the application. So a July 1 start date means you cannot close earlier than early February, and in practice you are planning a closing much nearer the start date than that, for the reason in the next section.
Every month early costs you a month of reserves
Here is the part nobody mentions until the approval conditions come back.
When projected income is used for qualifying, you must document sufficient reserves to cover the monthly principal, interest, taxes, insurance and assessments for each month between the note date and the employment start date. These are in excess of the minimum reserve requirement. Partial months round up.
The guidelines give the arithmetic directly: note date 7/1/2026, start date 9/15/2026, three months of housing payment in reserves.
Now stack that on the program minimum. At above 95% loan-to-value from $100,000 to $1,500,000 the minimum is three months. So that same physician is documenting six months of housing payment, liquid, at exactly the moment they are paying movers, buying furniture for an empty house, and living on a resident's income for the last few weeks of it.
This is the single most common surprise on a pre-start-date file, and it is entirely avoidable with two months of notice.
Two ways to reduce it: close nearer the start date, or drop to 95% leverage where the minimum reserve requirement falls to zero from $100,000 to $1,500,000. The second option also raises your debt-to-income ceiling from 45% to 50%, which is why it is frequently the better structure anyway.
Gift funds count here
Gifts from eligible donors may be used to meet 100% of down payment, closing costs and prepaids, and reserve requirements, with no minimum contribution required from your own funds, and gift funds are eligible for reserves specifically.
So family help can solve the reserve problem, including the gap months. It cannot solve a ratio problem: gift funds may not be used to pay off debt.
Housing allowance, if you are still in training
If you are currently in or will be in a residency, or currently in or will be in training in a medical clinical fellowship program, a housing allowance may be included in qualifying income with less than 12 months of history, provided all of the following are true:
- The allowance is paid in cash directly to you, not as a rent credit and not paid to a landlord or third party
- On current employment, it is clearly reflected on your paystubs and verified with a verification of employment
- On projected employment, the contract or offer letter confirms the housing allowance is guaranteed
- There is no indication the allowance will terminate before the end of your employment term
If you have a stipend, get it documented properly. It is qualifying income and most people leave it on the table.
If you are a 1099 contractor, different clock
Contractors and 1099 medical professionals run under a separate rule set, and the timing is much tighter: the start date must be within 60 days of loan closing, not 150 days. The contract must also specify your rate of compensation and enough about expected volume to determine minimum income for the first 12 months, and either the contract or a letter from the contracting entity must confirm you carry no unreimbursed business expenses required to perform the work.
And if you filed taxes with 1099 income in the previous year, you are qualified under standard self-employment guidelines instead.
The order that works
- Get the draft contract. Check it against the four required items and the contingency rule.
- Fix anything missing while you still have negotiating leverage.
- Calculate your gap reserves from a realistic closing date.
- Choose your leverage tier with the reserve requirement and the ratio ceiling both in view.
- Then go shopping.
Common questions
Can I buy a house before I start my new physician job? Yes. Qualifying income may be based on future income from a fully executed employment contract, subject to the contract content, contingency and reserve requirements.
How far before my start date can I close? The start date must be no more than 150 days after the note date. For a 1099 contractor position the limit is 60 days.
What has to be in the employment contract? Signatures from all parties, your position or title, your start date, salary and compensation details, and compensation covering at least a 12 month period.
Can my contract have contingencies? Only two kinds: receipt of your medical license, and normal administrative requirements such as background checks, drug testing and fingerprinting. Anything else is a problem for the file.
How many extra reserves does closing early cost? One month of full housing payment for every month between the note date and your start date, rounded up for partial months, on top of the program minimum reserve requirement.
Does my resident housing stipend count as income? It can, with less than twelve months of history, if it is paid in cash directly to you, documented on paystubs and a verification of employment or guaranteed in the contract, and there is no indication it will end before your employment term does.
Related reading
- Physician and medical professional home loans, the full index for this topic
- Physician Loan Reserves: The Requirement That Quietly Decides Your Price Range
- Physician Loan Down Payment: What 0%, 5% and 10% Actually Cost You
- 1099 and Locum Tenens Physicians: Qualifying When You Are Paid as a Contractor
Why bring this file to us
- We read the contract against the requirements before you sign it. A missing start date or an extra contingency is a five minute fix in negotiation and a dead file in underwriting.
- We count the gap reserves in May, not in June. Every month between closing and your first day is a month of housing payment you have to have sitting there.
- We time the closing against the start date deliberately, because closing earlier is not free.
- 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.
Send me the contract before you sign it. The five requirements below are easier to get added in negotiation than to get amended in underwriting.
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.
