OK, solid plug here for Trident Home Loans, and specifically my loan officer, Jonathan Kulak. For all the folks separating and going to the airlines, this is huge. I was an active duty major, flying C-17s out of Charleston, making $120K/yr plus, 800+ credit, plenty of money in the bank, and got hired by Delta as I came up on my separation date. I wanted to move to Peachtree City, GA and start my new life. All sounds good to buy a ~$400K house... right? Wrong. Here's the kicker: If you're within a year of separation, mortgage companies will not consider your current income as they calculate your risk for a loan. Most mortgage companies will say that you need a pay stub or two from your new job in order to pass the underwriters. This is a major problem for separatees, especially those with Conditional Job Offers (CJOs) who don't even have a start date. I shopped over half a dozen mortgage companies looking for someone who could help me. Some companies asked questions about how I expected to be paid... training pay, followed by flight pay? Totally didn't understand. One loan officer was like... "Ok, you'll be part time in the reserves, and part time with an airline? We need full time employment." Most guys don't get our industry.
This means that you can't buy a house and get settled in before the transition. I didn't think getting a loan would be a problem, but it was a major source of stress throughout an already stressful time. Enter Trident Home Loans.
These guys specialize in working with pilots, and understand exactly how the game works. Here's how they worked with me to get me a loan: I could go down option A: Get a start date with Delta, and then they could look up all the training pay/pay scales and could grant me a loan on the strength of my CJO (conditions met, and start date granted), or option B: Get a letter from my reserve unit estimating how much my annual income would be. I was still waiting for my start date, so I went with option B. Trident even sent me an example letter that I could fill out and have my reserve unit sign. Hit me up at
[email protected] if you want me to forward something like that to you. Seriously though, if you need a home loan and you're a pilot, go through Trident Home Loans. I closed 19 Jul 19 on a $420K house (10% down on a 30yr VA in order to bring the funding fee to the minimum 1.25%, and financed about $385.) I got 3.25% for a 30 year fixed and $2,200 cash BACK. You read that right. No funding fee, they paid ME and still gave me that interest rate, on the strength of a letter from my reserve unit. If you have any questions, hit me up and I'll answer them. Better yet, go straight to Trident Home Loans at
www.tridenthomeloans.com or call Jonathan Kulak at 850-377-1114. He'll get you squared away.
Totally legit operation. Awesome communication. I was a little nervous going with a mortgage company that was out of state (they're based in Florida) but they always answered the phone immediately or called/wrote back within the hour. Jonathan himself is a Southwest pilot and did more than simply help me with the loan, I actually got info from him on how to do reserve stuff, which was also a bit of a mystery. Go with these guys, you won't regret it.