It really depends on what other debt you have (i.e. car payments, minimum credit card payments, student loans, other real estate, etc.) and how much the new house payment will be.

Generally for a conventional loan your total debt cannot exceed 45% of your gross/before tax income.

On the other hand, VA does not have a "debt to income" ratio limit, but generally lenders want to see no more than 55%. If you have high credit scores and good cash assets, the 55% limit can be exceeded. Not to bore you with too many underwriting details, pretty much if you have good credit, some cash in the bank, and fulfill the VA residual income requirements (income left over after paying off all monthly bills), you are good to go.

I understand your concern about hard credit pulls. However, one hard mortgage credit pull now will not lower your scores much if you already have good credit...Maybe a point of two. I have helped many buyers in your exact circumstances, and if their scores are already good, often there is little to no change when we re-run credit. Credit reports are good for 120 days.

Feel free to PM me for more info. I am a mortgage loan officer who specializes in VA financing. Most of my clients are pilots. :)

You are correct, the maximum 100% financing VA limits have increased to $517,500 for the counties you noted above.

You can borrow more than $517,500, but have to put down 25% of the difference per VA guidelines.

For example, a $700K house, you are required per VA to put down $700K - $517,500 = $182,500 x 25% = $45,625.

I'd go for whatever gives you the best QOL the fastest as well as gets you based (in anything) where you want to be based.

I'd rank international flying because you have family over seas absolute, dead last. Not even on the chart.

Over all QOL is far more important. Unless your family is in CDG or AMS (or maybe LHR) it will be a very, very, very long time before you're senior enough to regularly fly to see them on a layover, the vast majority of which are 24 hours with 2 sleep cycles etc. Its far better to get more days off and more control of your schedule and go to visit them on your days off.

To put it in perspective, if you can get a halfway decent narrowbody line with 16-17 days a month off, that's 30-50 more days a year off than a bottom international reserve schedule.

YMMV

What's that old saying? Want what you want, and forget to bid? Something like that. :cool:

Wow. Big difference. Thanks for the other side of the coin, Gloopy. This helps a ton.

Don't even worry about that stuff. That link doesn't show things like whether a guy still has a freeze (for existing categories, not new ones), has a percentage requirement, etc. When Seattle opened I showed about 200 guys senior to me bidding it and only 160 slots. I ended up getting in on the first bid. Like gloopy said, bid what you want and want what you bid. It will come around soon enough with the way things are moving. Good luck!

There are so many holes in that info that it does a disservice to those that adjust a bid based on it. Only reflects top 3 bids, ignores qualifiers, freezes etc. A mock bid would be the only way to really see where you stand. Bid what you want.

No Dude, it's:

Bid what you can't hold, and ejaculate when you get it! :eek: :D

Then b!tch about it!:rolleyes:

FlyMarine,

There are probably three ways to get to the west coast in less than a year.

1. You are released from your current seat lock for your first CAPT upgrade - not gonna happen.
2. You are released from you current seat lock when bidding into a new category - for example SEA 73N. I don't know your timing, but you might be too late if you are not in indoc yet. Perhaps if there is another bid very quickly you may qualify.
3. Finally and probably your best shot is bid the aircraft that are out west in inverse seniority order:
For LAX and SEA try for the 737 first and the 7ER second. Put in a standing bid for both and hope for the best. I mentor guys who have made it out west in less than a year via this method.

Normally you will get out west quicker on the 737 vice the 7ER so you have to decide if you would rather get out west as quick as possible(737) but then require another training to get the ER.

For SLC do the same but bid the 320 wherever it falls in inverse seniority wise.

This bid will shed a lot of light on pent up west coast demand with the new SEA base so the picture will be a lot clearer in two weeks.

Good Luck Scoop :)

Scoop! Awesome, thank you!