Lenders, Relators and Sellers, we help you navigate them all.
A physician or “doctor” mortgage is a special loan program a lender puts in place to attract high-income clients by allowing health care professionals such as doctors and dentists to secure a mortgage with fewer restrictions than a conventional mortgage.
Common benefits doctors have:
Amazingly, some doctors think banks should lend them money just for being doctors. Well, you don’t get a pass on math, but there are quite a few institutions that recognize that the financial lives of doctors are a little bit unique, that they aren’t as bad a credit risk as their high debt-to-income ratio would suggest, and that they can bring other valuable business to the bank.
Most doctors (physicians and dentists) realize that these loans are designed for them. But many other professionals may not realize they also qualify.
While appropriately named to target doctors, Physician Mortgage Loans are also available to other high-income professionals such as:
Student loans that are in Income Dependent Repayment (IDR) programs (IBR, PAYE, REPAYE, etc.) get special treatment under physician mortgage loan programs.
You’ll need to maintain good credit in the 720-740 FICO score range. However, under certain conditions, some of our recommended mortgage lenders will lend down to a 680 credit score if you have 6-12 months of cash reserves.
Frankly, if you have a credit score below 720, you probably aren’t ready to be buying a house anyway. Pay off your credit cards (but don’t necessarily close them as they can lower your score), don’t miss any payments, and don’t borrow any more money and you should have a score over 720 soon. It’s not the end of the world to rent for a year (and it is often a very good idea if going to a new area or a new job anyway) and that is long enough to clean up your credit most of the time.
Physician mortgages are uniquely tailored to doctors and the unique financial situations they may find themselves in.
Conventional mortgages require a down payment of up to 20% of the home’s purchase price. With physician mortgage loans, however, that down payment may be as low as 0-10%, depending on the lender.
Furthermore, physician mortgages often have lenient qualification standards such as lower credit score requirements and no restrictions based on debt-to-income ratio.
On top of this, there is typically no private mortgage insurance required and certain lenders offer special incentives such as higher loan amounts, lower rates , waived origination fees, or future refinancing options which can save money over time.
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