No Income / No Asset Mortgage - NINA

As a bartender in our hometown’s swankiest club, we make quite a bit of money in tips. So much, in fact, that we think we’re finally ready to take the plunge and buy ourselves a house. It’s exciting to be sure, but trying to secure a mortgage based on income from tips is no small feat. That’s why we’re pretty stoked about NINA loans: loans that don’t require us to disclose our actual income or our assets (“NINA” stands for “no income/no assets”). All we have to do is prove that we’re employed.

Sounds great, right? And for some, NINA loans are the perfect solution. But we should be aware that NINA loans come with some drawbacks. Like...we’re going to end up paying a higher interest rate than we would with a traditional mortgage. That’s because the default risk on these types of loans is way higher than it is with those traditional guys. But if our work situation makes verifying a consistent income difficult (i.e., we live off tips, we’re an independent contractor, etc.), or if we just don’t feel like sharing our income and asset data with a lender, then we might want to at least take a gander at NINA loan options.