moving but i own too many homes (loan, interest rate, real estate)

[RVD90277]

i actually moved to another city for work. the problem is that my wife and i own 3 homes in my former state. 1 home was our primary residence (roughly $1m), another home is ours (roughly $550k) and we make all payments but we have my mother in law living there, and our third home is just a small 2 bedroom condo (around $350k) that is about 30 miles away and we sort of have it as a vacation home type of place where sometimes we stay there, sometimes i have friends stay there if they're visiting, etc.

we paid 20% down on all of the homes so if you calculate the numbers, we have roughly $800k+$400k+$300k = $1.5m in mortgages. of course we paid off some of the principle, etc. so i'd say that we still have around $1.2m in outstanding mortgages.

we are selling our primary home and plan to rent out the other 2 properties to collect some rent. we'll probably eventually sell those too but the 2 cheaper properties have gone down in value so they are probably worth about what the outstanding mortgage is.

my problem is that i want to buy in the new city but the bank is saying that i can't qualify for a loan anymore since i already have 3 homes. i can qualify after we sell the primary home but until then, it would be the same thing as me qualifying for a 4th house.

i don't need the proceeds of the sale for a down payment and i have the money to put a larger down payment on the 4th house than 20% (e.g. i can put 40%, etc.). My wife and I have excellent credit scores (both over 750) and have never missed a loan payment in 10+ years, etc.

another issue is on the income side. my wife is still working and living in our former state until the house sells and then plans to come over here and find a new job so the bank will not include any of her income in qualification. also for my income, my company pays a significant portion of income in the form of stock so the bank won't include that (will only include base salary) so those things definitely hurt my income portion (we're probably discounted down to about 1/3 of what we actually make).

any options here? house is on the market back home but the market isn't so good and i don't really want to sell the house on a fire sale to a lowball offer.

seems to me that the combination of a legitimate appraisal by the bank + high down payment should be enough to lend money but debt/income ratio doesn't always work that way.

[Modification Specialist]

Fannie & Freddy allow up to 10 properties to be financed. I'd speak to at least two or three different lenders, making sure only one runs your credit report. Having your credit ran (hard pulls) more than 3 things in one week, affects your FICA score.

One problem you have is qualifying for another principle property. You have two options

1) purchasing the new home as an investment property - thus a higher interest rate...
or
2) moving out of the existing property, renting it out. Then short term renting an apartment near where you want to buy another home. That way you can show your next home is going to be a principle property.

The main issue you have is your DTI score being to high....

When you are qualifying for the new loan, you are going to need a "a "Real Estate Owned Schedule" to show your rental income. See link http://www.winterandcompany.com/form...realestate.xls

Your wife living in the former house and her mother in the home she lives in. Show in your checking account your receiving rental income for both property's. (Using you wife's income). That way you can cancel out those mortgages. Keep in mind most banks only allow only 75% of rent collected, to be used as rental income on a 1003 loan application.

Good Luck