Who is N.I.N.A.

N.I.N.A. stands for No Income, No Assets, and is a great program for people who may not have cash reserves in the bank, and may have trouble fully documenting their income.

No income and no asset loans, also referred to as NINA, are usually very helpful for borrowers who are heavily commissioned with little base salary, borrowers who are self-employed and for borrowers who are 1099'ed. NINA loans can be used for any type of borrower, however they are more common for the above types of borrowers.

Do you need to close quickly? NINA loans tend to close very fast because there is very little information that has to be verified by underwriting. If you have a good credit score and speed is your goal, ask your mortgage professional about a no doc NINA loan.

The higher the Loan to Value on No Income Loans, the higher the credit score needed to Qualify.

NINA or No Income No Asset loan documentation options are not true "no documentation" or No Doc loans, because they require the borrower to verify their employment. A true no documentation mortgage refinance requires No Income, No Assets & No Employment or NI/NA/NE.

Certain lenders have programs for borrowers with excellent credit that afford the benefits of a No Income, No Asset verification loan with no increase to rate or fees. Credit scores often need to be in the excellent range for these programs.

One benefit of a NINA loan is that since no income is listed, there is no "reasonability" test of your income. In layman's terms, there is no scrutinization of your income at all.

A variation on this theme is the No Ratio loan. This one allows one to either state their income or fully disclose your income, but not necessarily penalize you for have a worse than 50% debt to income (DTI) ratio.

A sister to the NINA loan is the No Doc loan, also known as NINANE - the NE stands for No Employment, meaning that you do not need to provide employment information on the mortgage application. All of these loans have a place and a real purpose depending on your situation. Keep in mind, however, that your rates will usually go up slightly each time you reduce the amount of information you provide to the lender on your application.

No income no asset loans (NINA) loans can be useful for a borrower who has a high commission job or is self-employed.

» DISCLAIMER: The information contained in this article on 'Who is N.I.N.A.' is a collection of contributions by licensed mortgage professionals and is not the opinion of Broker Outpost LLC. Always consult a licensed professional before applying for a mortgage.