Can a Medical Resident Buy a House in Florida? Yes — here's how it actually works.

The short answer: yes, residents can buy

Yes — a medical resident can buy a house, and in Florida you don't have to wait until you're an attending to do it. Residents and fellows are specifically eligible for Liberty Federal Credit Union's Physician Loan, a doctor loan program designed around medical training instead of against it. The headline numbers: 100% financing — zero down — on loans up to $1,000,000, with no PMI at any tier, a 680 minimum credit score, and eligibility that covers you before, during, and at the end of training.

That surprises a lot of residents, because most lounge advice comes from people who talked to a standard lender. A conventional underwriter sees a training salary, six figures of student debt, and a thin savings account; a physician-loan underwriter sees the most predictable income trajectory in the workforce. This guide walks through how resident eligibility actually works, what you'll need, and the timeline that gets you from Match Day to moving day.

One honest note before the details: program guidelines are subject to change, and everything below is a program overview — final terms are determined in underwriting on your actual file. What follows is exactly how the program is written, not a sales version of it.

Who qualifies: residents, fellows, and new attendings

The Physician Loan is built for the full arc of a medical career. At Liberty FCU, eligible borrowers include:

• Residents currently in a training program
• Fellows in subspecialty training
• Newly established physicians starting their first attending role
• Established physicians already in practice — defined as licensed and employed by a hospital or physician group for at least 12 months, or self-employed for at least 2 full years

Eligible credentials are MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DPM, and PharmD — and optometrists and ophthalmologists are eligible under program guidelines as well. The loan is for a primary residence you occupy: purchase, or a no-cash-out refinance. Non-occupant co-borrowers aren't permitted, and there are no income restrictions on the program.

The 90-day rule: how resident eligibility works

The question residents ask most is about timing: "I don't start until July — can I even apply?" The program answers that with what amounts to a 90-day rule. You qualify for the Physician Loan as a resident or fellow if any one of these is true:

• You are currently in residency or fellowship — mid-training, any year
• You are set to begin residency within 90 days — matched, contracted, start date on the calendar
• You are finishing residency or fellowship and are under contract to work within 90 days of closing — the classic fellowship-to-attending or residency-to-first-job transition

Read that second bullet again, because it's the one that changes relocation math: you do not have to wait until you've started — or collected a single paycheck — to buy. If your program begins within 90 days, you can close on a Florida home ahead of your start date, move once, and unpack before orientation instead of apartment-hunting from a hotel during it.

The documentation is straightforward: residents and fellows provide a diploma and transcripts, plus the contract or program documentation establishing your position and start date. Established physicians provide a copy of their medical license, and a signed employment contract if the position is under 12 months old. Gather these early — they prove the one thing your pay stubs can't yet: what's already signed.

The third bullet matters at the other end of training, too. Finishing a fellowship in June and starting an attending job in August is exactly the gap that strands people in short-term rentals. Under this program, if you're under contract to work within 90 days of closing, that gap is a planned transition, not a disqualifier.

Buying on a contract: qualifying before your first paycheck

Most mortgages are built on pay stubs — proof of income you've already earned. That model breaks for physicians in transition, whose most important income document is one that describes a job they haven't started yet: the signed employment contract or residency agreement.

On a physician mortgage loan in Florida, contract-based qualification is a normal, expected scenario — not an exception you have to beg for. Your contract documents the position, the employer or program, the start date, and the compensation your file is built on. That's why lining up financing before you house-hunt matters: a pre-qualification based on your contract lets you shop with real numbers, and gives sellers a letter they can take seriously against competing offers.

Two practical warnings. First, talk to your loan officer before you sign a purchase contract, so your closing date, your program start, and the 90-day windows above all line up — sequencing is where resident purchases succeed or get stressful. Second, keep your contract paperwork complete: offer letters, the full signed agreement, any program confirmation. The cleaner the paper trail on a job that hasn't started, the cleaner the file.

Student loans and DTI: the honest picture

Let's be straight about the elephant in the room, because it's the reason this guide exists: student loan debt is the number-one reason residents and young physicians get turned away by standard lenders — or talk themselves out of applying. The balances are large, training income is modest, and a generic online debt-to-income calculator will happily tell you that you can't afford anything. That calculator doesn't know your program, your contract, or your income trajectory.

Here's what is actually true on this program, stated carefully: your debt-to-income ratio is determined per the AUS — the automated underwriting system — findings on your specific file. There is no single published formula applied to every doctor regardless of circumstances, and anyone who quotes you a specific student-loan treatment — a percentage, an exclusion, a special payment calculation — without running your file is guessing, and you shouldn't plan a move around a guess.

What you can do is control what's controllable: know your actual balances and payment status before you apply, and don't take on new debt — a car loan signed the month before lands in the same ratio. Residents with significant student debt close on homes under this program every year; the difference is usually just that somebody ran their real numbers. Start with the full physician mortgage loan program details or call (727) 415-9960 and we'll run yours.

Down payment tiers: how much you actually need

The other myth to retire: the 20% down payment. On the Physician Loan, the down payment scales with the loan amount — and at the amounts most residents borrow, it's zero:

• No PMI at any tier — including zero down. This is the single biggest structural advantage over a conventional low-down-payment loan
• Fixed 15 or 30 year, or a 5/6, 7/6, or 10/6 ARM on a 30-year term
• Reserves: 3 months of reserves for loans under $1,000,000; 5% of the loan amount above $1,000,000
• Escrows are required when the LTV is over 80% — budget for taxes and insurance in the monthly payment
• Seller concessions up to 3% are permitted
• Eligible for the Extra Credit Discount: 0.125% off your rate with an LFCU checking account and autopay set up from it

Zero down doesn't mean zero cash — you'll still have closing costs, prepaid taxes and insurance, and those reserves to show. But the years-long "save 20% while renting" detour is optional: for many residents, buying earlier beats paying a landlord through the exact years income is about to jump. Run your price range through the doctor loan Florida program page or the form on this page, and you'll get real numbers instead of rules of thumb.

Your Florida move: a resident's buying timeline and checklist

Florida pulls in physicians from everywhere — residency and fellowship programs across Tampa Bay, Orlando, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Miami, and a fast-growing set of private practices in between. Wherever you're headed, the sequence that works looks like this:

1. Match/sign first, house-hunt second. Your contract or program placement is the foundation of the file — and it triggers the 90-day eligibility window
2. Get pre-qualified on the contract. Before you tour a single home, have your numbers run: credit (680 minimum), budget, and which down-payment tier you land in
3. Assemble the training file. Diploma, transcripts, signed contract or program agreement, and ID. Having these ready before you're under contract on a house removes the most common delays
4. Pick your geography like a resident, not a tourist. Tampa Bay buyers weigh commute to their hospital campus against neighborhood — St. Petersburg, Tampa, Clearwater, Palm Harbor, and Tarpon Springs all sit within the region's medical corridor, and your call schedule should pick your zip code
5. Sequence the closing inside the windows. Closing before a start date is fine — inside 90 days for a new program, or under contract to work within 90 days of closing if you're finishing training. Your loan officer should be mapping these dates with you, not discovering them
6. Protect the file while you move. No new car loans, no big credit-card runs for furniture, no job changes that aren't already in the contract. Keep the file boring until the keys are in your hand

Do those six things in order and a resident purchase stops being a scramble. Most stress stories trace back to step-skipping — touring homes before the contract existed, or calling a lender after the offer was signed. If you're relocating to Florida this cycle, the physician loan program overview plus a ten-minute call is the cheapest insurance you can buy, and it doesn't cost anything.

Areas served: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Sarasota & Lakewood Ranch, Orlando, Jacksonville, Fort Myers, Naples, Miami, and physicians relocating anywhere in Florida.

Building instead of buying: the physician construction option

Can't find the right house near your program — or you'd rather build exactly what you want on Florida land? Liberty's Construction – Physician program applies the same physician eligibility and the same tiers (100% financing up to $1,000,000, 95% to $1.5M, 90% to $3M, no PMI, 680 minimum) to a new single-family primary home. The build period runs up to 12 months, you pay interest only on amounts actually drawn, at your permanent financing rate, and the loan converts to permanent financing when the home is complete — with a rate float-down option at conversion. One requirement to plan around: your builder must be on the LFCU Active Builder & Home Renovator List, so check your builder's status early. Full details are in the doctor construction loan section of the physician loan page.