Physician & dentist financing
Home loans for doctors, residents, and dentists — explained without a rate quote
Physician loan programs generally help medical professionals buy during training or early attending years when student debt and short employment history complicate conventional qualification. This site explains how those programs typically work, what to prepare, and how to compare paths using your own numbers — never a lender's current overlay.
Who this is for
| Reader | Typical question | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Resident or fellow | Can I buy before I am an attending? | Resident programs |
| Relocating physician | I still own a home in another state | Relocating guide |
| New attending | Physician loan or conventional? | Comparison tool |
| Dentist | Do dental specialists qualify? | Dentist programs |
How to prepare — numbered process
- Clarify your timeline: training end date, relocation, and whether you still own a home elsewhere.
- Gather employment documentation: training contract or attending offer letter, plus recent pay stubs if available.
- List student loans with monthly payments and note whether your target lender may exclude them from DTI.
- Run the doctor-loan-vs-conventional tool with your own price, down payment, and rate assumptions.
- Start pre-approval when the math and timeline align — carry your tool permalink to the conversation.
Program overviews
Physician mortgage programs are a category, not a single product. Lenders set their own eligibility, down payment expectations, and student-loan treatment. Our program pages describe what borrowers typically encounter so you know which documents to gather before a pre-approval conversation. We do not name lenders or state maximum loan-to-value ratios here because those change and vary by file.
- Doctor loan programs — MD and DO borrowers
- Dentist loan programs — DDS and DMD borrowers
- Resident and fellow loans — training-contract documentation
Tools — your inputs only
Calculators on this site are stateless: every input lives in the query string so you can share a permalink with a loan officer. Nothing pre-fills a market rate. Use the doctor loan vs conventional comparison when you have your own rate and down payment assumptions, and the student debt DTI tool when you want to see how monthly student loan payments change the ratio before housing is added.
Guides
Long-form guides walk through relocation, fellowship purchases, student debt interaction, and your first attending buy. Each guide links to the next logical resource — including network siblings when another site owns the question cluster.
- Relocating for residency
- Buying during fellowship
- Student debt and home buying
- Attending first purchase
Frequently asked questions
- What is a physician loan?
- A physician loan is a mortgage program category aimed at medical doctors and dentists. Programs may offer flexible down payment expectations and alternative student-debt treatment compared with conventional financing. Specific terms vary by lender and must be confirmed for your file.
- Can residents buy a home during training?
- Some residents and fellows purchase during training using employment documented through a training contract. Whether that fits your timeline depends on relocation plans, liquid reserves, and how your student loans are counted — topics we cover in the resident program overview and tools.
- Does this site quote rates?
- No. Every rate, fee, and program limit on this site is either your own input in a calculator or described qualitatively. We do not state lender-specific overlays without a dated primary source.
Talk through your scenario
Share where you are in training or practice and we can follow up with next steps matched to your timeline.
Start my applicationPhysician buyer preparation checklist
Print or save this list before your first lender conversation. Every item is qualitative — confirm specifics with your loan officer.
Identity and employment
- Government-issued ID for all borrowers
- Training contract, fellowship letter, or signed attending offer
- Most recent pay stubs once payroll begins
- Medical or dental license verification if requested
Student loans
- Statements showing balance and monthly payment for each loan
- Income-driven repayment approval letter if on IDR
- Note whether your target lender may exclude loans from DTI (confirm in writing)
Assets and timeline
- Two months of asset statements for down payment and reserves
- Written timeline if you still own a home in another state
- Permalink from our comparison or DTI tools with your assumptions