My Dirty Money Wasn’t Good Enough To Buy A House

Buying A Home Means Jumping Through Hoops

If you have bought a home recently you know that there is always something that comes up during the process. My home purchase was no different.

We spent months getting the lenders everything they asked for to get the preapproval and final approval of our loan. Only after closing did we find that our loan was actually denied.

How Did We Get Denied After Closing?

Our Lender sent out a letter stating that our loan had been sold from Montana Board of Housing to another servicer and we called to find out why.

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Turns out since Montana Board of Housing is a Federal Program they don't accept income if it is from a dispensary. Even though in Montana marijuana sales are legal, federally they don't see it that way.

My husband works at a dispensary in Great Falls. Since they were unable to count his income it dropped the amount we were approved for significantly. However, since we had already closed the deal on our house there was nothing they could do to change our loan besides sell it back to the lender.

What Does Montana Commerce Say About It?

The Montana Commerce website shows, "Montana Housing must consider household income, which can be different than the qualifying income the lender uses for underwriting purposes."

I have dug for any documentation where it is stated why they don't accept the dispensary income as eligible but have yet to track down anything concrete besides what we were told on the phone which is that since it is a Federal program they cannot accept dispensary income.

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The Montana Commerce website details what is considered "income" for their housing programs but there is nothing specifically stating that money from a dispensary is not considered eligible income.

I called the Montana Department of Commerce and Montana Board of Housing contact numbers and have not received a response back at this time.