NINA loans are often used by homebuyers whose incomes are difficult to document, such as waiters, taxicab drivers and hotel doormen, whose incomes consist mostly of cash tips. Many small business owners also prefer NINA mortgages because their incomes are closely tied to their business. When business owners apply for Full-Doc loans, banks require their business financial documents, such as 1120, 1120S, 1065, various schedules, year-to-date Profit and Loss statements, business account statements, etc., in addition to their personal financial documents. In stead of disclosing all their business financial information, most business owners opt for the simplicity of NINA mortgage loans.

NINA mortgages, No-Income No-Asset, do not require loan applicants disclosing the amount of their salaries and their cash reserves. Banks still want to know about the homebuyers' employment information. NINANE, which stands for No-Income No-Asset No-Employment, or better known as No-Doc mortgages, do not require even the disclosure of the homebuyers' employment.

NINA loans usually require a higher credit scores. Genrally the higher LTV(loan to value)the higher the score needed to qualify

The NINA loan is typically chosen for self employed borrowers that do not have seasoned funds and cannot prove thier income. Season funds must have a trackable history of 60 days and cannot include cash or unsecured borrowed funds.

The line gets fuzzy between no-ratio and NINA mortgages, and generally is delineated by credit score. In many cases, the lender will want to know what the NINA applicant does for a living, and for how long. Lenders feel more comfortable with a borrower who has been doing the same job for at least two years.

The NINA loan approval is based on down payment, credit history, and property value. This program still requires "employment" documentation of your past 2 years, while others do not.

Because NINA mortgages require less paperworks, they generally take less time to underwrite and less approval conditions to clear before closing.

NINA stands for "No Income, No Assets".

This does not mean that the borrower does not have income or assets. It just means that the borrower does not want to disclose that information to the lender.

These loans typically carry higher interest rates than fully documented loans.