Everything a business owner, 1099 earner, or real estate investor needs to understand and prepare for a mortgage, in one place. Calculators, a document checklist, plain-English program guides, real underwriting examples, and links to the actual agency rulebooks. All free, no login, nothing to sign.
Three quick tools to estimate what you qualify for and what a payment looks like before you ever send a document. They are estimates to get you oriented, not a formal approval. Come back to this self-employed mortgage resource center any time you need a quick gut-check.
See roughly how a lender turns your business income into qualifying income, using the same add-backs underwriters use.
Open the income calculator ›Estimate a full monthly payment with principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA and PMI so there are no surprises.
Open the payment calculator ›For rentals: divide the monthly rent by the full monthly payment to see if a property covers itself.
Having these ready is the single biggest thing that speeds up a self-employed file. Print it and check items off as you gather them, straight from this self-employed mortgage resource center.
You are not stuck with one box. As a broker I match your income picture to the program that actually fits, instead of forcing your file into a single lender’s rules. That is the whole point of this self-employed mortgage resource center.
Qualify on deposits into your bank account over 12 to 24 months instead of tax returns. Built for owners whose write-offs make their returns look smaller than the business really is.
See bank statement loans ›Qualify a rental on the income the property produces, not your personal income. Popular for investors buying single-family rentals and short-term rentals.
See DSCR loans ›If most of your income comes on 1099s, some programs let you qualify straight from the 1099s with an expense factor, instead of two years of full returns.
Ask me about 1099 programsIf you hold significant savings or investments but show little monthly income, an asset-based program can convert your assets into qualifying income.
Ask me about asset-based programsWhen your returns support it, a conventional loan is often the lowest cost. Lenders average two years of self-employed income and add back items like depreciation.
Estimate your income ›Some programs qualify you from a CPA-prepared profit and loss statement, a strong fit for established businesses with clean books and steady margins.
Ask me about P&L programsThese are the kinds of files I work every week. Names and numbers are examples, but the situations and the way I approach them are real, drawn from the same playbook behind this self-employed mortgage resource center.
Strong sales, but the returns showed little profit after write-offs. We used 24 months of business bank statements, and the qualifying income came out far higher than the returns implied.
Nearly all income arrived on 1099s. Instead of two years of full returns, we qualified from the 1099s with a program expense factor and got a clean approval.
Personal income was complicated, so we ignored it. The rent covered the payment above a 1.0 ratio, so a DSCR loan let the property qualify itself, closed in the LLC.
Left a W-2 job for the same line of work. With a prior history in the field and one year of returns, we found a program that did not require the full two years.
Plenty of assets, very little reported income. An asset depletion program turned the portfolio into qualifying income without touching the accounts.
The CPA had minimized taxable income, which is smart for taxes but hard for a conventional loan. A bank statement program showed the real cash flow instead.
When someone tells you what a program allows, it helps to check the actual rulebook. These are the real agency source documents that lenders follow for self-employed income, gathered here in one self-employed mortgage resource center.
How conventional lenders document a business and average two years of self-employed income, section B3-3.5-01.
selling-guide.fanniemae.comFreddie’s self-employed income rules and required documentation, Chapter 5304.
guide.freddiemac.comFHA’s single family policy handbook, including self-employment and income documentation standards.
hud.govVA income and self-employment rules for veterans, Chapter 4 of Pamphlet 26-7.
benefits.va.govThese links go to the agencies themselves. The guides are updated by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, HUD and the VA, so always confirm the current version before you rely on a specific rule.
It depends on the program. A conventional loan usually wants two years of personal and business tax returns, a year-to-date profit and loss statement, and proof you own the business. A bank statement loan skips the returns and uses 12 to 24 months of bank statements instead. A DSCR investor loan mostly needs the lease or market rent and reserves. The checklist above breaks it down by program.
Sometimes, yes. The old rule of thumb was two years, but several programs now allow one year of self-employment when you have a strong history in the same line of work, good credit and reserves. If you recently left a W-2 job for your own business in the same field, that history often counts in your favor.
A bank statement loan lets a self-employed borrower qualify on the deposits into their bank account over 12 or 24 months instead of tax returns. It is built for owners whose write-offs make their tax returns understate what the business actually earns. It is a non-QM program, so terms vary, which is where working with a broker helps.
On a conventional loan they can, because lenders qualify you on the income left after deductions. Aggressive write-offs lower your taxable income, which can lower your qualifying income. That is exactly why bank statement and profit-based programs exist, so you can show real cash flow instead of the number your CPA minimized for taxes.
A lender generally averages your net self-employed income over two years, then adds back certain non-cash items like depreciation and depletion. If income is rising, they may weigh the most recent year more. The income calculator gives you a rough version of this so you know roughly where you stand before applying.
Yes, on a bank statement program. Rather than reading your returns, the lender counts your deposits over 12 to 24 months and applies an expense factor to estimate income. It is one of the most common ways self-employed buyers and business owners qualify when their returns do not tell the full story.
Send me your situation and I will tell you straight which program makes sense and what it would take to qualify, usually the same day. No pressure, no credit pull to start. That is exactly what this self-employed mortgage resource center is built for.
