Traditional mortgage guidelines don't always reflect your true earning potential. We specialize in helping self-employed borrowers qualify using alternative income documentation, making homeownership and real estate investing more accessible.
Benefits
Smart business owners take every legitimate tax deduction available, which can make conventional mortgage qualification frustrating. Conventional underwriters look at your adjusted gross income on Schedule C, not the cash you actually take home. The result: borrowers earning $300K in gross revenue are sometimes told they qualify for less than a W-2 employee earning $80K.
We use a different toolkit. Bank Statement Loans, P&L Only programs, VOE-based qualification, and DSCR loans for investment property all let us underwrite the way your business actually performs, not the way it looks after deductions.
Bank Statement Loans: 12 or 24 months of personal or business bank statements stand in for tax returns. We calculate qualifying income based on deposits, not net income.
P&L Only Loans: A CPA-prepared profit-and-loss statement is the primary income document. Great for borrowers with consistent business income who'd rather not document with bank statements.
DSCR Loans: For investment properties, the property's own cash flow qualifies the loan, your personal income isn't even reviewed in most cases.
VOE Loans: A short Verification of Employment from your employer verifies the existence and stability of your employment, useful as part of streamlined or hybrid programs.
Asset-Based Lending: For high-net-worth clients with substantial liquid assets but limited reportable income, asset-depletion programs convert reserves into qualifying income.
Sole proprietors and 1099 contractors. S-corp and LLC owners. Real estate investors. Restaurant and retail owners. Doctors, dentists, and attorneys in private practice. Tech consultants and creative professionals. Anyone whose tax returns show heavy deductions, depreciation, or pass-through income that conventional underwriters struggle to interpret.
The document list is different for every program, but the universal items are: a valid government ID, recent personal credit history, proof of your business (Articles of Organization, business license, or CPA letter), and either bank statements, a P&L, or the supporting documents for whichever alternative-doc program fits best. We'll tell you exactly what to pull on the first call so nothing gets requested twice.
The conventional mortgage process is built around W-2 employees with predictable, year-over-year income that appears in clean form on a tax return. Self-employed borrowers don't fit that mold. The tax code rewards business owners who minimize taxable income through legitimate deductions, depreciation, vehicle expenses, home office, retirement contributions, and self-employed health insurance, but each of those write-offs reduces the number underwriting uses to qualify you. A profitable business can look poor on paper, and conventional lenders read paper.
The fix is alternative documentation. Bank statement loans qualify you on deposits. DSCR loans qualify the property's rental income. P&L Only loans use a CPA-prepared income statement. VOE and asset-depletion programs use other forms of verification. Each is built specifically for the way self-employed people actually earn money, and each has its own sweet spot depending on your business structure, credit, and the property you're buying.
The right product depends on your situation. A sole proprietor with two strong tax-return years usually does best on a conventional loan, even with self-employment income. An S-Corp owner who pays themselves a low W-2 salary and takes the rest as distributions might do better on a bank statement program. A real estate investor buying their fifth rental does best on DSCR. Our job is to know all of these programs cold and structure your file against whichever one actually fits, not whichever one happens to be on a corporate menu.
Most programs want at least 2 years in the same business. Some accept 1 year self-employed plus 2 years of related W-2 experience.
Usually 0.25%-1.5% higher than the best conventional rates, depending on the program and your file. The trade-off is qualifying when conventional underwriting wouldn't approve you at all.
Yes. Cash-out is available on bank statement, P&L, and asset-based programs, typically up to 75-80% loan-to-value.
Yes, when the tax returns support it. Many self-employed clients qualify for traditional programs too, we run both paths and you choose.
Most non-QM self-employed programs require 660 minimum. The best pricing kicks in at 720+.
Typically 25-35 days from application to funding, similar to conventional. Streamlined files can close faster.
Every self-employed and investor file is different. A 15-minute call with a real loan officer is the fastest way to find the right program.