Self-Employed Mortgage Guide for 2026: 12 Strategies to Get Approved

Qualifying as Self-Employed for a Mortgage

Buying a home when you’re self-employed is an uncommon path to homeownership, but it’s not impossible. Everyone’s situation is different, and the first thing you’ll want to do is find out if “self-employed” even applies to you. Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide defines “self-employed” as any individual who has a 25% or greater ownership interest in a business. That’s what every lender underwrites against, so if you own this amount of a company, freelance full time, or run a side business, this article is for you.

The way your business is set up affects how a lender looks at your income, so you should probably know which bucket you fall into.

• Sole proprietorship: You report your business activity on Schedule C of your tax return, so your tax return tells the whole story.

• Partners in a partnership: You receive a Schedule K-1 from the business’s Form 1065 filing, so you’ll need to show your proportional share of profit or loss.

• S-Corporation: Shareholders receive a K-1 from the business’s Form 1120S filing, so similar mechanics to what I said about “partnership,” only with a different form number.

• C-Corporation: Shareholders are a separate case entirely because the company is taxed on its own and the owner’s compensation typically flows through a W-2, plus any other distributions.

Why does the structure matter so much? Well, a lender isn’t just looking at what you earned. Fannie Mae’s guide is clear: the lender must prepare a written evaluation of a self-employed borrower’s personal income. This includes the business income or loss reported on the person’s individual tax returns. That’s a real document an underwriter produces, not a quick glance at your adjusted gross income. If you know which forms contribute to that evaluation before you apply, you’ll save yourself from the hassle of looking for a K-1 you didn’t realize you needed.

The Two-Year Rule: What Lenders Need and When Exceptions Apply

For most self-employed borrowers, the two-year question comes up before anything else. Fannie Mae usually requires lenders to obtain a two-year history of the borrower’s earnings to demonstrate the likelihood that their income will continue to come in. In other words, two years of returns is how a lender can confidently tell that your income will be consistent and you can make payments on time.

Here’s the exception, and it’s one you may not have heard about. Fannie Mae’s guide also allows a shorter history when the borrower’s most recent signed personal and business federal income tax returns reflect a full year (12 months) of self-employment income from the current business. However, that’s only for someone who spent years as a W-2 employee in a given field and then went independent doing a similar line of work.

For example, if you’ve spent 10 years as a W-2 electrician and decided to launch your own electrical contracting business, and you have a full year of returns showing steady income in that same industry, you may be able to clear underwriting with just that. But if you’ve spent 10 years in retail management and then opened an unrelated consulting practice… you don’t get the same shortcut. Two years is the minimum for you in that situation, because your business is new and your income history doesn’t cut it at only a year. Continuity in your field is what gets rewarded.

Fannie Mae also requires the lender to carefully consider the nature of the borrower’s level of experience and the amount of debt the business has acquired before allowing for that one-year exception. Sit with that for a moment. A first-year business owner who financed a storefront with a large loan looks a lot different to an underwriter than someone who started with minimal overhead, even if both show the same 12 months of income. If the business is carrying debt, that can also weigh on how comfortable the lender feels about offering the one-year shortcut. So, if you’re hoping to qualify with only a year of returns, make sure you’re ready to explain what the business owes as clearly as you explain what it earns.

How clearly does your prior W-2 role align with your new business? That’s a key question. Fannie Mae makes it clear that this previous field must provide the same products or services as the current business, or you’re in a role in the new business with similar responsibilities. It’s more broad than an exact job-title match. If you managed operations for someone else’s HVAC company and then open your own HVAC business… you can probably qualify easily. But if your prior job was only loosely aligned to your new field, you can expect the lender to ask more questions before granting the one-year exception. And you should plan on the standard two-year rule instead.

How Lenders Calculate Self-Employment Income

It’s not as straightforward as you might think. This is what surprises self-employed borrowers the most: your income and your qualifying income are often two different numbers. Lenders don’t use your gross revenue; rather, they average your net self-employment income from two years of tax returns and take the figure after your business deductions, not the total that came in the door.

Five specific factors come under scrutiny from lenders:

• The stability of the borrower’s income

• The location and field of the borrower’s business

• The demand for the product or service that the business offers

• The financial strength of the business, weighted by numerous factors

• The ability of the business to continue generating and distributing sufficient income

That’s a business review layered on top of the raw arithmetic, and that’s why a lender may ask multiple questions that seem unrelated to your credit score. It’s in their best interest to do as thorough a review as possible, so they can feel confident you can repay the loan over time.

Fannie Mae’s Form-1084 Cash Flow Analysis is a tool most lenders use to do the math. It walks through your Schedule C, K-1, or corporate return line by line and lands on a qualifying monthly income figure. Here’s the good news. Certain non-cash deductions, like depreciation, depletion, and amortization can often be added back to your calculated income, because they reduced your taxable income without actually lowering the cash your business brought in. A CPA who understands Form 1084 can identify which deductions qualify for that before you sit down with a loan officer.

Here’s how the averaging process actually works. A borrower’s Schedule C shows a net income of $85,000 in the first year and $92,000 in year two. The lender adds those figures together; that’s $177,000. Then they divide that by 24 months. That comes out to $7,375 in qualifying monthly income, or $88,500 per year. If year two had come in lower than year one, let’s say $70K instead of $92K, the lender would look more closely at why, and the borrower may need to qualify with the lower year’s figure instead of the average, since a declining trend raises concerns about stability, which Fannie Mae flags directly.

Another thing to keep in mind before you apply: the IRS requires self-employed workers to pay a 15.3% self-employment tax rate; 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare. And it generally applies to 92.35% of your net earnings. You can deduct half of that tax from your gross income. That’s part of why your taxable income on paper often runs lower than what you actually get in your checking account, and it’s exactly why lenders care about your tax return rather than the deposit history for qualifying.

Remember our earlier example? Let’s expand that out to see how much that self-employment tax deduction actually makes a difference. On $88,500 in average net earnings, the 15.3% self-employment tax rate applied to 92.35% works out to around $12,500 in self-employment tax for the year. The IRS lets the borrower deduct half of that (about $6,250) from gross income when calculating adjusted gross income. That doesn’t change what shows up as net self-employment income on the Schedule C itself (that happens further down the road). But it explains a pattern loan officers see all the time: a borrower’s adjusted gross income and their true qualifying income aren’t the same thing. A good loan officer walks through both figures with you rather than quoting a single number off the return.

This also explains why two self-employed borrowers with identical Schedule C net income can end up with different qualifying figures (and results) once addbacks become relevant. A borrower who claimed heavy depreciation on business equipment in a fiscal year saw a reduction in taxable income on paper, but Form 1084 can restore much of it to qualifying income since depreciation is a non-cash expense rather than money that left the business. A borrower whose expenses mostly had to do with cash costs, rent, payroll, materials, etc. doesn’t have the same addback potential, even if both businesses generated a similar profit. This is why a conversation with a CPA is worth the hour it takes; even before you apply.

Two Qualifying Paths: Traditional vs. Bank Statement Loans

Once you dig into how the business income actually shows up on paper, it becomes clear that every self-employed borrower’s file is different. That’s what splits these borrowers into two different qualifying paths. Neither path is better by any means; each fits different borrowers and their profiles.

We’ve talked about the traditional path quite a bit, which uses your federal income tax returns; two years of personal and two years of business. It’s governed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines and generally offers better rates and terms than the alternative, but it’s mainly focused on whether your income shows adequately on your returns after deductions. If your Schedule C nets a healthy figure once the write-offs are accounted for, that’s almost always the path to take.

The bank statement path, on the other hand, works differently. It uses 12 to 24 months of bank statement deposits as the basis for determining your eligibility rather than your tax returns. Then, it applies an expense factor, typically 20% to 50% for business account statements (and lower for personal account statements), depending on the type of business. It uses that information to estimate what portion of those deposits reflects real profit rather than pass-through business costs.

Here’s what you really need to know about the differences. A bank statement loan may not make sense for a borrower whose net income already qualifies comfortably under the traditional guidelines, because the rate and down payment requirements on a bank statement loan are typically higher. But for a borrower whose Schedule C deductions bring taxable income down to $45,000 while actual bank deposits run $120,000 a year, the traditional path may not qualify them at all. The bank statement path, in this case, can be the only route that reflects their accurate cash flow. That’s not to say one path being smarter than the other. It’s about matching the loan to how your specific business reports income. So don’t think you can outsmart the traditional path with a bank statement loan. That may not make sense for you.

Now let’s see what that borrower’s numbers look like for a bank statement calculation to see how the expense factor works. Say 24 months of business bank statements show average monthly deposits of $10,000, or $120,000 a year. A lender that applies a 50% expense factor for that business type treats half of those deposits as business overhead and half as available income, which leaves $5,000 a month, or $60,000 a year, as qualifying income. That $60,000 sits well above the $45,000 the traditional path would’ve produced from the tax return, which is the exact gap that makes the bank statement path worth exploring, especially if your expenses are higher. Let’s say the same business qualified for a lower 25% expense factor instead. That’s common for some personal account statement reviews. Qualifying income would rise to $7,500 a month, or $90,000 a year, from the same deposit history. The expense factor a lender assigns to your business type is doing as much work in that calculation as the deposits themselves.

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So, what about your situation? One of our AmeriSave loan officers can run both calculations side by side against your actual returns and deposit history before you commit to an application. That ensures you’re choosing a path based on real numbers rather than a guess-timate about which one sounds like a better fit.

A word of caution I’d like to repeat: shopping for a loan with someone else’s situation in mind is the fastest way to reach an erroneous conclusion about your own situation. If your friend or neighbor got approved for a bank statement loan, that tells you absolutely nothing about your own qualifying deposit average or your business’s expense factors. Their business type, deposit pattern, and down payment are unique to their own situation (not yours), so at the very most, treat anyone else’s results as a very rough estimate, not a prediction, for your own application.

FHA, VA, and Conventional: Program Eligibility for Self-Employed Borrowers

FHA, VA, and conventional programs all handle self-employment documentation a bit differently, but the underlying logic is pretty much the same across all of them: the lender needs to verify income stability using two years of returns. We’ve already discussed this. FHA loans in particular apply the same two-year standard and income-averaging calculation as conventional loans. They also require a minimum 3.5% down payment for qualifying borrowers.

VA-backed loans, on the other hand, work differently on the down payment side of things. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that almost 90% of VA-backed loans are made with no down payment at all, and VA loans don’t require private mortgage insurance. Additionally, a self-employed veteran whose income is strong but reinvests cash into the business is sure to benefit more than a borrower who keeps deeper savings sitting idly by.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac conventional loans have their own document-age rule: credit docs can’t be more than four months old on the note date. That applies across all three programs they operate, since it governs how current your bank statements, tax transcripts and credit report have to be when the loan closes.

An FHA loan probably won’t make sense for a self-employed borrower with a 720 credit score and 20% equity to put down, since a conventional loan often offers a better long-term pricing model without mortgage insurance built-in permanently like an FHA loan. But for a self-employed borrower with a 580 credit score and low cash reserves, FHA may be the only program that gets them approved right now, with room to refinance into a conventional loan down the road, assuming their finances improve.

Documentation: What You Actually Need at Application

So what next? Now that you understand your options, here’s what you’ll need when you apply. First of all, organize your file into a few categories and the process will move faster on your side of the desk, and the lender’s.

Step one: tax returns. You’ll need your two years of personal Form 1040 returns, including every schedule, plus two years of business returns for partnerships and S-corps, or the Schedule C attached to your personal return if you’re a sole proprietor. Next, business verification: a current business license, a CPA letter confirming the business is active, or proof of a professional membership tied to your field. Bank statement are up next; typically 2 to 24 months, depending on which qualifying path you’re using. Down payment docs follow that, with a paper trail for any large deposit that doesn’t obviously match your standard income pattern. Finalize your application with a government-issued ID and the basic property information once you have a home under contract.

Remember the document-age rule from Fannie Mae? I want to emphasize this because it explains why a lot of borrowers get frustrated. Credit documents must be no more than 4 months old on the note date. That’s exactly why a borrower who put together a complete file 3 months before finding a home sometimes has to refresh their bank statements and pull a new credit report right before closing. It’s not the lender being difficult. It’s a rule beyond their control.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) backs this up directly for consumers, stating that if you’re self-employed or have irregular / nonwage income, you may need additional documentation, and requirements vary from lender to lender, depending on your specific situation. That’s a federal regulator confirming what loan officers tell self-employed borrowers every day: your file isn’t going to look like a W-2 employee’s, and that’s totally fine. Talk through your situation with an AmeriSave loan officer anytime; the earlier the better, so no surprises pop up out of the blue halfway through underwriting.

Now, about business verification. Let’s take a look, because it’s the category self-employed borrowers most often underestimate. A lender isn’t just confirming that your business exists on paper. They’re confirming it’s an active company likely to continue generating the same income your application relies on. A current business license from your state or municipality is the best proof for most sole proprietors. A CPA letter works when a license isn’t the norm in your field, because an accountant who’s prepared your returns can attest directly that the business is active. Professional membership, a trade association, a state licensing board (for a regulated profession), or a chamber of commerce listing can add more color to the picture when neither of the first two options fits cleanly. Gathering one or more of these additional “credentials” before you apply, instead of waiting until after a loan officer asks for it, can be immensely helpful and save you headaches down the road, since it often takes days to produce when you request it.

Additionally, bigger deposits can get scrutinized closely because underwriters are trying to rule out a hidden loan, an undisclosed liability, or a gift that wasn’t properly documented and accounted for. A deposit that roughly matches your normal monthly cash flow probably won’t raise any questions. A deposit that’s significantly above that, like a lump sum beyond your typical monthly income, very well could raise a flag that leads to needing a paper trail to show where it came from. Whether that’s a signed gift letter, a sale of an asset, or a business distribution you can source back to the company’s own accounts, handling this proactively and keep your file moving instead of getting hung up on a documentation request that could’ve been figured out on day one.

Credit Score and DTI: The Numbers That Move Your Application

Self-employed borrowers are scored on the same credit score curve as anyone else. Same FICO models. But because lenders already look more closely at self-employed files for income stability, your credit profile carries a little more weight in how smoothly the rest of the file goes.

myFICO’s published score ranges give you the roadmap: 580 to 669 is considered Fair, 670 to 739 is Good, 740 to 799 is Very Good, and 800+ is Exceptional. For conventional loans, 620 is typically the lowest you can go, and scores of 740 or above tend to lead to the best pricing tiers a lender offers. FHA loans qualify borrowers with a 580 score at 3.5% down. Note: there is no single minimum credit score accepted by all mortgage lenders. That’s because higher scores generally improve your chances of approval and help borrowers qualify for better interest rates and terms, which is my way of saying that the exact cutoff is at the discretion of lenders and the program. It’s not as straightforward as many people think.

Another number that matters as much as credit is your debt-to-income (DTI) ratio. Your DTI is a simple calculation: all your monthly debt payments divided by your gross monthly income. Lenders cap that ratio differently depending on the program, and Fannie Mae’s conventional guidelines are more flexible on the ceiling than you might think. What actually determines the denominator of the equation (gross monthly income) for a self-employed borrower is the net income figure from your tax return average that I described earlier, NOT gross revenue or bank deposits. A borrower who brings in that average of $88,500 per year after the 2-year average is working from that number for DTI purposes, no exceptions, no matter what the business brought in before expenses.

In fact, let’s take that $88,500 a little further. Divided by 12, that’s $7,375 in gross monthly qualifying income. If that borrower carries $1,200 a month in existing debt payments, a car loan and a couple of credit cards, the DTI is $1,200 divided by $7,375, or about 16%. That’s quite low and leaves a lot of room under most conventional caps for a mortgage payment. But if the same borrower is also carrying a business loan at a $900 monthly payment and it shows up on their personal credit report, their total monthly debt rises to $2,100, and divided by $7,375 puts them closer to 28%. Business debt that reports under your personal name counts against your personal DTI exactly like a car payment does, which is why keeping business and personal credit separated protects more than just your bookkeeping.

Your loan officer checks your DTI first when putting together your application because it’s the number that determines how much home you can qualify for with a given income. If the initial figure doesn’t leave room for the loan you want, the next common path isn’t necessarily rejection. It can be a conversation about paying down a specific balance, considering a longer loan term to lower the monthly payment, or adjusting the target purchase price to fit comfortably under the loan’s ceiling. Our AmeriSave loan officers can walk you through your numbers before you submit a full application, so you know where you stand before a home is actually on the line.

Rate Shopping and Credit Inquiries: What Self-Employed Borrowers Should Know

Self-employed borrowers who shop multiple lenders are doing the right thing, and it’s worth noting that, because many borrowers hesitate, thinking that talking to multiple lenders will hurt their score. But if you shop for mortgages within 30 days of your first credit pull, you can get hard credit pulls with multiple lenders without affecting your score.

myFICO explains this on their website, that multiple hard inquiries made within a short time frame, more specifically within 30 days in the mortgage industry, only counts as one inquiry. You won’t always know which version a given lender pulls, so it’s safer to aim for your multiple inquiries to stay within 14 days of the first one. Shopping in this tight window gives you the best chance of only taking that small, temporary hit to your credit score.

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But hey, maybe this will make you feel better: even one credit inquiry costs you less than most people fear. Usually, one additional inquiry will take fewer than 5 points off a given FICO score. And hard inquiries stay on your report for up to two years, but they only really affect the FICO score for a year. That’s a small, temporary cost for a rate difference that can save you thousands of dollars over your loan term. Plus, most of the time, your score creeps its way back up to where it was before in a relatively short period.

How does this apply to self-employed borrowers specifically? A borrower who shops three lenders inside a two-week window isn’t meaningfully hurt by it. But a borrower who waits 6 months between applications, thinking they’re being cautious, can actually end up worse off because their documents may age past that 4-month credit-document window we talked about. That means you’d need fresh statements and returns that you had perfectly in place the first time. Moving quickly through your shopping window protects both your score and your paperwork.

It’s also helpful to keep a pulse on the market while you shop. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey put the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 6.58% for the week of July 23, and the survey’s own framing is straightforward: as market conditions continue to evolve, borrowers need to remember that shopping around for a mortgage rate can make a big difference, possibly saving them thousands over the life of the loan. That’s the credit score process and rate experts telling you the same thing from two different angles.

12 Strategies to Strengthen Your Self-Employed Application

As has been a theme in this article, every borrower’s situation is different. So not all 12 of these recommendations apply to every situation in the same way. Each one traces back to a specific rule rather than being based on some vague tip, and most of them come down to knowing when a lever is actually worth pulling or whether it’s best to just leave it be.

1. Lower your DTI before you apply. If your debt load is already crowding a program’s ceiling, this matters most for you. It does very little for a borrower how is already comfortably beneath it. Pay down your revolving balances in the months before applying, because the qualifying calculation uses your tax return’s net income, not gross revenue, as the numerator, and every dollar of monthly debt payment works against that fixed number.

2. Optimize your credit profile. If you’re sitting at a 760 credit score with a clean report, you don’t need to spend too much energy here. A borrower with a few reporting errors or utilization creeping past 30% should, since self-employed applications get more scrutiny and a clean report removes one variable underwriting has to think about. Dispute any reporting errors with the credit bureaus, keep your utilization under 30% of your available limits, and avoid opening new accounts 12 months before you apply.

3. Separate your personal and business accounts. If you skip this, your lender has to untangle which deposits are for your business and which are personal, and that’ll slow you down. Do this, however, and Fannie Mae’s treatment of your business as effectively owner-controlled at the 25% ownership threshold described earlier becomes a formality instead of a headache. That’s because your income calculation is cleaner and your bank statements are easy to trace.

4. Prepare for income averaging. Last two years were both strong? This strategy won’t do much for you. If your recent year was stronger than the year before, it can matter a lot, because the lender is going to average both years, not just count the good one. If you have flexible timing, waiting until you can show two strong years in a row may improve your qualification amount.

5. Maximize your legitimate addbacks. If your deductions are running heavy and your taxable income looks thinner than actual cash flow, this is a valuable tip. Simple return and few non-cash expenses… not so much. Work with your CPA before you apply to identify which non-cash deductions, depreciation, depletion, amortization, and business use of the home among them (for example) can be added back to your income Form 1084. Use this lever and you can make a big difference for your outcome.

6. Manage large deposits proactively. If your deposits are normal and follow a consistent pattern, this one’s not for you. But if you’ve received a lump sum well above the usual pattern, whether that’s a business distribution, a gift, and asset sale, or otherwise, you’ll need a paper trail ready before an underwriter asks. That’s because undocumented deposits are one of the most common reasons your application can stall.

7. Consider a larger down payment. When your income is genuinely all over the place and a lender is pricing in that risk, consider a larger down payment. If your 2-year average is stable, you’re probably good on this. But a bigger down payment lowers your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, and that lower LTV can offset some of the risk a lender sees when they see income volatility in a self-employed file. Sometimes, this can open pricing tiers that would’ve been out of reach.

8. Add a co-borrower if your income is borderline. If you’re already clearing the DTI obstacle with room to spare, you can skip this. But if your business is newer or your net income sits right at the edge of your particular loan program, a co-borrower’s W-2 income can lift your combined DTI into the approval zone.

9. Time your application to your strongest income year. Applying after a strong-income tax year is in the books will do wonders for your application, since that year becomes part of the 2-year average the lender looks at. But it doesn’t do much for the borrower whose strong year is still months away from being filed.

10. Get a full preapproval, not just a prequalification. A prequal is built on numbers you reported yourself and doesn’t carry much weight with a seller. A full preapproval, or if you’re working with AmeriSave, a Certified Approval, means an underwriter has already reviewed your tax returns, which is next-level credibility. Our loan officers are always ready to talk to you about what an AmeriSave Certified Approval can do to show sellers you’re serious about buying a home. Let us know if we can help!

11. Choose a lender with real self-employed experience. This is a nuance that doesn’t get talked about. Working with a loan officer who specifically has experience with self-employed clients can be just the difference you need to get to the finish line. There may be addbacks you’re missing or a documentation gap that someone who works with self-employed clients would catch immediately. Ask directly how many self-employed borrowers a loan officer has worked with in the past 12 months and make sure you’re dealing with someone who has the experience you need to succeed.

12. Organize your business-existence documents ahead of time. If you wait until a loan officer asks and you’re stuck producing a document that can take days to generate, you’re gonna have a bad time. Have one ready before you apply instead. In fact, get everything you possibly can ready before you apply. And you’ll have a real good time instead. A lender needs to verify that your business is legit, and a current business license, a professional license, a CPA letter, or a verifiable web presence are the best ways to satisfy that need.

The Self-Employed Buyer: What the Current Market Looks Like

Don’t sleep on the kind of market you’re trying to buy a home in. Today’s market conditions are making the documentation disciplines we discussed even more important than has been the case in many recent years. The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reports that the share of first-time home buyers dropped to a record low 21%, while the typical age of first-time home buyers climbed to an all-time high of 40 years. So not only are buyers getting into the game later, but now there are fewer than ever. However, the increase in age also comes with more home buyers in established careers, and with that, a larger amount of self-employed borrowers.

Mortgage rates also come into play here. Freddie Mac’s Primary Mortgage Market Survey shows the 30-year fixed rate averages around 6.58% for the week of July 23. Competition can still be pretty intense, even with fewer buyers, because they’re more financially prepared. A seller weighing two offers will usually favor the buyer holding a Certified Approval from AmeriSave (or a similar equivalent) rather than a prequalification letter.

All of this is why the preparation in this guide pays off. If you’re self-employed and looking to buy, having your two years of clean returns, large deposits documented, and a real preapproval that’s backed by a lender’s initial underwriting process, you’re on equal footing with most any W-2 buyer in the same price range. And shoot, you could even have the advantage of a stronger overall financial picture built over years of running your business. The discipline and prep work can make a big difference.

Always remember that every market is a little different, but a record-low share of first-time buyers, plus a median buyer age of 40 also points to something else worth mentioning. A growing share of the buyer pool at any given price point is likely to be self-employed, further along in their career, or running a business instead of drawing recurring paychecks. Sellers and their agents are seeing more of these buyers, which means the lender you choose should already be comfortable underwriting self-employed loans. A loan officer who has experience closing these types of files knows what an underwriter will ask, and that translates to fewer surprises in the middle of your process.

The Bottom Line

Here’s the long and short of it. Self-employed borrowers qualify for mortgages every day, through one of our defined paths: either the traditional tax-return underwriting or a bank statement loan built around the business’ deposit history. The ownership threshold of the business is 25%, the standard history requirement is 2 years with a narrow 1-year exception, but the number that really matters is your net income after deductions, not your gross revenue. How you get there depends on certain factors. From there, the goal is to keep the path to closing as clear as possible. So, get every question you have answered upfront, get every document into the right category before you apply, and don’t let a request sit waiting. Always be quick to control what you can control so your loan keeps moving forward. If something in the process isn’t clear, ask before you move on, not after. If you want to talk about which path is right for your specific business and income structure, one of our AmeriSave loan officers can review your file and crunch the numbers before you commit to either direction.