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How do we get a mortgage as a self-employed, sole-proprietorship? we are not a corporation or LLC.

Profile picture for kraerenz777

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December 05 2011 - Rochester
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Answers (5)

Profile picture for Mortgage Geek

Often times someone that is set up as a sole-prop will (rightfully) take advantage of the available tax write-offs and end up showing little or no income to Uncle Sam.  That is great for your tax debt but makes standard qualifying for a mortgage next to impossible.

In that circumstance an option that is often overlooked or not available to many lenders is a loan that qualifies using Asset Depletion.  This loan uses existing assets like Money Market Accounts, Investment Portfolios, Trust Funds or others.  The value of the asset is confirmed and then a portion of that account is used to prove monthly income for the borrower.  It can be pretty simple and straight forward, you just need to have those assets available.  Just a note, those assets are NOT turned over to the lender, they are just verified and accounted for.

I hope that helps provide another option for you.

Good luck!

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December 06 2011
Profile picture for tmortgan
Brian's right - the standard documentation is two years' tax returns and a year to date income and expense statement.  Hopefully you did file a Schedule C (Sole Proprietorship) for these years on your federal income tax return.

A few things to add:

1.)  Most underwriters make you carry business debts personally, even though you pay them out of business cash flow.  BUT, if you pay them from a separate business account, and can provide 12 months' cancelled checks (front and back) you can avoid the underwriter deducting these expenses from income AND treating them as a debt.
2.)  This is the BEST time of the year for self-employed borrowers to finance, though, because you can place more emphasis on the cash-flow based profit and loss statement in the 2 year income averaging scenario. 

Good luck!
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December 05 2011
Profile picture for Courtesy Mortgage
Submit your most recent Schedule C.    Plenty of lenders will qualify off one year only if your file is otherwise strong.
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December 05 2011
Profile picture for LUXURY HOME LOANS CA
Choose a portfolio lender. They have an exception based common sense approach to lending. Most of my self-employed borrowers are funded through portfolio lenders. ... Good luck.

Happy funding, Rudi
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December 05 2011
Profile picture for bri_gets
You will have to provide the last 2 years federal tax returns, a year to date profit and loss statement, and a copy of your business license (if applicable)

An underwriter will most likely use a 2 year average of your net income. So if you wrote off a lot of expenses, this will lower your income and make it harder to qualify.
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December 05 2011
 

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