Generally, the income of self-employed borrowers is verified by obtaining copies of personal (and business, if applicable) federal income tax returns for the most recent two-year period. However, based on your entire financial situation, we may not need full copies of your tax returns. We’ll review and average the net income from self-employment that’s reported on your tax returns to determine the income that can be used to qualify. We won’t be able to consider any income that hasn’t been reported on your tax returns. Typically, we’ll need at least one, and sometimes a full two-year history of self-employment to verify that your self-employment income is stable.

We take full advantage of an automated underwriting system that allows us to request as little information as possible to verify the data you provided during your loan application. Gone are the days when it was necessary to verify every piece of data collected during the application. The automated underwriting system compares your financial situation with statistical data from millions of other homeowners and uses that comparison to determine the level of verification needed.