Latest / USA House Partners Podcast / Self-Employed & Denied a Mortgage? Here’s the Door Banks Don’t Tell You About
Transcript
- Greg Raymer: If you've ever sat across from a loan officer, handed over two years of tax returns, and watched their face fall, this episode is for you. Welcome back to the show. I'm Broker Greg, and this is the podcast for USA Homeowner Nation, the people who believe owning a home isn't a privilege reserved for the traditionally employed. It's a right you work for, whatever your pay stub looks like. Or does it? Here's a number that should stop you in your tracks. Well over a third of the American workforce does some form of freelance Gig or self employed work today. I got rideshare drivers, contractors, consultants, Etsy shop owners, salon suite renters, people running a small business out of a truck, a laptop, or even a spare bedroom. And here's the cruel irony. A lot of these folks make good money, sometimes great money. But when they walk into a traditional bank for a mortgage, they get treated like a financial mystery instead of a paying customer. Why? Because conventional underwriting wasn't built for how self employed income actually works. A bank doesn't look at what hits your bank account. They average your last two years of tax returns, and if you're smart enough to use every legal deduction and write-off your accountant can find, congratulations. You just talked your own income down on paper. The same write-offs that save you money in April can quietly disqualify you in June. Add in inconsistent month to month income, a business that's only eighteen months old or A credit file that's thin because you pay for everything with a debit card? And a lot of lenders just say no. Not because you can't afford a home, because you don't fit their spreadsheet. So here's the good news, and it's the whole reason we're doing this episode. Getting rejected by one traditional lender doesn't mean homeownership is off the table. It means you were shown one door, but not the only door. We work with our private investor network, a group of partners who built their entire underwriting approach around real life income. Not just what fits neatly into a conventional box. Instead of punishing you for being your own boss, they look at the fuller picture, your actual cash flow, your payment history, your trajectory, and here's what that can actually look like. Depending on the program, you can qualify with a credit score as low as five eighty, a down payment as low as three and a half percent. No requirement that you've been self employed for some arbitrary number of years before anyone will talk to you. And for buyers who need a little more runway, say your first year of self employment income was strong, but your second was messier because you're reinvesting in the business, there is a lease based path into the exact home you want. You move in now, build a track record of consistent on time monthly payments, and after just eighteen months of on time payments, you can convert into a fixed long term ownership agreement. Every one of those payments gets reported to the credit bureaus, so while you're living in your home, you're also building the credit file a traditional lender will eventually want to see. There's even built-in hardship protection because our network understands something traditional lending doesn't always account for. Self-employed income has seasons. A slow month for a freelancer isn't a red flag. It's just Tuesday. Let me put a real shape around this. Picture a young couple, one of them freelances full time, The other just started a small photography business on the side, and combined they're bringing in solid income, but between inconsistent months and a thin credit file, every bank they talked to said no. Through our network, they moved into their house on a lease agreement first. They made 18 straight on time payments, converted into a long-term fixed agreement, and within a few years they'd built over forty eight thousand dollars in home equity above what they originally agreed to pay for the house. And their credit score climbed over a hundred points along the way. They didn't wait for the system to catch up to how they earn a living. They found a path around it. So if you're a gig worker, a freelancer, a small business owner, or you're supporting a household on 1099 income and you've been told no by a bank, or you've talked yourself out of even applying because you assume you'll be told no, I want you to hear this clearly. That's one lender's answer. It's not the final answer. There's no pressure here, no hard sell, just a conversation. Reach out to us, tell us what your income actually looks like, not what it looks like on a tax return, but what it actually looks like. And we'll walk you through what our private investor network can put together for your specific situation. Worst case, you learn where you stand. Best case, you're signing paperwork on a home a bank told you you couldn't have. In the weeks ahead, we're talking about something almost everyone eventually faces. A life change that wrecks your credit through no fault of your own. Medical bills, divorce, a bankruptcy you never saw coming. We'll show you how a comeback path into a home can start long before your credit score fully recovers. You will not want to miss this one. Until then, this has been the USA House Partners Podcast, and as we go into our week, I'd like you to remember the words of Proverbs, chapter three, verses thirty-three and thirty-four. The Lord blesses the home of the righteous, with the wise inheriting honor and the humble receiving favor. Keep building, keep owning. We'll see you next week.