Your mortgage has two doors.
Door one: qualify off your tax returns. Door two: qualify off what your business actually deposits — bank statements, a P&L, your 1099s, or a property's rent. Most self-employed buyers only ever get shown door one, get told no, and walk away thinking they can't buy. You almost certainly can. It's a routing problem, not a you problem — and routing is what a broker is for.
The write-off trap, in one paragraph.
Your CPA's job is to make your taxable income small. A bank's job is to lend against your taxable income. See the problem? You gross $250K, write off aggressively like a smart operator, and the bank sees $70K — then prices you like you earn $70K, or declines you outright. Nothing about that means you can't afford the house. It means you were handed the wrong loan.
Door one — full documentation.
If your tax returns genuinely show strong income, full doc is usually your sharpest pricing, and we'll shop it across 50+ lenders like any other loan. Two years of returns, business and personal, and underwriting does its averaging. When it works, take it. When the returns undersell you, don't force it — that's what door two is for.
Qualify on real cash flow.
Modern alt-doc lending isn't 2008. Every one of these loans is underwritten to your ability to repay — they just prove it with better evidence than a tax return:
How we pick your door.
Five minutes of questions: how you file, how you pay yourself, how long you've been at it, what you're buying, and how fast you need to close. Then we price both doors where it's close. You'd be surprised how often the "expensive" alt-doc loan wins once the full-doc version's restrictions and delays get priced in — and how often full doc wins when someone assumed it wouldn't. We don't guess. We price.
Buying above the county limit? Several of these paths have a jumbo alt-doc version. Vesting in an entity? Ask which programs close in your LLC from day one — we’ll route you to the right door before you write an offer.
Straight answers.
Straight answers — the same way you'd get them on the phone.
Are alt-doc loans subprime?+
No. These are ability-to-repay loans held to modern underwriting standards — they verify income with bank statements, P&Ls, 1099s, or property cash flow instead of tax returns. Different evidence, not lower standards.
Do alt-doc loans cost more?+
They're typically priced differently than agency loans — that's the trade for documentation flexibility. Whether the trade is worth it depends on your file, and we'll show you both prices before you choose. No mystery.
How long do I need to be self-employed?+
It varies by program — some want two years, some accept less with the right file. Don't self-reject; ask.
Can I refinance from alt-doc to full doc later?+
Often, yes — plenty of clients use alt-doc to win the house now and refinance later when their returns catch up to reality. We'll map that path on day one if it applies.
Every situation is different — this is general info, not a loan commitment or offer to lend.