Oct 1, 2026 · 15 min · 7 segments
Getting a mortgage when you are self-employed can feel like an uphill battle. In this episode of Thinking Solo, host Ryan Derousseau, CFP®, EA, breaks down how self-employed professionals, business…
Ryan DerousseauHost
[screen scratches] All right, today we're gonna talk about a very tricky topic, which is the mortgage, how to qualify for a mortgage when you are self-employed, because it's a very tough situation because you basically have to tell a story to the mortgage lender, uh, through your broker, uh, on how to develop... how to show that you are worthy, uh, and trustworthy to take on this debt and be able to pay it back.
Now, there's a few different situations here an- in terms of, like, what could actually be going on.
One is you are on your own or the breadwinner and you are self-employed, or y- you are, uh, married and your spouse is also self-employed, or you are married and your spouse is... has a regular full-time job.
Um, but just note it's gonna look a little bit differently depending on, you know, your family dynamic, but also, uh, you know, you gotta realize that this is for entertainment purposes, this is for informational purposes.
This is not meant to be actual advice, and so really speaking to your own broker, your own mortgage lender, and own bank, as well as a advisor, will be really important in this process.
when, um, banks are considering a loan is what they're looking at from the self-employee individual, and that's typically about two years.
So if you are, you know, a year and a half into starting your business, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to obtain a mortgage in that case because you haven't had a timeframe where they can really trust the income from the business.
What they instead do is take those two years, average it together to figure out sort of what, uh, is a typical year for you.
Like, if you just started a year and a half ago and the first half year was really tough, and the second year has been amazing, well, that's not really indicative of what's gonna happen next year because the tough year was just, you were just starting out, right? Uh, yet the bank doesn't care.
That's how they're gonna sort of operate it, and so you need to kind of be able to explain what's going on and also show future revenues, especially if they are secure revenues, in order to, uh, uh, s- secure a loan.
Um, the other thing you can do if you are married and they have been working self-employed for a lot longer than you, or they work in, um, you know, like a W2 job and the house that you are buying is well within your financial situation, you can just use your spouse's income on the, uh, qualif- or on the, uh, the loan application.
You can still be on the loan, but that helps, um, reduce the overall complexity from the bank's perspective 'cause the banks are not built to understand or take on the risk of self-employment.
And so they are a lot less lenient, and so that's one way around it if you have that ability to do so.
[screen scratches] All right, today we're gonna talk about a very tricky topic, which is the mortgage, how to qualify for a mortgage when you are self-employed, because it's a very tough situation because you basically have to tell a story to the mortgage lender, uh, through your broker, uh, on how to develop... how to show that you are worthy, uh, and trustworthy to take on this debt and be able to pay it back.
Now, there's a few different situations here an- in terms of, like, what could actually be going on.
One is you are on your own or the breadwinner and you are self-employed, or y- you are, uh, married and your spouse is also self-employed, or you are married and your spouse is... has a regular full-time job.
Um, but just note it's gonna look a little bit differently depending on, you know, your family dynamic, but also, uh, you know, you gotta realize that this is for entertainment purposes, this is for informational purposes.
This is not meant to be actual advice, and so really speaking to your own broker, your own mortgage lender, and own bank, as well as a advisor, will be really important in this process.
when, um, banks are considering a loan is what they're looking at from the self-employee individual, and that's typically about two years.
So if you are, you know, a year and a half into starting your business, it's gonna be a lot more difficult to obtain a mortgage in that case because you haven't had a timeframe where they can really trust the income from the business.
What they instead do is take those two years, average it together to figure out sort of what, uh, is a typical year for you.
Like, if you just started a year and a half ago and the first half year was really tough, and the second year has been amazing, well, that's not really indicative of what's gonna happen next year because the tough year was just, you were just starting out, right? Uh, yet the bank doesn't care.
That's how they're gonna sort of operate it, and so you need to kind of be able to explain what's going on and also show future revenues, especially if they are secure revenues, in order to, uh, uh, s- secure a loan.
Um, the other thing you can do if you are married and they have been working self-employed for a lot longer than you, or they work in, um, you know, like a W2 job and the house that you are buying is well within your financial situation, you can just use your spouse's income on the, uh, qualif- or on the, uh, the loan application.
You can still be on the loan, but that helps, um, reduce the overall complexity from the bank's perspective 'cause the banks are not built to understand or take on the risk of self-employment.
And so they are a lot less lenient, and so that's one way around it if you have that ability to do so.
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