Let’s get one thing out of the way before anything else gets said: running a business is a lot of hard work, and you should be rewarded for that hard work. You should be given a chance to really get things off the ground. Taking a risk and running your own company can be stressful, but plenty of people find it worthwhile. Make sure that you’re not giving up your chance to stand in the sunshine.
Owning a house is an exciting experience, and self employed people don’t have to sit on the sidelines. Here’s how to get things going.
The biggest thing that you can do to make your dream come true would be to get an independent broker. This is someone who doesn’t just represent one mortgage lender, but many different lenders. They can help you actually get the mortgage you need to buy the house you want.
These mortgages are actually self-certified, which means that you disclose how much you make.
As the economy has weakened, many brokers are looking for you to verify the income that you stated on paper is really what you’re making. In order to stand out from other applicants, you need to make sure that you have an independent way to verify your income. Your tax returns over a period of 3 to 5 years will help give the broker a general idea of how much your business is making, as well as how much money you have at your disposal.
If you can provide this information along with another sheet that shows the growth of your company and the projected income, it will go even farther in showing that you’re able to afford the house. This is something that even traditionally employed people need to learn: you have to be able to make all of the payments for decades to come, not just the next year. People make the mistake of getting caught in the excitement of buying a home, when they should make sure that they have the means to truly take care of it.
A quality mortgage advisor is a licensed professional that has handled more than one self employed case. FSA qualification is an absolute must for the cream of the crop, so make sure that you do your own due diligence carefully. Specialist lenders are going to want a little more information than general mortgage lenders, but this isn’t a bad thing at all.