Krissi Ebbens, Mortgage Broker
Ebbens & Co Mortgage Group powered by Xpert Home Lending
Krissi NMLS 2252174 | Xpert Home Lending NMLS 2179191
Bring the question you actually have: a purchase, a refinance, a tax return that does not match the business, or a lender who already said no. I will tell you whether alternative income documentation is worth exploring. A conversation is not an approval, a rate, or an income calculation.
Yes. Plenty of self-employed borrowers in Texas get a mortgage. Owning the business, contracting, or working for yourself is not a disqualifier. The real question is which documents show income a lender can use.
If your tax returns support the payment, a traditional loan may be the simple path, and that is where I start. If the returns and the business cash flow tell two different stories, we look at bank statement loans and other alternative-documentation programs. Guidelines vary by lender and by the borrower in front of me. Nothing on this page is a promise that a particular file will be approved.
What I need to know first
How you get paid, and which account receives it.
How long you have been self-employed, even if it is an estimate.
Whether this is a purchase or a refinance, and where the property is.
Whether a lender already turned the file down, and what they said the reason was.
One bank’s worksheet is one bank’s worksheet. I compare programs across wholesale lenders. Call before you talk yourself out of buying or refinancing because you do not have a traditional paycheck.
That is the sentence I hear most from business owners, and it is a fair reason to look further. Legitimate deductions can make traditional qualifying income look very different from the cash moving through the business. Mileage, equipment, a home office, retirement contributions, depreciation, and ordinary operating costs can all reduce taxable income even when deposits are steady.
A conventional underwriter generally has to use the return. When that number and the deposits do not match, an alternative-documentation program may be worth exploring. It is not a way to hide income, and it is not a way to ignore a return that a program asks for. It is a different method of reading a real business. Whether it fits depends on the lender, the deposits, the property, and the rest of the file. I will not calculate qualifying income from a website, and I will not promise that a write-off heavy return still qualifies.
A bank statement mortgage is a loan that can use bank deposits, instead of taxable income on a return, as the main way to look at what a self-employed borrower earns. It is a common fit for business owners whose write-offs are real and whose accounts show the revenue those write-offs came from.
It is a Non-QM mortgage, which means it sits outside the standard qualified-mortgage rules used for many conventional loans. Each wholesale lender writes its own guidelines. One program’s reading of your statements is not the next program’s reading. That is why comparing lenders matters more here than it does on a plain conventional file.
People still hear “bank statement” and picture a loan where nobody looks at anything. That is not what this is. Documentation and underwriting are still required. The method used to evaluate income is simply different from a traditional mortgage.
You should expect to show who you are, that the business exists, where the deposits came from, and how you will cover the cash due at closing. The home is still reviewed. If a deposit cannot be explained, it may not count. If the file misses that lender’s guidelines, calling it a bank statement loan does not approve it.
It is also not a stated-income loan. You do not declare a number and move on. The money has to be in the account, and the underwriter decides what belongs in the average.
Identity and the business itself.
The bank statements the program asks for.
A credit review.
Assets for the down payment and closing costs, when those are required.
An appraisal or other property review, title, and insurance.
The exact list changes with the lender. I will tell you the list for the program we are actually comparing, not a generic pile.
Here is the shape of a file for a Texas business owner. Your situation still has to pass a lender’s review. Nothing below is a commitment to lend, and bank statement guidelines vary by lender and borrower.
On many bank statement programs, yes — the income figure can come from eligible deposits rather than from the adjusted income on your return. “Can” is the honest word. It depends on the lender, how long the deposits have been consistent, what kind of account they sit in, and whether the rest of the file fits that program.
Using statements instead of returns does not mean the returns are irrelevant forever. Some programs still want to know that you filed. Some traditional programs, if we end up there, will use the returns and will not substitute deposits. I will tell you which document the program in front of us actually uses. I will not promise that statements replace returns on your file, and I will not quote the income number those statements might produce.
The business has a track record of deposits, the write-offs on the return are ordinary, and a traditional calculation would ignore cash you can see in the account. That is the file I like to compare across wholesale lenders.
If taxable income already supports the payment, a conventional or government loan may cost less complication. Bank statements are a tool for a mismatch. They are not a trophy for being self-employed.
Where the money lands matters as much as the fact that it landed. A sole proprietor who deposits client checks into a personal account is a different file from an LLC that keeps every dollar in the company account. Lenders do not always treat those two stacks the same way.
Personal statements
Personal statements are often the right stack when business income is deposited to an account in your name. That is common for contractors, consultants, agents, and other sole proprietors. The review still has to separate a client payment from a transfer, a gift, or a tax refund sitting in the same account.
Business statements
Business statements are often the right stack when customers pay the company and the money stays there. Because that account also pays expenses, a lender may treat the deposits differently than a personal account that mostly receives draws. Ownership of the account has to match the person applying.
Some programs let you use personal statements or business statements, and some have a path for both. They are not always added together. Commingled accounts are workable more often than people fear, and they are also where deposits get excluded. Tell me which account you primarily use. Do not send the account number in the form on this page.
There is a method, and it is not a single math problem I can do from a phone call. In general, a lender looks at eligible deposits over the months that program requires, removes what is not income, and then applies that lender’s expense treatment. Two wholesale lenders can start with the same statements and finish with two different qualifying-income figures.
I will not publish an expense percentage or a sample calculation. Those numbers are guideline items, and they change. If you want a real reading, send a note or call. I will compare the programs that fit the business, and I still will not call that reading an approval.
“May” is doing real work in that question. A deposit counts only when the program treats it as income and the file can support that treatment. The lists below are the patterns I see. They are not a guarantee that your deposits will be included or excluded.
A pattern of overdrafts is a separate question from income. Some lenders care about it, and I would rather know about it at the start. You do not need to list account numbers to tell me that.
A common request is 12 or 24 months of consecutive statements from the account that receives the income. Some programs ask for a different window. The count depends on the lender and the file, so I will not treat one number as a rule for every Texas borrower.
Consecutive matters. A gap, a switched bank, or a brand-new account can change what a lender will accept, even when the business itself is established. Personal and business accounts are counted on that program’s terms. They are not automatically interchangeable, and a longer stack is not automatically better if the extra months are transfers.
Bring what you have to the first conversation. Do not start ordering years of paper, and do not upload statements into the form on this page. If a program needs a specific set of months, I will ask for those months.
Missing pages in the middle of a month.
An account that was opened halfway through the period.
Large deposits with no explanation.
Income split across accounts the program is not reviewing.
None of those is an automatic decline. They are reasons to talk before you assume the file is stuck.
I do not treat a bank statement loan as an upgrade. I treat it as a different way to document income. If a conventional mortgage fits, that is often the first place we stay. If the return cannot support the payment and the deposits can, then we compare Non-QM options.
I will not tell you which one is cheaper, faster, or easier. Pricing and documentation depend on the program and the file. The useful comparison happens after I know the business and the house.
Non-QM means non-qualified mortgage. These loans sit outside the qualified-mortgage rules that govern many conventional loans sold to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. A bank statement loan is one kind of Non-QM mortgage. Others include some investor loans, some asset-based loans, and other alternative income documentation programs.
Non-QM does not mean no rules. It means the rules belong to the lender, and they differ from FHA, VA, USDA, and conventional guidelines. Credit, reserves, property type, and the way income is documented are all part of that difference. I shop those guidelines across wholesale lenders instead of relying on a single bank. I will not quote an interest rate, a down payment, or a credit-score target on this page. Those items are file-specific, and they are not a promise.
A bank statement loan is not the only door. Self-employed mortgage loans in Texas can also be ordinary full-documentation loans, or other Non-QM programs, depending on what the paper shows. I would rather match the document to the business than start with a product name.
Sometimes. Self-employed borrowers buy rentals, and some bank statement programs allow an investment property as well as a primary home. Occupancy is not a detail. It changes the guidelines, and a lender who will do a primary residence may look at a rental differently, or not at all.
Another question investors ask about is a DSCR loan. That kind of Non-QM mortgage looks at whether the property’s expected rent can cover the payment, rather than at personal tax returns. It is not a bank statement loan, and it is not available for every property or every borrower. Reserves, the lease or rent schedule, and the condition of the property all sit in that review.
I will not tell you from this page that an investment purchase will be approved. Tell me whether you will live in the house. If the answer is no, we compare the programs that actually allow that occupancy.