Self-employed consumers looking to access the equity that has built up in their homes - whether for investment purposes, to access capital for their small business enterprise, or merely to consolidate debts at a lower interest rate- quickly run into the sometime perplexing requirements to qualify for a stated income home equity loan. Unlike borrowers who are otherwise employed and can provide lenders with pay slips that readily set out their income stream, small business owners, entrepeneurs and commission-based salespersons face a slightly more daunting process in qualifying for a second mortgage or secured line of credit that will free up their home equity.
Stated income home equity loans are structured to assist self-employed consumers and business owners overcome the difficulty of meeting the regular mortgage approval criteria that banks, financial institutions and mortgage lenders look to. Perhaps the key for the self-employed individual seeking to qualify for a home equity loan or secured line of credit process is the self-employed business persons debt service ratio.
Whereas consumers with a fixed employment income have relatively few business write-offs, the self-employed have a myriad of legitimate tax write-offs that affect their income stream. Lenders accordingly want to look at the revenue stream that the self-employed have to service their existing debt load. Mortgage lenders each have a set debt service ratio - a threshold that the ratio of monthly income to expenses (including mortgage and loan payments) - which cannot be exceeded in order to qualify for a stated income loan. Proving one's income stream and qualifiying a stated income mortgage under a lender's DSR is a more complicated process than qualifying for a regular mortgage but need not be prohibitive.