Questions people actually ask.

It depends on the program. FHA and VA reach further down the scale than conventional does, and portfolio products further still. There is no single cutoff, and a score that does not work for one structure often works fine for another. Send us the number and we will tell you plainly what it opens.

A bank offers the products a bank sells. We are a broker, so a decline at one investor is a data point, not a verdict. Most of the files that reach us this way were not unqualified — they were pointed at the wrong product.

Both are survivable and both have waiting periods that depend on the chapter, the program, and whether the event was tied to a documented hardship. The clock usually starts at discharge, not at filing, which surprises people. Tell us the dates and we will tell you where you stand.

Underwriters look at your monthly debt payments against your gross monthly income — the debt-to-income ratio. Limits vary by program and by what else is strong in the file, so a ratio that fails one guideline can pass another with reserves or a co-borrower. Student loans in deferment and lease payments are the two that most often surprise people.

A mortgage inquiry has a small, temporary effect. Multiple mortgage inquiries inside a shopping window are treated as one event by the scoring models, so comparing lenders does not compound the hit. What does damage a file mid-process is opening new accounts or financing furniture before closing.

Conventional underwriting reads your tax returns, and tax returns are written to minimise taxable income. That is the whole problem: the number that makes you a good business owner makes you look like a weak borrower. We can also underwrite from deposits, which is usually a truer picture of what the business actually produces.

A program that qualifies you on business or personal deposits over 12 or 24 months instead of tax returns. It is built for self-employed borrowers, and it is why a strong business owner with an aggressive write-off strategy does not have to choose between a tax bill and a house.

That is a DSCR loan — the file qualifies on the property's income against its debt service rather than on your personal income. It is the standard structure for investors who are past the point where personal debt-to-income allows another purchase.

Common, and workable. The usual sticking point is history: most programs want to see the income established rather than brand new. There are also products that read deposits instead of returns. What matters is starting the conversation early enough that we can position the file rather than react to it.

Underwriting typically averages it over a period and looks for stability rather than a flat line, so a strong year following a weak one is not automatically disqualifying. Bring the full history rather than just the good part — averaging works in your favour more often than people expect.

A broker. We are not tied to one balance sheet, so we place your file with whichever of our investors underwrites it best. That is the entire structural difference: a bank shows you its own shelf, and we shop the shelf on your behalf.

One licensed broker owns your file from application through funding. You will have their direct number. Sixteen brokers across Austin and Houston, all individually licensed and all listed with their NMLS identifiers on our team page so you can verify any of them yourself.

On most loans our compensation comes from the lender rather than from you at closing. Which arrangement applies to your file — and exactly what it amounts to — is disclosed in writing on your Loan Estimate before you commit to anything, not discovered at the closing table. It is worth understanding that lender-paid compensation is not free money: it is reflected in the rate, which is precisely why comparing full Loan Estimates rather than headline rates is the only honest comparison. There is no fee to get pre-approved and no fee to have a conversation.

Yes, and a second read costs you nothing. Bring the Loan Estimate you were given — it is a standardised form specifically so it can be compared line by line against another one.

Run your own numbers first in the Payment Lab, which asks for no email and routes to no salesperson. When you want a real answer, apply online or call us. Either way you will be talking to a licensed person, not a lead form.