Editorial standards

Written for people who work for themselves

Sole proprietors, 1099 contractors and freelancers, small-business owners, gig workers, creators and owner-operators buying or refinancing a home to live in. We write the way one business owner talks to another: plain words and real numbers, no bank language.

Rules from primary sources

How income is reported and counted comes from the people who write and enforce the rules:

• The IRS, for how self-employment income and write-offs are reported
• Fannie Mae’s Selling Guide, for how conventional loans treat self-employed borrowers
• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), for your rights as a borrower and plain-language definitions

Each guide links the source where it uses it, so you can check the rule yourself.

One borrower, every line shown

Each guide follows one made-up borrower through the math a lender does, step by step, in a table you can check line by line. Their figures are labeled as assumed, and they’re never a quote or an offer.

How the figures are checked

Every number in a worked example is worked out from the borrower’s stated figures, never guessed. We check every figure and fact before a licensed loan officer reads the guide.

Reviewed by a licensed loan officer

Every guide is read and approved by a licensed loan officer before it’s published. The “Reviewed by” card at the end of each guide shows the reviewer’s name, title, NMLS license number and the review date. You can check a loan officer’s license on NMLS Consumer Access. The “Updated” date under each headline shows when the guide last changed.

What we never publish

• Interest rates, APRs or monthly payments
• Promises that you’ll be approved, or odds of approval
• “Best lender” rankings

Our calculators stop at the income side of the math. Every result is a planning estimate, not a quote or an offer.

Want to know more about who this is for? Read the about page or run your own numbers.