I'm self employed and I get paid in cash

[Anonymous]

.... Will I ever be able to get a Mortgage? I'm a self employed freelance Massage Therapist.

The good:

I have 2 years of Tax returns showing an income (after expenses) of 56,000 in 2014 and 47,000 in 2015.

I have a 713 FICO score

Zero debt

80,000 in savings and another 15,000 in a Roth IRA

The bad:

One 30 day late credit card payment in 8/2012 and another in 2/2014, both were paid in full as soon as I realized they were late.

All of my income is in cash. i've been told this is going to hurt me when it comes to loans, even though I pay taxes.

[StartingOver10]

It is a good thing you are paying taxes.  It will help.  I think you may need to go with a bank statement type loan or a portfolio loan.  Let the LO's here respond to you so you know for sure. 

[DallasLoanGuy]

tax returns will be fine.

what you tell the irs you earn(after expenses) will be what the lender will use

[Anonymous]

Does it matter that my income went down in 2015? I took a month off to travel, I didn't realize that may hurt getting a mortgage 

[Anonymous]

Tax returns will be fine. Because of the decline, it is possible that only your 2015 income will be used for qualifying. Depending on the lender, you may still be able to average both years as long as you provide an LOE (letter of explanation).

[DallasLoanGuy]

might be an issue. 

what is the explanation?

[Anonymous]

I don't really have an explanation. I took a month off to travel and unfortunatley I didn't think about how that may effect getting a loan.