Is this weird ?

[jennaxx]

We have been talking to some mortgage lenders...just talking. Today one LO told me that because we have self-employment income that there would be some additional steps we would have to complete. One is a letter from our accountant (which is H&R Block) and then a letter from one of our regular customers. I thought the letter from a customer is a little weird. We sell only on the internet and I would not feel comfortable asking one of our customers to write some sort of letter for me. What could they possible want them to write about ? Has anyone ever heard of this ?

I suppose I could have a family member from another state write something but then are they going to ask me to show them sales from that person ? I am not about being dishonest but I thought that was sort of strange.

[JM-AM]

Use a different LO or Broker...

The more and more you hear about people having issues because of self employment income. You need a competent LO or Broker.

Now you may find some one with more knowledge in the same office, but personally I would just move on to another LO or Broker.

[MovingForward_2012]

I don't know much about (or nothing actually) about the mortgage process for self employed applicants. But, I wanted to drop in just to let you know that you will make it through this. Don't panic.

Do you have a reviews section setup on your website where you could write a letter including excerpts of reviews customers have made and then do a screen print of the actual reviews and attach it to the letter?

As far as the letter from your accountant, do you do your own taxes online through the HR Block website? If you do your own taxes be sure to tell the LO that and ask him what specific information should be stated in the letter.

My LO was very helpful with coming up with words I should say in my LOEs. Some of them didn't even cross my mind! I hope yours is the same way. :-)

[jennaxx]

Right now we have 12,150 + positive feedbacks/comments. So I think we are OK there.

Do you think this is a tactic to get us to go conventional ? We have talked to several lenders and all of them push towards conventional.

This particular LO was one we had liked. He made mentions of some programs that he thought we might qualify for, let us know when to expect responses from him (and kept those times), etc. and seemed very helpful. <sigh> He said those requests were what transpired when he talked to someone in UW.

I do not use H&R Block online. I have accordian files where I store each months receipts, statements, etc. and then I fill out those green accounting sheets, total everything up and then take them to H&R Block. <shrugs>

[JM-AM]

I guess my question now is why arent you going conventional if you qualify?

Since you arent going conventional what are you wanting to do? VA? FHA? USDA?

[Anonymous]

It does sound weird. I am self employed. I had to get a letter from our CPA as well as the accountant who handled our book keeping before I took over. They only wanted additional verification of the business's age.

A letter from a customer seems very strange. Are you a sole proprietorship? That may be why they are asking, but as others have said this should not be necessary. I would shop around a bit.

If you are really wanting to use this lender You can try printing out a few pages of testimonials. Better yet, print all 12k out and drop them on his desk. =)

Bet that would put the issue to bed!

Don't let them get you down. It is a harder route when you're self employed, but you'll come out the other side feeling even better about your self employment.

[jennaxx]

My hubby has such a "thin" CR that they wouldn't even give him a score. So we thought we would go the FHA route because we could do that based on my income and score alone. This is why we were going to go FHA.

I love the idea of dropping all those feedbacks on someones desk. Then again- The $200 in ink that would cost to print all those makes me cringe..LOL.

[Anonymous]

The more I think about it the harder it is for me to understand their request for a letter. Maybe show them multiple feedback testimonials from the same person to indicate repeat business?

[Mike_B03]

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@Anonymous wrote:
It does sound weird. I am self employed. I had to get a letter from our CPA as well as the accountant who handled our book keeping before I took over. They only wanted additional verification of the business's age.

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We had to provide the same letter from the CPA and it wasn't a problem, but it made me wonder, what happens to businesses that do their own accounting? 

[Anonymous]

I guess it's pretty rare. Maybe additional tax returns to look at self employment income further back?