Scenario
A self-employed borrower wants an investment property. Filed income is close, reserves are split between personal and business accounts, and the borrower already owns multiple financed properties.
Season 1 curriculum
Paid trackDeal Desk14 min · Jim
Lesson 8 · Deal dissection + worksheet
Self-Employed Investor With Reserve Wobble
Separate income support, reserve depth, and investor exposure before picking a product.
Learner Outcome
The member can identify which questions and possible paths deserve review under company, investor, agency, and licensing rules.
Skool summary
A live-style teardown of the self-employed investor file: income trend, reserve quality, property count, and when to stop forcing agency.
1
The three risks
This deal is not one problem. It is income support, reserve depth, and investor exposure moving at once. If you treat it as an income problem only, you will miss the reserve issue. If you treat it as an investor problem only, you may miss that the file could still work with a cleaner income package.
2
Document order
Ask first for filed returns, year-to-date P&L, business bank statements, personal asset statements, property schedule, mortgage statements for financed properties, and target close date. Do not name the product until you know whether income and reserves are actually usable.
3
Partner update
Say: 'I see a possible path, but it depends on whether reserves are personal and seasoned or sitting inside the business. That answer changes whether we keep working the agency route or pivot before we burn time.'
Homework
- Fill out the triage sheet for the sample file.
- Write a Realtor-safe update that does not promise approval.