OnlyFans Content? Let’s get you a house.
As I was working on a file last week, I was going through the documents and had the familiar feeling that my client was a performer on certain adult platforms and perhaps didn’t feel comfortable sharing that. I get it: the work is stigmatized in some circles and the job I do leans heavily male and to a certain personality type that may not be someone you’d want to discuss that with. As you will find is typical for me if we work together, I elected to just be straightforward that I knew and did not care at all, and we got a good laugh about it, but in my time doing several loans for performers in the industry, I have learned a few tricks:
Not all mortgage investors are going to be cool with it. And that is totally fine, since I am a broker and we can just put your loan somewhere else and move it along. On to the next one. A good broker should know which of their investors will see Fenix Internet and dig into the 1099 issuer and which will move along without extra layers of investigating.
You are self employed. As a 1099 contractor, that is considered self employment in the eyes of the mortgage underwriting guidelines. My position is to advocate for my clients that it should not be treated any differently than any other self employed person, but that does mean you have the same guidelines and documentation requirements. Generally, we will need a 2 year history of self employment unless we can document prior employment in a similar field with earnings at a similar level. That is going to be less common here than, say, a plumber who used to work for a company and then went out on his own. Not impossible, and alternative loan programs exist, but it may be more challenging.
Your lifestyle can be a write off- don’t get crazy! It’s hard for any self employed person to draw the line between personal expenses paid after tax and business expenses paid by the company as part of your compensation. Keep in mind that things you write off against your business income are generally going to reduce your qualifying income unless they are considered depreciation/amortization or mileage. Our debt to income requirements are based on the assumption that you need personal income to pay your personal living expenses, and if those are all paid from the business to show a lower income, there isn’t an easy way to add back your rent/utilities/etc into the qualifying income we use for what is going to be available to pay your mortgage. (That is, unless we go with a bank statement loan, which just has a slightly higher rate)
We have to independently verify your employment- Here’s the mistake I made the first time I worked with someone in the industry. I decided if she didn’t want to bring it up, I wouldn’t either, and then three days before closing I received a call from underwriting that they can’t do the final loan approval because her business doesn’t exist anywhere online for that final proof of employment. Whoops! The options are generally going to be printing to pdf a website showing that the business is currently operational to include in the loan package, a letter from your accountant, or a recent invoice within 10 days of closing showing the business is receiving income. That last one will be your best bet, but I do advise my clients in the field to check their work schedule to make sure that’s feasible! Everyone involved in your loan is a professional who has been there before, but I do want you to have privacy in a financial transaction and beaming a photo of you currently performing with a date stamp to every person who will be processing your loan shipment is not the route I want for my people!
And no, I’m not telling you who my clients are, to the reader who is now curious and considering spamming my contact form- call me weird but I don’t even love to post closing photos of my clients because it crosses the line in my mind of their right to privacy on their financial matters. If you think I’m sending you a salacious instagram handle, as my mom would say, “you got another think coming!”
