Mortgage Financing for Self-Employed Contractors in Shreveport, Louisiana

Scan the guides linked below, find the one that matches how you get paid and how your taxes are filed, and go there — that guide will tell you exactly what documents to pull and what to expect from lenders in 2026.

What to know before you pick a path

Most Shreveport contractors who struggle to get approved aren't unqualified — they're underdocumented in the way traditional lenders expect. A W-2 employee shows a lender one clean number. You show Schedule C losses, depreciation, vehicle write-offs, and subcontractor payments that shrink taxable income to a fraction of what you actually deposit. The loan products below exist specifically to work around that gap.

The four loan types self-employed construction professionals use most:

• Bank statement mortgage — Lenders average 12 months of deposits (personal or business account) to derive qualifying income. No tax returns required. Rates run 1–2 percentage points above conventional, and you'll need 6–12 months of liquid reserves post-closing. This is the most widely used path for contractors with aggressive write-offs. The approach is nearly identical to what freelancers use to qualify with irregular 1099 income, just applied to construction cash flow.

• 1099 income mortgage / stated-income non-QM — Some lenders will use two years of 1099s averaged, without requiring a full Schedule C analysis. Works well if your gross 1099s are strong but your net after expenses is weak. Rates and reserve requirements are similar to bank statement products.

• FHA loan — Backed by the federal government, FHA requires two years of self-employment history documented by tax returns, and lenders will use your net income after business deductions. If your write-offs are modest and your net income still supports the payment, FHA's lower down-payment floor (3.5% at 580+ FICO) can work. If your write-offs are heavy, you'll likely come up short on qualifying income. Minimum FICO for most lenders is 620–640.

• Conventional loan with two-year self-employment average — Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guidelines allow self-employed income, but both years of returns are averaged and lenders add back depreciation and depletion. If Year 1 was weak, it drags down Year 2. This path rewards consistency more than high recent income.

What separates these options in concrete terms:

Product	Income doc	Min FICO	Down payment	Rate vs. conventional
Bank statement	12 mo. deposits	620–640	10–25%	+1–2 pts
1099 / non-QM	2 yr 1099s	620–640	10–20%	+1–2 pts
FHA	2 yr tax returns	580–620	3.5%	Near par
Conventional	2 yr tax returns	620–640	3–20%	Baseline

What trips people up:

Debt-to-income ceiling. Even on non-QM loans, your total monthly obligations — including the new mortgage — generally can't exceed 43–50% of qualifying gross monthly income. The income figure lenders use is the one derived from your documentation method, not what you feel you earn.

Cash reserves. Non-QM lenders typically require 6–12 months of mortgage payments sitting in a liquid account after closing — not as a down payment, but as a reserve. Plan for this before you start the application process.

Closing timeline. Non-QM loans close in roughly 30–45 days — comparable to conventional, but some portfolio lenders move faster or slower depending on their pipeline. Get pre-approval before you make an offer.

Credit score still matters. A 700+ score gets you the best tier pricing on any product. Scores in the 640–679 range add 2–4 points to your rate. Given that about one in five credit reports contain errors, pull all three bureaus before you apply and dispute anything inaccurate.

Contractors in similar markets — including those working through the non-QM lender landscape in Albuquerque, NM and Alexandria, VA — face the same documentation challenges. The loan types above apply nationwide; Shreveport-specific differences come down to local home prices, property tax rates, and which lenders are actively competing in the north Louisiana market.

If you're early in the planning process and sorting out how your tax strategy affects what income a lender will count, solid quarterly payment planning can help you structure cash flow in a way that strengthens your application rather than undermining it — heavy prepayments that reduce estimated taxable income are a double-edged sword when you're also trying to show qualifying income to a lender.

Select the guide below that matches your documentation situation and income structure.