What documents will I need?

• Photo ID

  Driver's licence or passport. It has to be current — an expired licence stops the file.

• Two months of bank statements, every account

  All pages, including the ones that say 'this page intentionally left blank'. Underwriters count pages, and a statement missing page 4 of 6 comes straight back.

• Thirty days of pay stubs

  The most recent ones. If you are paid twice a month that is two; weekly, it is four.

• Two years of W-2s

  From every employer, not only the current one.

• Two years of tax returns

  All pages and all schedules. Not the one-page summary your software prints.

Screenshots of a banking app are not statements. Download the actual PDF from your bank — the one with your name, the account number and the full date range on it.

This is where most self-employed buyers get caught out, and it is worth understanding before you file your next return rather than after.

• Two years of personal and business tax returns

  Complete, with every schedule attached.

• A year-to-date profit and loss statement

  It does not have to be from an accountant, but it has to be consistent with what you filed.

• Business licence, or proof the business exists

  A CPA letter usually works too.

• 1099s for the last two years

  From each payer.

The thing nobody tells you: a lender reads what is left after your write-offs, not what your business brought in. Deductions that save you money in April are the same deductions that shrink the income a lender can count. Neither answer is wrong — but knowing that before you file is worth a conversation.

• A gift letter, if any money is a gift

  It needs to say who gave it, that it is a gift and not a loan, and it has to be traceable in the account it landed in.

• Divorce decree or separation agreement

  It settles who owes what, and whether support counts as income or as a debt.

• Bankruptcy discharge papers

  The discharge itself, not just the filing. The date on it matters.

• Green card or work authorisation

  If you are not a US citizen.

• Landlord contact details

  Twelve months of on-time rent can help a thin credit file.

These sound small. They are the difference between a file that closes on time and one that does not.

• Start saving statements now, before you are under contract. Two months of paperwork takes an afternoon to gather calmly and a fortnight to chase in a panic.
• Once you are in a loan, talk to me before you move money between accounts, open anything new on credit, or change jobs. Any of the three can undo work already done — and all three are easy to work around if I know first.