2 years' self-employment for portfolio loans?

[Amy A.]

I was told that for mortgage lending two years of profitable self-employment is required even for portfolio loans per federal law. I thought that banks had more leeway with portfolio loans? Is this true or was she just trying to get rid of me? This is in Maine.

The mortgage would be on a single family rental property that I paid cash for last year. I put about $60K into it and have it rented for $800 per month. A government program put $10k into it. It's now worth about $80k. I wanted to cash out refinance for an infinite cash-on-cash return and use that to purchase more real estate.

My husband left his job last July to go into business for himself. It's in the same industry and he's doing really well and has several contracts, but we don't have 2 years' tax returns for this business. I thought this might be a problem, so I hurried up and refinanced our apartment buildings and purchased two more last year. It's easier for us to get a commercial loan than a residential loan!