Can you get financing if you're self-employed?

[Emily McCabe]

My husband is self-employed. We want to buy our first rental property, but I can't qualify for much more on my own, because I already own our house. When we bought our house, our lender said we couldn't use his income, so we didn't even bother putting his name on the loan/house. But it would really help if we could use even a little bit of his income so we could spend more on a rental. I don't want to buy something too cheap and dumpy... Anyone know what the usual rules are for this? Do any lenders allow it, and what are requirements for documentation etc.?

[Brie Schmidt]

@Emily McCabe - They can count it and they will use the average of the most recent two years tax returns.  So if you already filed they use the taxable income from 2015 & 2016