Do you consider applicant's self-employment income if business is new?

[Amie D.]

A young married couple wants to rent a single family home I own in a low- to middle- income neighborhood. They check decently (good references from present/past landlord, no criminal history/bad debts/delinquent accounts, credit scores in low to mid 600's).

The husband just started his own business in September, so I don't have tax forms or 1099's though he did provide some invoices, paid checks and bank statements (it was very disorganized though and so I couldn't verify he was making 100% of what he claimed from it). They have other jobs outside of his self-employment that I could verify that would qualify them with 3x the rent. The problem is that he has a large amount of debt which, if I don't consider his self-employment income due to the newness of the business and lack of total verification on it, brings their back-end debt to income ratio very high (65%). They also only have an average balance of just a few hundred dollars in their savings account, so there is not much to fall back on in case something goes south with the business or otherwise.

Would you consider the self-employment portion of their income even though the business is new? Or disqualify them based on debt to income ratio?

[Steven Hamilton II]

Amie D.

I have to see at least two years of tax returns before I will even consider it.