SR Cooper Publishing

Independent imprint · Newport Beach, California

Books about how homebuying actually works.

Most mortgage advice is written either for the industry or for nobody in particular. These books are written for the person signing the paperwork — with the real rules, the real math, and the parts nobody explains until it's too late to change them.

Written by Stuart Cooper. Thirty years in mortgage lending, condensed into two books.

Cover of The Self-Employed Homebuyer's Blueprint

The books

Two guides, written for two different people at two different moments.

Cover of The Self-Employed Homebuyer's Blueprint
Coming soon

The Self-Employed Homebuyer's Blueprint

How to Document Your Income, Avoid Mortgage Declines, and Qualify with Confidence

If you're self-employed, the hard part isn't earning the money — it's proving it. This book walks through how lenders actually calculate self-employment income, entity by entity: sole proprietor, LLC, partnership, S-corp, C-corp, rental. It covers what gets added back, what gets subtracted, why a good tax return can be a bad loan file, and how to plan the two years before you buy instead of finding out afterward.

  • 26 chapters
  • Paperback & Kindle
  • 12 companion worksheets
Cover of Your First California Home
In progress

Your First California Home

A First-Time Buyer's Guide from Prequalification to Closing

A step-by-step guide through a California purchase, in the order it actually happens. Prequalification, credit, down payment sources, loan programs, offers and contingencies, inspections, appraisal, escrow, closing, and the first year of ownership — including the California-specific parts that surprise people: supplemental tax bills, impound schedules, how title is held, and the homeowners' exemption.

  • 14 chapters
  • California-specific
  • Worksheets & glossary

Reader worksheets

Free, fillable companions to The Self-Employed Homebuyer's Blueprint. Type directly into them, save, and bring them to whoever is handling your loan. Nothing is collected and nothing is sent anywhere.

  1. 01Pre-Flight ChecklistDownload PDF
  2. 02Five Nonnegotiables Readiness CheckDownload PDF
  3. 03Debt-to-Income WorksheetDownload PDF
  4. 04Minimum Income TargetDownload PDF
  5. 05Qualifying Income by Entity TypeDownload PDF
  6. 06The Ultimate Document ChecklistDownload PDF
  7. 07Document Gather SheetDownload PDF
  8. 08Final Readiness CheckDownload PDF
  9. 09Decline Risk Self-AuditDownload PDF
  10. 10Cash to Close & ReservesDownload PDF
  11. 11Large Deposit LogDownload PDF
  12. 12Rate & Points BreakevenDownload PDF

All twelve, in one file

The complete 24-page packet, ready to print or fill in.

Download the packet

The figures in these worksheets are illustrative and educational. They aren't a loan approval, a quote, or a promise of terms — confirm your own numbers with the person handling your loan.

About the author

Stuart Cooper has spent more than thirty years in mortgage lending, starting in 1992 while finishing a finance degree at USC. Early in his career he worked alongside analytical engineers, which shaped how he approaches a loan file — comparing structures, testing assumptions, and looking past the application to what the numbers are actually saying.

He has worked on files ranging from first-time FHA buyers to twenty-million-dollar purchases, and on borrowers whose income arrives through multiple businesses, partnerships, and properties. He writes because the same misunderstandings cost the same people the same houses, year after year, and almost all of them are fixable months before anyone starts looking at listings.

He lives in Newport Beach with his wife and two children.