It's possible that it was a "stated income" loan. With these type of loans, all that is required is for the loan officer to state on the application what your income is. He can fudge the numbers some, and as long as it makes sense, the underwriters will accept it. They are able to do this because stated income loans usually require you to have other things to make up for their not actually knowing your real income. They will ask for you to have a higher credit score, possibly a higher down payment, stable work history, etc. It seems fishy, but it's actually OK if they put you into that type of a loan program. I used to own my own mortgage company, and we did a lot of stated income loans back before the big collapse in 2008.

One thing I should say to qualify this is that I've been out of the business since 2010, so I would guess that the underwriting on stated income programs is probably more stringent than it was back in my day - if these programs are even still available. I think they are though, at least in some situations.

It's possible that it was a "stated income" loan. With these type of loans, all that is required is for the loan officer to state on the application what your income is. He can fudge the numbers some, and as long as it makes sense, the underwriters will accept it. They are able to do this because stated income loans usually require you to have other things to make up for their not actually knowing your real income. They will ask for you to have a higher credit score, possibly a higher down payment, stable work history, etc. It seems fishy, but it's actually OK if they put you into that type of a loan program.