Telling us about your income just got a lot easier
For a long time, if your income didn't fit a simple payslip — because you're self-employed, retired, or draw from a pension — the application could leave you stuck on a screen with no clear path forward. You might have picked the wrong income type by mistake and had no way to go back, or found yourself staring at a form you couldn't complete. This week, we opened up new paths for self-employed applicants, made it easier to upload retirement income documents, and added an escape route if you ever land on the wrong form.
If you run your own business, you can now enter your income details directly — business name, ownership, recent earnings — instead of being put on a waiting list. Your application keeps moving.
If you accidentally started filling in the wrong income form, there's now a clearly visible link to go back and choose a different source — no need to restart or call for help.
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Retirement income documents can now be uploaded directly If your income comes from Social Security, a pension, a 401(k), or an annuity, you can now upload your award letters and statements right inside the application. Previously, retirement income routed you to an unsupported waitlist banner — now it's a first-class option alongside employment income.
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Returning to the app drops you in the right place If you left partway through a stated income form and came back later, the app could sometimes put you back on a form that didn't match the income type you'd chosen. Now it detects that mismatch and sends you back to the income picker automatically, so you're never stranded.
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Cleaner loading screen while your income data is checked The message that appeared while your income was being verified used to cycle through a longer status update. It's now simplified to a single, calm message — less noise while you wait.
Staying in control of your application, even when you disagree
When a member of your loan team asks you to revise something you've already submitted — like a letter of explanation — it used to be all or nothing. If you believed your original answer was correct, you had no way to say so inside the app. You'd either rewrite something you stood behind, or feel stuck. This week we added a way for you to push back, in your own words, without abandoning the process.
If your loan team asks you to update a response you believe is already correct, you can now send your original answer back with a written note explaining your reasoning. Your file keeps moving while the disagreement is reviewed.
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Your rebuttal goes directly into your file When you choose to submit as-is, your written explanation is captured alongside your original response. Nothing gets lost, and your loan team sees exactly what you said and why.
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Links to your application now work reliably If someone sent you a direct link to your application and you weren't logged in, it used to drop you at the very beginning of the flow — as if you were a new customer. Now it takes you to the right place, and asks you to log in first if needed.
A more polished, consistent experience across the app
Small visual inconsistencies and rough edges add up. When one part of the app looks slightly different from another — different spacing, mismatched cards, placeholders where real content should be — it can feel like something's wrong, even when nothing is. This week we cleaned up several of those moments, so the app looks and behaves the way you'd expect throughout.
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Your loan estimate page looks consistent end to end The cards showing your current payment and new monthly payment on the loan estimate page had a slightly different look from the rest of the page — different spacing, hand-built layout that didn't match the design. They've been rebuilt to match everything around them, so the page feels like one coherent document.
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Closing date form only shows when it's actually available The closing schedule used to show a date-and-time form even when key steps in your loan — like rate lock or document delivery — hadn't happened yet. None of those fields could actually be submitted. Now the form is replaced with a clear message explaining that your closing date isn't available yet, and the full form only appears when you're ready to use it.
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Each step of the application has its own loading message Different screens now show a loading message that's specific to what's happening — calculating your savings, loading your qualification options, checking reserve requirements — instead of a generic spinner. It's a small thing, but it means you always know what the app is doing.
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Gift letter experience matches the rest of Athena If someone is gifting you money toward your down payment, they fill out a gift letter through a separate link. That page now has the same visual design as the rest of Athena, so the experience feels consistent for your donor and more trustworthy overall.
Behind the Scenes
Technical improvements you won't see, but should trust.