The Quick Read: A jumbo cash-out refinance turns home equity into cash, and RSU pay counts only as vested, documented, averaged income, so your buying power is the net cash left after payoff, limited by whichever binds first: the leverage cap on the home or the loan your qualifying income supports. Restricted stock units can lift that income number, but they never lift the leverage cap.
- Only vested, delivered shares count toward income. Unvested grants generally count for nothing.
- Lenders usually average RSU income over about two years, so qualifying income can sit below last year’s pay.
- A full-doc jumbo loan underwrites you. A DSCR loan underwrites the rental’s rent against its payment.
- A DSCR cash-out on an investment property tops out around 75% LTV, with about 6 months of seasoning as the common expectation.
- Run both paths before committing. Each financed rental stacks onto your debt load on a jumbo, but not on a DSCR loan.
Here is the picture most RSU earners start with. You own a home with a lot of equity, you earn a big headline salary partly in stock, and you want a rental. The question is how much cash the equity can actually produce, and whether your stock pay helps or hurts that math. The answer depends on which loan you use to pull the equity, so start there.
DSCR Cash-Out Calculator
Run the cash-out numbers in your market
Rate source: Freddie Mac 30-yr average via FRED® — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · effective Oct 8, 2026
Prefilled with starting assumptions — enter your property’s value, balance, taxes, and insurance for a more accurate picture.
Program parameters update from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source. Taxes and insurance are editable estimates.
As of Oct 8, 2026 · General Freddie Mac market benchmark, not a Lendmire loan offer. Property value, balance, taxes, and insurance are editable estimates. Maximum loan-to-value varies by lender, program, property type, and seasoning. Not a Loan Estimate, approval, or commitment to lend. Program availability and eligibility are subject to lender guidelines, credit approval, property review, and underwriting.
Key Terms Defined
Jumbo loan: A mortgage larger than the standard conforming loan limit, which means the lender writes its own underwriting rules.
Cash-out refinance: A new loan that pays off the old one and hands you the extra equity as cash at closing.
RSU (restricted stock unit): A promise of company shares that you receive only as the grant vests.
Vested: The point at which shares become yours, delivered to your brokerage account without restrictions.
Full-doc loan: A loan sized from your verified income, assets, credit and debts, with property rent as only one input.
DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): Monthly rent divided by the property’s monthly principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any HOA dues, known together as PITIA.
LTV (loan-to-value): The loan balance as a percentage of the property’s appraised value.
Seasoning: The waiting period a lender wants after you buy a property before it will lend cash against it.
Reserves: Liquid savings a lender wants you to hold after closing, usually counted in months of PITIA.
Which Lane Fits: Your Income or the Rental’s Rent?
Your RSUs matter only if the loan underwrites you personally. A full-doc jumbo cash-out reads your pay, assets and debts. A DSCR cash-out reads the rental’s rent against its payment. Many investors with equity and stock pay can use either, and the right one depends on income quality and how many loans you already carry.
DSCR loans are designed for non-owner-occupied investment properties. Because they are business-purpose investor loans, they are reviewed differently from a standard owner-occupied mortgage.
| Your situation | Likely basis | Role of RSU pay |
|---|---|---|
| Home with equity, clean salary plus several vests on record | Full-doc jumbo | Raises qualifying income |
| RSU history short or new | DSCR or another alternative path | Little or none |
| Cashing out equity on a rental you own | DSCR | None, the rent carries the file |
| Several financed rentals already | DSCR | Not needed |
| Wage and RSU deposits only, no business income | Not bank statements | Bank-statement paths read business deposits |
The jumbo path suits a salaried borrower with clean income and modest debt. Each added financed rental then stacks onto your debt load. DSCR evaluates each property on its own, which is why investors scaling past a few doors often move to it. Lendmire’s piece Should a Scaling Investor Cash-Out Refinance to Pay Off a Rental? covers that decision in more depth.
How the Cash-Out Sizes Your Buying Power
The cash you can spend is the smaller of two limits, minus payoff and costs. One limit is a leverage cap against appraised value. The other is the loan your income can support. Whichever binds first sets the loan size, and the loan size sets the cash.
Walk it through in order:
1. Appraised value. The lender orders an appraisal on the home you are borrowing against.
2. Leverage cap. The lender applies its maximum LTV for a cash-out. On a DSCR cash-out against an investment property, most files in the network top out around 75% LTV. Full-doc jumbo caps vary by lender and loan size.
3. Income cap. On a full-doc loan, the new payment plus your other obligations is weighed against your qualifying income. This is where RSU treatment decides the answer.
4. Pick the lower. If your income supports more than the cap allows, the cap wins. If the cap allows more than your income supports, income wins.
5. Subtract payoff and costs. What remains is net cash.
6. Convert cash to a down payment. That cash then funds the rental purchase, which on most files needs 20%-25% down, subject to lender guidelines.
RSU pay moves step 3 only. A big stock-heavy income cannot raise the cap in step 2. Equity is still equity.
How Lenders Count RSU Pay
Lenders count vested shares, average the history, and discount anything unpredictable. Your grant letter’s total value is not your income. Here is how the common treatment works on a full-doc jumbo, with each lender writing its own overlays.
Vested and delivered only. Value is set at vesting and taxed as wage income then, and later price moves are capital gains or losses, as Carta’s RSU guide explains. Lenders follow that logic. Shares that have not vested may never reach you, so they generally count for nothing.
Averaged over history. Lenders typically average bonus and RSU income over about two years. If your stock pay jumped recently, the qualifying figure lags it. That surprises many earners.
Time-based versus performance-based. Time-based grants vest on a calendar and are the easier case. Performance-based grants depend on targets, so they get stricter treatment because they are less predictable.
Sell-to-cover. Employers often sell part of each vest to cover tax withholding. Lenders generally want the documented gross vest, not just the net shares that landed in your account. Carta also notes that withholding can fall short of the actual tax owed, so budget for that gap.
Documents. Expect a verification of employment showing RSU distributions, or a recent pay stub plus two years of W-2s. Add the vesting schedule, past and future, and brokerage or bank statements showing earlier deliveries. For comparison, agency-style guidelines require publicly traded stock and exclude sign-on RSUs that vest over time, as Enact’s summary of that approach lays out. Jumbo and non-QM lenders write their own versions, so treat that as a common reference point, not a rulebook for your file.
A Worked Example in Ratios
Picture two borrowers with identical homes and identical equity. Borrower A is salaried with several years of vests on record. Borrower B earns the same headline pay, but most of it is a recent grant that has vested only once.
Assume both homes appraise the same and both lenders cap cash-out leverage at the same level. On the leverage test, the two files are twins. On the income test, they split. Borrower A’s averaged RSU history lifts qualifying income, so the income cap sits above the leverage cap and leverage binds. Borrower A pulls the maximum equity.
Borrower B’s averaged history is thin, so qualifying income sits well below headline pay. The income cap binds first, and the loan comes in smaller than the equity would allow. Same equity. Smaller check.
Now run a third scenario using the DSCR lane on a rental Borrower B already owns. Assume the rent covers its monthly PITIA at roughly 1.2x. That ratio clears the 1.00 level where select programs start, so RSU history stops mattering to the income test. Leverage is capped at about 75% LTV on the cash-out, and the credit score tier sets pricing and leverage. These are modeled assumptions, not market data. Each figure is subject to lender guidelines and a complete review of property type, leverage, and credit.
One caution on that ratio. Clearing 1.00 does not mean positive cash flow. DSCR compares rent to PITIA only, and repairs, vacancy, management, utilities and capex sit outside it.
Where the Rule Breaks
Most RSU treatment bends or breaks in a handful of predictable places. These are the edge cases that change outcomes.
- Short history. With under a year or two of vesting on record, RSUs may be discounted or excluded. Some portfolio lenders accept a shorter record with strong compensating factors, such as low leverage and deep reserves.
- Private-company stock. With no public market price, most lenders cannot value the shares, so most will not count them.
- Sign-on awards. Stock granted at hire that vests over time is commonly excluded.
- Reserves. Income counted from RSUs generally cannot be double-counted as reserves. Confirm the specific program’s rule, because it varies. Also, cash you just pulled out may not count as reserves for the next loan.
- Leaving your employer. Resigning before closing or before a vest can end eligibility, since the unvested portion is usually forfeited.
- Entity ownership. Jumbo full-doc investment loans typically require individual ownership, while a DSCR loan can often be held in an LLC, subject to lender program eligibility. A HELOC generally cannot be titled in an LLC.
- Wage deposits. Bank-statement programs read business or self-employment deposits. Salary and RSU deposits generally do not read as business income.
- Property types. Manufactured homes, log homes and barndominiums are not offered through the network’s DSCR programs.
Cash-Out First or Purchase First?
Do the cash-out first if you want to buy with cash. Buy first only if you can fund the purchase another way. The order matters because the new payment from the cash-out loan becomes part of your debt load when the next lender reviews you.
| Factor | Cash-out first | Purchase first |
|---|---|---|
| Down payment source | Net cash in hand | Savings or other funds |
| Debt load at purchase | Higher, new payment counted | Lower |
| Vest timing | A vest before closing helps documentation | Same |
| Seasoning | Home must be owned long enough | Not an issue |
| Risk | Payment shock if the stock falls | Thin liquidity |
Lendmire’s article How to Sequence a Jumbo Cash-Out and Second Home With RSU Pay walks through that order when the next purchase is a vacation or second residence.
If the equity sits in a rental you already own, the DSCR cash-out has its own tests. Across most of the network, about 6 months of seasoning measured from title recording is the common expectation, and leverage tops out near 75% LTV on a cash-out against a standard rental. Credit tiers typically run 620, 660, 680 and 700, with 620 the floor in parts of the network and the strongest leverage tiers around 700 and up. Reserves are commonly about 6 months of PITIA, stepping up to about 9 months above $1,500,000. Loan sizes run up to $3,000,000 on standard programs. Coverage of 1.00 is where select programs start, and a separate select-lender path takes coverage below 1.00 with leverage and terms adjusted. Short-term rental collateral is capped lower, at 70% on a cash-out. Every file is underwritten individually, so treat these as typical ranges, not commitments.
Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide covers those parameters in full.
Why the Paperwork Is Strict
You cannot talk your way into RSU income. The federal ability-to-repay rule behind home-loan underwriting requires lenders to verify the income or assets they rely on using third-party records, per the CFPB’s Regulation Z text. A lender need verify only what it actually relies on, so it can leave out RSU income it does not need. The rule does not hand lenders an RSU formula. Each lender’s guidelines do that.
Whether that rule governs a business-purpose investor loan depends on how the loan is classified, so ask your lender how it treats your file. For the owner-occupied home you are borrowing against, borrower verification is the norm.
Non-QM does not mean undocumented. A law-firm review of the non-QM question notes that non-QM lenders must still consider and verify the income or assets they rely on. An alternative loan is reviewed on documented income under the applicable program, subject to lender guidelines.
Practical Steps Before You Apply
1. Pull your vesting schedule and every brokerage statement showing past deliveries.
2. Count how many vests are on record. Time the refinance after enough are documented.
3. Do not count on future grants.
4. Price both a full-doc jumbo and a DSCR cash-out before committing.
5. Hold reserves separately from any cash you plan to deploy.
6. Tax treatment can depend on how the funds are used and how the property is held; investors should keep clear records and speak with a qualified tax professional before relying on any deduction.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do unvested RSUs help me qualify?
Generally no. Most lenders count only shares that have vested and been delivered to you. A few may consider a portion where grants renew on a regular schedule, but that is lender-specific and not something to plan around.
Do I have to sell my shares to use the equity?
No. A cash-out draws on home equity, not your stock. Selling shares is a separate decision with tax-timing consequences, so talk to a qualified tax professional before choosing between selling, holding and borrowing.
Can an LLC hold the rental?
Often yes on a DSCR loan, subject to program terms. A full-doc jumbo investment loan typically wants individual ownership. If you plan to hold title in an LLC, that pushes you toward the DSCR lane.
Does RSU pay change how big the loan can be?
On a full-doc jumbo, yes, because it feeds your qualifying income. On a DSCR loan, no, because the rent carries the file. In both cases the leverage cap still applies, and RSU pay never raises it.
What if my RSU history is too short?
Use the DSCR lane, or wait for more vests to land on record. Some lenders weigh a shorter history alongside lower leverage and stronger reserves, but that is a case-by-case call.
Next Step
If you are buying or refinancing a rental property and want to see how the numbers work, Lendmire can help you compare DSCR loan options based on the property income, credit profile, leverage, and investor goals. The calculator on this site gives an illustrative estimate to frame the conversation, and Lendmire arranges financing through select lenders in its wholesale network across 41 markets, including Washington, D.C. Programs change, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.
Investors weighing their equity options can start with Lendmire’s guide to cash-out refinance on an investment property.
About Lendmire
Lendmire, NMLS# 2371349, is a non-QM mortgage broker serving real estate investors in 41 markets, including Washington, D.C., through DSCR investor loan programs. Qualification is generally reviewed around the subject property’s rental income, not the borrower’s W-2 history — a practical fit for LLC-titled portfolios and self-employed investors. All scenarios remain subject to lender review and program guidelines. Two consecutive Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace recognitions (2025, 2026).
Get Started
Ready to find the right loan for you?
In about 30 seconds you can review financing options available for your investment property. No commitment required.
Informational only. Not a Loan Estimate, approval, or commitment to lend. Program availability and eligibility are subject to lender guidelines, credit approval, property review, and underwriting.
References
2. Enact, underwriting loans with restricted stock units as income
3. CFPB, Regulation Z §1026.43 (ability-to-repay)
4. CFS Review, non-QM under the ability-to-repay rule
This article is part of Lendmire’s investment property cash-out refinance program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: Conforming Cash-Out Plus a HELOC vs One Jumbo Cash-Out Refinance · How to Pay Off an Existing HELOC With a Conventional Cash-Out Refinance · Should a Homeowner Pay Cash for a Rental With a Cash-Out Refinance?
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
- Mortgage Loan Originator · NMLS# 1129696 · Verify on NMLS Consumer Access
- North Carolina Real Estate Broker · License# 343312 · Verify on NCREC
- North Carolina Insurance Producer · License# 19053198 · Property, Casualty, Life, Health · Verify on NAIC SBS
- Lendmire LLC · Firm NMLS# 2371349 · Verify firm licensure
Compliance and disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a licensed mortgage broker and is not a direct lender, depository institution, financial advisor, or tax professional. Content in this article is general market analysis and educational information — not financial, legal, or tax advice for any specific situation. Lendmire does not guarantee loan approval; every transaction is subject to underwriting by the funding lender. Mortgage pricing and loan program guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice and vary by borrower characteristics, property type, and state regulations. Lendmire complies with Equal Housing Opportunity. Licensure verification: NMLS Consumer Access.