Can You Get a Bank Statement Loan With Seasonal Deposits?

The Quick Read: Yes, in most cases, because lenders average your eligible deposits across the whole statement window instead of judging your best months. The deposits must be documented and clean, and the trend must look stable rather than shrinking. The lender sets the window, the expense factor, and the final income figure.

• Busy months are blended with slow months, so one thin winter does not sink a file.
• Your peak months never set your qualifying income. The average does.
• Business-account deposits usually take an expense factor. A common market example is 50%, though the lender decides.
• A declining trend is the real danger. Seasonal swings are normal, but a shrinking recent peak is not.
• If the deposits are hard to document, a rental that covers its own payment may fit a different loan better.

How Do Lenders Turn Seasonal Deposits Into One Monthly Number?

Lenders total your eligible deposits, remove what is not income, apply an expense factor where needed, and divide by the number of months in the window. A landscaper’s June and a tax preparer’s March get spread across every month on the statements.

Here is the sequence most programs follow:

1. Pick the window. Trade press describes self-employed borrowers using 12 to 24 months of personal or business statements. Across the lender network Lendmire places files with, 12 months is the baseline. The lender decides whether a longer window is needed.

2. Choose the account type. Business, personal, and mixed accounts all show up in practice. Personal deposits generally need to tie back to business revenue.

3. Screen out non-income. Transfers between your own accounts, loan proceeds, refunds, gifts, and one-time windfalls come out.

4. Apply the expense factor. Business-account deposits are reduced to reflect operating costs. The same trade press source uses 50% as its example, and notes that a profit-and-loss statement or a tax professional’s expense statement can serve as an alternative. Treat 50% as an illustration. The expense factor varies by lender and program.

5. Average across the full window. The total is divided by every month, not just the busy ones.

6. Review the trend. The underwriter compares months and years to see whether the pattern repeats or fades.

That last step is where seasonal files succeed or stall.

Key Terms Defined

Bank statement loan: A mortgage that is reviewed on documented income under the applicable program, subject to lender guidelines. Income comes from averaging deposits rather than from tax-return net income.

Non-QM: A loan that sits outside the standard “qualified mortgage” box. Each file is underwritten individually by hand.

Expense factor: The share of business deposits the lender treats as operating cost instead of income.

Seasonal deposits: Deposits that arrive in a repeating cycle, with heavy months and light months.

LTV (loan-to-value): The loan balance as a percentage of the property’s value.

Reserves: Liquid savings left after closing, usually counted in months of the housing payment.

DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): The monthly rent divided by the property’s monthly debt payment. A DSCR loan tests the property, not your deposits.

A Worked Example With a Seasonal Borrower

Say a business deposits heavily for five months and lightly for seven. The table uses index points, not dollars, and it is a modeled illustration. It is not a quote or a promise of any lender’s method.

Divide 675 by 12 and the monthly average is about 56. A business account with a 50% expense factor leaves roughly 28 index points of qualifying income each month. A peak month of 100 never enters the picture on its own.

Now add a weaker prior year. Suppose the same pattern ran at 80 per busy month and 20 per slow month, for a prior-year subtotal of 540. A 24-month window totals 1,215, which averages to about 51 per month, or roughly 25 after the same factor. The longer window lowers the number because last year was softer.

The takeaway: a longer window is not automatically better. It helps when the longer history is the stronger or more representative one.

What Happens to Your Slow Months?

Slow months stay in the math. The lender does not skip them, and it does not penalize them one at a time. They pull the average down, and the busy months pull it back up.

That has two practical effects. First, you may qualify on less than your best season suggests, which can limit loan size. Second, one lean winter typically will not sink the file when the annual pattern is documented, subject to lender guidelines.

Here is the practitioner view on slow months. Underwriters rarely object to a thin month by itself. They object to thin months with no explanation, repeated overdrafts, or an account that only stays positive through unexplained transfers from savings. Your off-season balance behavior matters as much as the dollar pattern.

12 or 24 Months for a Seasonal Earner?

Start with the 12-month window, and consider 24 months when a single year would misrepresent your cycle. A few lenders in the network require the longer window for businesses with dramatic swings. The program sheet, not the borrower, decides.

A short window carries one real risk. It can capture the best or worst part of a cycle, which is why lenders sometimes ask for more history.

Which Deposits Won’t Count?

Only business income counts, and everything else gets carved out. Seasonal borrowers hit this more often than others, because off-season cash gets moved around to cover slow months.

Commingled accounts make this harder. When personal and business activity share one account, sorting income from non-income takes more documentation and more questions.

Seasonal Dip or Real Decline?

An underwriter looks for the same pattern repeating. If each busy season looks like the last, the dip is seasonal. If each peak is smaller, it is a decline, and that is where files get conservative averages or fall out of eligibility.

What helps:

• Statements that show the same shape across comparable stretches of the year.
• A short letter of explanation for any unusual month.
• Clean account behavior, meaning few overdrafts or returned items.
• A tax professional’s expense letter when your bookkeeping is credible.

A new business is a harder fit. Without a full cycle of history, the lender has nothing to average and nothing to compare. The required history varies by program, so ask before you apply.

Why Lenders Check Deposits So Carefully

Bank statement loans are not “easy” loans. On an owner-occupied home, federal rules require the lender to make a reasonable, good-faith determination that you can repay, and the rule includes an example of averaging annual income across 12 months. The lender must also verify the income or assets it relies on.

That is why deposit screening exists. Averaging is the method, and verification is the guardrail.

Leverage and Reserves on This Program

These figures come from select lenders in Lendmire’s wholesale network. They are typical ranges, not promises, and every file is underwritten individually, subject to lender guidelines.

• Primary residence, purchase or refinance without cash out: up to 90% LTV on stronger files.
• Primary residence on the asset-depletion alternative: up to about 80% LTV.
• Owner-occupied cash-out (primary or second home): up to 80% LTV with a fixed expense ratio, or 75% with an accountant-prepared ratio, depending on loan size and credit.
• Investment-property cash-out: tops out around 75% LTV.
• Investment-property purchase on bank statements: varies by lender, so there is no single number to quote.
• Loan sizes: roughly $125,000 to $3,500,000. Reserves commonly run around six months of the housing payment.

Occupancy decides the paperwork. An owner-occupied file is a consumer mortgage and follows consumer disclosure rules (TRID). A bank statement loan on a non-owner-occupied rental, including a short-term rental, is business-purpose and exempt from those disclosures. Bank statement loans for owner-occupied homes are arranged in the 16 states where Lendmire holds consumer mortgage licensing. Payment and rate figures are not quoted in this article or in the calculator.

Bank Statement Loan or DSCR for an Investor?

Use a bank statement loan when you are buying or refinancing a home you will live in, or when you hold title personally and your deposits tell the story. Use DSCR when the rental itself is the story.

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. The loan is reviewed primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines, so seasonal deposits are not part of the test. Lendmire’s bank statement versus DSCR comparison for investors covers the choice in more depth. The complete DSCR loans guide walks through how the property-based test works.

Think about it this way. If your deposits are declining or difficult to document but the rental covers its own obligation, DSCR may be the simpler lane. If you are scaling a portfolio, bank statement files keep drawing on the same personal income each time. DSCR judges one property at a time. Programs below 1.00 coverage exist through select lenders in the network, though leverage and terms adjust.

Some borrowers also run payroll through their own businesses. Lendmire’s piece Do Your Own Payroll Deposits Count on a Bank Statement Loan? covers that scenario.

Before You Apply: A Prep Checklist

Start three to six months ahead. The deposits you make before applying are the file.

• Pull complete statements, not screenshots, for every account you plan to use.
• Stop moving savings into checking to “look busy.” Those transfers get excluded anyway.
• Keep business and personal money in separate accounts where you can.
• Avoid overdrafts and returned items.
• Gather a profit-and-loss statement or a tax professional’s expense letter.
• Confirm your reserves cover the payment through your slowest stretch.

Ask the loan officer these questions:

• Which window does this program use for seasonal income?
• Which expense factor applies to my business type?
• Can a tax professional’s letter replace the default factor?
• How does the lender treat transfers I made in the off-season?
• How much history does a seasonal business need?

Tax treatment can depend on how the funds are used and how the property is held. Keep clear records and speak with a qualified tax professional before relying on any deduction.

Next Step

Lendmire is a mortgage broker that arranges financing through select lenders in its wholesale network, and every outcome is subject to lender guidelines and is not a commitment to lend.

About Lendmire

A non-QM mortgage broker (NMLS# 2371349), Lendmire arranges DSCR financing for real estate investors in 41 markets — 40 states plus Washington, D.C. Because deals are underwritten primarily on property cash flow rather than personal income documentation, the structure suits self-employed buyers and entity-owned portfolios. Lendmire places loans through wholesale investor lenders; it is not a direct lender. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.

References

1. Scotsman Guide, “Rev Up the Engine for Non-QM Lending”

2. CFPB, 12 CFR 1026.43 (ability to repay)

3. eCFR, 12 CFR 1026.43