The Quick Read: On the asset qualifier path, you can borrow up to 80% of the home’s value on a purchase, with loans up to $4,000,000, as long as your eligible assets, after the credit percentages, equal or exceed the entire loan amount. These are ceilings, not offers, and they are subject to underwriting through select programs.
- Your usable assets must cover the whole loan, not just the down payment.
- Brokerage, CD, money market and savings balances count at 100%.
- 401(k) and IRA balances count at 90% under age 59½ and 100% at 59½ or older.
- Assets need 60 days of seasoning and two months of statements per account.
- The minimum credit score is 600, and no employment or income is documented.
Your real limit is the lowest of four numbers: the program’s loan cap, the 80% leverage ceiling, what your assets can cover after the credit percentages, and the cash you need for the down payment and closing. The sections below show how to find each one. Final terms depend on lender guidelines, property type, leverage, and the borrower’s complete credit picture.
What Is an Asset Qualifier Loan?
An asset qualifier loan is a consumer mortgage for a home you will live in, qualified on your assets alone. The lender looks at your balances, not your paystubs or traditional personal-income documentation. Eligible assets must equal or exceed the entire loan amount. No employment or income is documented.
You will see the same idea sold under other names: asset depletion, asset utilization, asset dissipation. The labels get mixed up, and the mixing causes real confusion. In the wholesale network Lendmire works with, “asset qualifier” and “asset depletion” are two different paths with different math. A borrower is qualified on one path at a time. Never blend the two tables.
This is also not a DSCR loan. A DSCR loan reads the rent a property earns. An asset qualifier reads your balance sheet. Different problem, different product.
What Limits How Much You Can Borrow?
Four limits set the ceiling, and the lowest one wins. Most borrowers assume their portfolio size is the limit. Often it is not.
1. Program loan size. Loans run up to $4,000,000 on the asset qualifier path. Nothing above that is available on this path.
2. Leverage. Up to 80% loan-to-value on a purchase of a principal residence or second home, subject to underwriting. On a refinance the ceiling is 75%.
3. Assets after the credit percentages. Your counted assets must cover the full loan, not a portion of it.
4. Cash to close. Your down payment, closing costs and any reserves come out of the same pool. Money spent at closing cannot also be counted as backing for the loan.
Credit is the gate in front of all four. The qualifier path’s published floor is a 600 score, and housing history is expected to be clean, with one 30-day late in the last twelve months reviewed case by case. Multiple bankruptcies are not eligible. None of this is a promise of approval.
Reserves are simple on this path. None are required at or below 75% loan-to-value. Above that, the lender sets them. That matters at the 80% purchase ceiling, so a borrower leaning on full leverage should expect a reserve conversation.
Which Assets Count, and at What Value?
On the qualifier path, cash-type and brokerage accounts count at full value, and retirement accounts count at 90% before age 59½. Accounts combine, so you can stack several to reach the loan amount.
| Asset type | Share that counts (qualifier path) |
|---|---|
| Brokerage accounts | 100% |
| Certificates of deposit | 100% |
| Money market | 100% |
| Savings | 100% |
| 401(k) / IRA, under 59½ | 90% |
| 401(k) / IRA, 59½ or older | 100% |
What about cryptocurrency, precious metals, collectibles, business accounts beyond your ownership share, and pledged or borrowed funds? None of these is published as eligible on either path. Say so plainly: they do not count at a percentage. The documented route is converting them to cash held in a regulated account long enough to season, with the source reviewed by the lender.
Home equity does not count either. The ability-to-repay rule looks at income or assets other than the value of the dwelling securing the loan, per 12 CFR 1026.43 on Cornell’s Legal Information Institute. That is a rule about the house you are buying. It cannot back its own loan.
Seasoning is where files stall. The qualifier path wants 60 days of seasoning and two months of statements for every qualifying account. A balance that arrived last week, from a transfer or a sale, will not count until it has aged. Large deposits need a paper trail.
The Two Paths, Side by Side
The asset depletion path turns assets into monthly income, and that income must carry the housing payment through a debt-to-income test. The qualifier path skips that step. Which one fits depends on how your money is arranged.
| Factor | Asset qualifier | Asset depletion |
|---|---|---|
| How assets are used | Must cover the whole loan | Divided by 60 months into income |
| Purchase leverage, principal residence | Up to 80% | Up to 80% |
| Loan range | Up to $4,000,000 | $125,000 to $3,500,000 |
| Retirement accounts | 90% under 59½, 100% after | 70% at any age |
| Securities | 100% (brokerage) | 80% |
| Debt-to-income test | No income documented | Applies to derived income |
| Statement rule | 60 days seasoning, two months | 120-day-old statement plus one within 45 days |
The retirement line shows why the choice matters. A 401(k) holder under 59½ gets 90% credit on the qualifier path and 70% on the depletion path. A borrower with large brokerage balances and a modest loan often fits the qualifier path cleanly. A borrower with a big portfolio but a loan larger than the assets themselves needs the depletion path. Lendmire’s piece How Much Can You Borrow With an Asset Depletion Jumbo Loan? covers that second route in detail.
Step by Step: From Assets to Maximum Loan
Start with your balances and work toward the loan. The arithmetic below is illustrative. The lender’s own calculation governs.
1. List eligible accounts. Brokerage, CDs, money market, savings and retirement balances. Leave out anything on the ineligible list.
2. Apply the credit percentages. Multiply each balance by its share from the table above.
3. Subtract what the purchase consumes. Down payment, closing costs and any reserves leave the pool before you test the loan.
4. Compare what is left to the loan amount. Counted assets must equal or exceed the entire loan.
5. Check the leverage cap. The loan cannot exceed 80% of value on a purchase.
Run the worked example. Say a borrower seeks an $800,000 loan and holds $330,000 in brokerage accounts, $300,000 in a 401(k) and $200,000 in savings. The borrower is under 59½. Brokerage counts at 100%, so $330,000. The 401(k) counts at 90%, so $270,000. Savings counts at 100%, so $200,000. Together that is $800,000 of usable assets, which matches the loan, so the borrower is reviewed on assets alone, subject to underwriting.
Notice the catch. That borrower holds $830,000 on paper and counts $800,000. The 401(k) haircut cost $30,000 of coverage. Now picture the down payment. If the same borrower also needs cash to close, that cash has to come from somewhere. In practice, the borrower either holds more assets than the loan amount or sells down something before applying.
Change one variable and watch the result. If that borrower turned 59½, the 401(k) would count at 100%, adding $30,000 of coverage with no new money. Age moves the number.
How to Work Backward From a Target Purchase
Reverse the math to see how much you need. Take the price you want, apply the leverage cap, and you have the loan. Your counted assets must reach that loan amount, plus the cash for the down payment and closing, which sits outside it.
Suppose a buyer targets a home and wants the full 80% purchase leverage. The down payment is the remaining 20%. The loan has to be covered by counted assets, and the down payment and closing costs have to come from additional funds. So the assets you need are well above the loan alone. That is why asset-based files lean on large balances relative to price. One investor comment on BiggerPockets makes the same point about liquidity, though it is anecdotal and no rule.
A lower loan-to-value reduces the loan your assets must cover. At or below 75%, no reserves are required on this path. For some buyers, putting more down is the cleaner way to fit the numbers.
When the Qualifier Path Is the Wrong Tool
If your assets are smaller than the loan, the qualifier path will not work, and the depletion path may. On that path, usable assets divide by 60 months into monthly income. The sanctioned example: $1,500,000 in securities counts $1,200,000 at 80%, and $300,000 in cash counts at 100%. That is $1,500,000 usable, or $25,000 of monthly qualifying income, which then must carry the housing payment and other debts through the debt-to-income test.
The depletion path asks for qualified assets of at least the lesser of $1,000,000 or 1.25 times the loan, and never below $250,000 liquid when assets are your only income source. For a longer look at a common borrower profile, see Lendmire’s piece How Much Can a Retiree Borrow on a Jumbo Loan Using Asset Depletion?.
Two other cases point elsewhere. If you document income with deposits, a bank statement program is the fit. If you are buying a rental, business-purpose financing is DSCR, which qualifies primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines. Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide explains that route.
Investor Angle
Rental investors often show low taxable income after depreciation and write-offs. That can sink a standard income review on a personal home purchase. A large liquid portfolio can carry the primary-residence loan while the investor keeps DSCR financing for the rentals. The two products solve different problems.
Each dollar counts once. Assets used to back the loan cannot also serve as the down payment or reserves. And two programs can give very different answers on the same portfolio, because the formulas are lender policy. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said as much in its bulletin on asset dissipation underwriting: lenders set their own eligible assets, discounts and verification. Across a wholesale network, that spread is the reason to compare programs instead of taking the first sheet.
Key Terms Defined
Asset qualifier: A loan qualified on eligible assets that must equal or exceed the whole loan, with no income documented.
Asset depletion: A loan that turns usable assets into monthly income by dividing them over 60 months.
Credit percentage (haircut): The share of an account’s balance that the lender counts toward qualifying.
Seasoning: How long funds have sat in an account before they can count.
Loan-to-value (LTV): The loan amount divided by the home’s value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to sell my investments to use this loan?
No. The assets show capacity to repay and stay invested. You only liquidate what you need for the down payment and closing costs, since those funds leave the pool.
Is any income or employment documented?
Not on the qualifier path. The assets are documented in full, though: two months of statements per account and 60 days of seasoning. No income documentation never means no documentation.
Can a co-borrower’s assets help?
They can. The CFPB commentary on Regulation Z notes that with joint applicants, one applicant’s assets may be enough, so the lender need not count the other’s. Program rules still govern the file.
Does the 80% leverage apply to a refinance?
No. The qualifier path allows up to 75% on a refinance. Whether cash-out proceeds are allowed is set by the lender and is not published, so no cash-out figure should be assumed. These specifics are subject to lender guidelines and a full review of property, leverage, and credit.
How much down payment is needed?
At the 80% purchase ceiling, the down payment is the remaining 20%, and it comes from funds beyond those counted toward the loan.
If you are qualifying on assets rather than income and want to see how the numbers work, Lendmire can help you compare asset-based mortgage options based on your statements, the property, credit profile, leverage, and your goals. Consumer mortgage lending is licensed in 16 states, and every figure here is a ceiling or floor, subject to underwriting through select programs.
Tax treatment varies by situation; consult a qualified professional.
About Lendmire
Lendmire, NMLS# 2371349, is a mortgage brokerage with consumer lending licenses in 16 states. Bank statement, P&L-only, 1099-only and asset-based mortgages are arranged through wholesale lending partners for borrowers whose tax returns understate their income, and each application is reviewed individually by the lender. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. Cornell LII, 12 CFR 1026.43
2. BiggerPockets, asset-based mortgages thread
3. OCC Bulletin 2019-36, Asset Dissipation Underwriting
4. CFPB, Regulation Z 1026.43 commentary
This article is part of Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: Asset Qualifier Mortgage vs Bank Statement Mortgage · Asset Qualifier vs Asset Depletion for a Cash-Out Refinance · How Much Can a Retiree Borrow on a Jumbo Loan Using Asset Depletion?
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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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.