Best Bank Statement HELOC Program in a High-Rise With a Commercial Floor

The Quick Read: The right fit for a residential condo unit in a tower with a retail or office floor is the program that clears two separate tests: your deposits, credit, and combined leverage on the borrower side, and the building’s project review on the collateral side, with the commercial floor affecting only the second test. Which program fits depends on occupancy, credit profile, the line size you need, and how the building is built and run. Lendmire is a broker, so the work is matching the file to a wholesale program, not selling one product.

• A residential unit in a project with some commercial space is a condo review question. A unit used partly for business, or a commercial unit, is not eligible collateral.
• Income is read from 12 to 24 months of deposits, then reduced by an expense factor when the deposits are business income.
• On an investment property, the ceiling is 70% combined loan-to-value (CLTV), with a 700 minimum credit score.
• Title must sit with you personally or in a revocable living trust. An LLC cannot hold title.
• Every figure here is subject to lender guidelines and full file review. This is not a commitment to lend.

Two Tests, One File

Every file on this product splits into a borrower test and a building test. The commercial floor only enters the second one.

Borrowers tend to prepare for the income test and ignore the project review, so the file stalls at the HOA questionnaire. If you only run the income math, you are doing half the file.

How a Bank Statement Line Reads Your Income

The mechanics are simple, and they are not a shortcut. Under a bank statement program, the borrower is reviewed on documented income under the applicable program, subject to lender guidelines. The lender reads 12 to 24 months of actual deposits in place of tax-return net income. Business deposits are usually cut by an expense factor. Personal-account deposits usually are not, but they must be identifiable as business income.

Here is how files move from deposits to a decision:

1. Choose the statement type. Personal or business statements, 12 or 24 months. Pick the set that shows the cleanest, most consistent deposits.

2. Strip the non-income. Transfers between your own accounts, loan proceeds, gifts, refunds, and one-off credits come out of the count. Submit every page of every statement, including the blank-looking ones.

3. Apply the expense factor. A heavy factor shrinks income before any debt ratio is run. This is the step that surprises self-employed borrowers most.

4. Run the debt ratio. Across the network, the maximum is 50%. It drops to 45% for credit profiles from 600 to 679, and anything above 45% needs a 680 minimum. The line is qualified on the interest-only payment calculated on the maximum draw, not the amount you plan to use.

5. Size the line against equity. Combined LTV counts every recorded lien. A prior second mortgage reduces your room point for point.

6. Clear title and vesting. The line sits in first or second lien position, held by you or your revocable living trust.

7. Review the building. This is where the commercial floor lives.

The payment on this line never shows up in the rental’s coverage ratio, because the product is underwritten on you, not on the rent. If the property is already deeded to an LLC, the options are a vesting change or a cash-out refinance instead. Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide covers that alternative.

What Counts as a Commercial Floor?

A tower with ground-floor retail or office space is a condo project with a non-residential component. That is different from a mixed-use property where your own unit is partly commercial. The first is a project review issue. The second is ineligible collateral. Across the network, commercial, mixed-use, and agricultural zoning are not offered, and neither are condotels or co-ops. Condominiums, including non-warrantable ones, are eligible.

Whether a given commercial floor sinks the project depends on the lender’s own project standards. The network does not publish a single commercial-share cap, so treat any number you read online as a reference point and not a promise.

The one hard benchmark comes from outside this market. The Fannie Mae Selling Guide caps commercial or mixed-use space at 35% of a condo project or building. It measures non-residential square footage over total square footage, above and below grade, and counts commercial space even when separate associations represent the owners. Rental apartments and hotels inside the project count as commercial, while commercial parking can be excluded. HUD’s condominium rulemaking records that Fannie Mae’s cap had stood at 25% before moving to 35%, and discusses 35% as a level below which commercial share is less of a concern. That is agency contrast only. Non-agency programs can run stricter or looser.

A Worked Share Calculation

Say a tower has 600,000 total square feet, and 150,000 of it is retail and office. That is 25% commercial. Now add 60,000 square feet of hotel rooms or leased apartments that a reviewer counts as commercial. The share becomes 210,000 over 600,000, or 35%. The ground-floor retail did not change. The classification did.

That is why a modest retail strip and a stacked retail, office, and hotel tower are not the same file. Ask the manager for the floor-area breakdown early, before you pay for anything.

What Else the Building Review Checks

The commercial floor is rarely the only issue, and sometimes it is not the main one. Reviewers look at:

• Budget and reserves, the declaration, and the master insurance certificate.
• Litigation and delinquent dues.
• Single-entity ownership, meaning how many units one owner or investor holds.
• Hotel-style operation or short-stay use.
• HOA rental rules, such as caps or minimum lease terms.
• Whether commercial owners belong to a separate association.

HOA questionnaire completeness decides many files before the percentage does. A questionnaire returned with blanks gets a pended file. Projects can also lose eligibility after approval, so the file you clear today can look different at the next review.

Which Program Fits Which Borrower

Two wholesale programs sit behind these lines. The first is a higher-leverage program with a 3-year interest-only draw and a 17-year repayment period. The second is a longer-runway program with a 5-year draw and a 25-year repayment period. On both, at least 75% of the line is drawn at closing, and pricing stays variable. Investment lines use the 5-year draw and 25-year repayment structure only. Leverage depends on occupancy:

Lower credit tiers step the ceiling down. On a primary residence, 640 reaches 80% CLTV, and the minimum is 600. On a second home, 640 is the floor. A line above $500,000 is primary-residence only, needs a credit profile of 700 or better (720 on the longer-runway program), caps at 75% CLTV, and requires a full appraisal. Lines are sized from $25,000 up to $750,000 (Michigan starts at $10,000).

Think this one through before you chase leverage. If you own the unit as a rental, the 70% investment ceiling is the number that governs the file. A strong second-home or primary profile does not borrow that room.

Limits That Catch Files

• A borrower can hold three lines at most. Combined exposure caps at $2,000,000 on the higher-leverage program and $750,000 on the longer-runway program.
• A borrower with more than 15 financed properties is not eligible.
• A bankruptcy needs four years of seasoning from discharge or dismissal. Foreclosure-family history splits by program, and investment files follow the seven-year foreclosure and four-year short-sale or deed-in-lieu path.
• Credit reports must be no more than 90 days old at closing, with no rescores.
• Lines at or below $500,000 ordinarily run an automated valuation. A higher CLTV may require a secondary valuation, and you can ask for a full appraisal in any case. For a condo in a mixed tower, ordering the full appraisal can be worth it.
• This product is arranged only in Lendmire’s 16 full-service states: AL, CA, CO, FL, GA, IN, MI, MT, NM, NC, OH, PA, TN, TX, VA, and WA. That is narrower than the 41-market DSCR footprint. State rules also differ. A property listed for sale, or listed within the past 60 days, is ineligible in NC, PA, TN, TX, and WA.

Why Some Investors Hear No

Investor-grade equity lines on rentals are scarce. Investors on a BiggerPockets thread about HELOCs on investment property describe hearing no from banks and credit unions. The common reasons are policies against second liens on rentals and caps on how many properties a borrower can own. That scarcity is the reason a broker that shops several wholesale programs matters here. A single depository institution has one rulebook. A broker can try the file against several.

Depending on the borrower, the scenario falls into one of these paths:

A practitioner note on files like these: the expense factor and the HOA questionnaire are the two items that move outcomes most. Borrowers who gather the declaration, budget, master insurance certificate, and floor-area breakdown before the file goes in avoid the longest stalls. Borrowers who wait for the lender to ask for them do not.

Denial Reasons and Fixes

Key Terms Defined

Bank statement program: a documentation path that reads deposits over 12 to 24 months in place of tax-return income.

Expense factor: a percentage that reduces business deposits to estimate usable income.

Combined loan-to-value (CLTV): all recorded liens, including the new line, divided by the property value.

Non-warrantable condo: a condo project that falls outside standard agency project rules, often because of commercial share, litigation, or concentrated ownership.

Next Step

If you are considering a home equity line and want to see how the numbers work, Lendmire can help you compare HELOC options based on the property, the equity available, credit profile, combined leverage, and your goals. Call 828-256-2183 or use the quote request.

For current guidelines and terms, see Lendmire’s bank statement HELOC programs page.

About Lendmire

Lendmire — NMLS# 2371349 — is a mortgage broker that arranges home equity lines of credit in its 16 full-service states through wholesale lenders, on primary residences, second homes and investment properties. Every line is subject to the lender’s guidelines and full underwriting. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.

References

1. HousingWire, Non-QM Loans Guide

2. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B4-2.1-03, Ineligible Projects

3. Federal Register, Project Approval for Single-Family Condominiums

4. BiggerPockets, HELOC on an Investment Property