The Quick Read: You qualify by documenting your brokerage and retirement balances, and the lender either counts them against the whole loan or converts them into monthly qualifying income. The property secures the loan, and your stock is neither sold nor pledged. Which path fits depends on your loan size, your property, and how much of your portfolio actually counts.
- Public stock in a brokerage account counts at 100% on the asset qualifier path and 80% on the asset depletion path, subject to underwriting.
- Privately held company stock is not an eligible asset on either path.
- On the depletion path, a cash-out refinance tops out at 60% loan-to-value, whether the property is a home or a rental.
- The assets are documented with statements. You skip traditional personal-income documentation, such as pay stubs and employment verification, but not the asset paperwork.
- Cash-out proceeds never count toward your qualifying assets.
If your net worth sits in a brokerage account and your paycheck is small or complicated, this is the structure to understand. The steps below run from choosing a path to submitting your file. Lendmire is a mortgage broker, so it arranges these loans through select lenders in its network. The lender underwrites and approves every file.
What Is an Asset-Based Cash-Out Refinance?
An asset-based cash-out refinance replaces your current mortgage with a larger one and pays you the difference. The twist is how you qualify. Instead of proving a paycheck, you prove assets. It is a non-QM approach, meaning it falls outside the standard agency rules, and the lender writes its own guidelines.
Two terms matter before anything else. The asset qualifier path looks at whether your eligible assets cover the entire loan. The asset depletion path divides your usable assets by 60 months to create monthly qualifying income. That income then runs through a debt-to-income test, which compares your monthly debts to your income.
You are on one path at a time, never both. Mixing the two tables is the most common way borrowers misread this product.
Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage programs are built around these two paths. This is a consumer mortgage in most cases. Investment property is available only on the depletion path, where the loan is business-purpose.
Key Terms Defined
Haircut: The part of an asset’s balance that does not count. If securities count at 80%, the haircut is 20%.
Seasoning: How long money has sat in your account. Lenders want to see it did not just appear.
Debt-to-income (DTI): Your monthly debts divided by your monthly income, real or derived.
Usable assets: Your balances after each account’s percentage is applied and the transaction’s own costs are removed.
Non-QM: A mortgage that does not follow the standard agency underwriting box.
How Do Stock Holdings Actually Count?
Public stock counts, but the share that counts depends on the path. On the qualifier path, brokerage accounts count at 100%. On the depletion path, securities count at 80%. Stocks swing in price, so the depletion path trims them. Privately held company stock is not an eligible asset on either path.
Here is how the account types line up, subject to underwriting and select program terms.
| Asset | Qualifier path counts | Depletion path counts |
|---|---|---|
| Brokerage / securities | 100% | 80% |
| Cash, savings, money market | 100% | 100% (cash accounts) |
| Certificates of deposit | 100% | 100% |
| Retirement accounts | 90% under 59½, 100% after | 70% at any age |
| Real-estate equity | Not listed | 60% |
Several holdings never count on the depletion path: stock options, non-vested restricted stock units, custodial accounts, deferred compensation, escrow accounts, foreign funds and cash on hand. Cryptocurrency, precious metals and collectibles are not published as eligible on either path. The documented route for those is converting them to a seasoned cash balance in a regulated account, with the source reviewed by the lender.
Accounts combine. You can stack brokerage, savings and retirement balances to reach the total.
Which Path Fits You?
Pick the qualifier path if your usable assets equal or exceed the entire loan amount. Pick the depletion path if they do not, but the monthly income they produce can carry the payment and your other debts. Pick based on the numbers, not the label.
The qualifier path allows loans up to $4,000,000. Leverage runs up to 80% on a purchase and 75% on a refinance, on a principal residence or second home. Whether cash-out proceeds are allowed on this path is set by the lender and is not published, so ask before assuming.
The depletion path covers loans from $125,000 to $3,500,000. On a principal residence or second home, it allows up to 80% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out refinance.
That 60% cash-out ceiling is the number to plan around if you want to pull money out of a property. All of these figures are ceilings, not offers, and they are subject to underwriting. Leverage, reserves, and pricing vary by lender and program; the final terms follow the full file review.
Two Worked Examples
These are illustrations of the arithmetic. The lender’s own calculation governs.
Qualifier path. Picture a borrower seeking an $800,000 loan. They hold $330,000 in brokerage accounts (counted at 100%, so $330,000), $300,000 in a 401(k) while under 59½ (counted at 90%, so $270,000) and $200,000 in savings (100%, so $200,000). Together that is $800,000 of usable assets. The assets match the loan, so the borrower is reviewed on assets alone, subject to underwriting and property review.
Depletion path. Now say a borrower holds $1,500,000 in securities and $300,000 in cash. Securities count at 80%, which is $1,200,000. Cash counts at 100%, which is $300,000. Usable assets total $1,500,000. Divide by 60 months and you get $25,000 of monthly qualifying income. That figure then has to carry the housing payment and other debts through the debt-to-income test.
Notice what changed between the two. The first borrower never needed an income number. The second needed one, and the divisor produced it.
Remember the leverage cap too. A cash-out on the depletion path stops at 60% loan-to-value, so the assets can be strong and the property can still limit how much you pull.
How Do You Apply, Step by Step?
Apply in order: choose the path, inventory your accounts, remove what the deal consumes, check the numbers, then submit statements and property documents. The lender verifies each step directly.
1. Choose the path. Compare your usable assets to the loan amount. If they cover it, the qualifier path fits. If not, test the depletion path.
2. Inventory eligible accounts. List every brokerage, bank, CD and retirement account in your name. Set aside anything on the ineligible list.
3. Apply the percentages. Multiply each balance by its share. Securities at 80%, retirement at 70%, and so on, on the depletion path.
4. Subtract what the deal consumes. On a refinance, closing costs and any required reserves come out of your assets first. A dollar used to close cannot also support your income. Cash-out proceeds cannot be counted back in as assets.
5. Run the debt-to-income test (depletion path). Every mortgage on every property you own counts as a debt. A large portfolio of rentals can stretch the ratio even when assets are strong.
6. Check credit and housing history. The minimum score is 600 on the qualifier path. On the depletion path, the lender’s matrix sets the score. A first-time investor on the depletion path needs 700. Housing history is 0x30x12, though one 30-day late in the last twelve months is considered case by case.
7. Gather documents. Statements for each account, ID, mortgage statements on properties you own, and the property details. Subject to the lender, a business-purpose loan also needs entity documents.
8. Submit and verify. The lender verifies ownership and seasoning, orders the appraisal and reviews title and insurance.
9. Watch the market. If your securities fall before closing, your usable balance falls with them. Stock-heavy borrowers should build a margin.
Your broker’s job is to match your file to the lender whose guidelines fit. Across a wholesale network, matrices differ on credit, leverage and asset treatment, and that comparison is where a broker earns the fee.
What Seasoning and Statements Do You Need?
You need statements that prove your assets have been yours for a while. The qualifier path wants 60 days of seasoning and two months of statements for each qualifying account. The depletion path wants statements at least 120 days old at application, plus the most recent statement within 45 days.
Sale-of-business, inheritance and legal-settlement funds are excused from the depletion path’s seasoning. That helps retirees and sellers whose money just landed.
The assets are documented on both paths. This is not a no-doc loan. Every file is fully underwritten. What you skip is tax returns, pay stubs and employment verification.
On the depletion path, minimums apply. Qualified assets must be at least the lesser of $1,000,000 or 1.25 times the loan balance. When asset depletion is your only income source, you also need at least $250,000 liquid. If you have documented income and use assets to supplement it, derived income can fill in up to a 45% debt-to-income ratio, and the minimum-assets rule is waived.
Reserves are simple on the qualifier path: none required at or below 75% loan-to-value, and the lender sets them above that. The depletion path publishes no reserve months. All of this is subject to underwriting.
Where the Rules Break: Stock-Specific Edge Cases
The stock you hold may not be stock the lender counts. Check each holding against the eligible list before you plan around the total.
Founders and private shares. None of it counts: privately held company stock is not an eligible asset on either path. The documented route is a sale or buyout converted into a seasoned cash balance. Once the proceeds sit in a regulated account, they count at the cash percentage.
Options and unvested equity. Stock options and non-vested restricted stock units are ineligible on the depletion path. Wait until they vest and you sell, then document the proceeds.
Retirement accounts. The qualifier path gives 90% credit under age 59½ and 100% after. The depletion path counts retirement accounts at 70% at any age.
Borrowed or pledged money. Pledged or borrowed funds are not published as eligible on either path.
A rental with strong rent. If the property’s rent covers its own debt comfortably, a DSCR loan may fit better and leaves your portfolio out of the test entirely. A DSCR loan tests whether property income covers the debt, which is a different question from the one this program asks.
An LLC-held property. An investment-property home equity line generally cannot close on property held in an LLC, which pushes some investors toward a cash-out refinance instead. Any entity-held loan is subject to lender program eligibility.
A non-warrantable condo. The building is a second test, and assets cannot fix it.
Why Not Just Borrow Against the Stocks?
You can, and some investors do. The tradeoff is that the stock becomes collateral. A securities-backed line of credit is secured by your portfolio, and FINRA’s explainer warns that a decline in value can trigger a maintenance call, after which the firm might sell your securities.
The SEC and FINRA investor alert on these lines adds that pledged securities shift in price constantly. If you cannot repay on demand, the firm can liquidate securities. It also notes that some lenders set the limit by portfolio value alone.
The asset-based refinance works differently. Your stock is not pledged. A market drop changes how much qualifies, but it does not trigger a margin call. That is a difference in mechanics, and the tradeoff is that you take a larger mortgage against the property.
| Factor | Asset-based cash-out refinance | Securities-backed line |
|---|---|---|
| Collateral | The property | Your portfolio |
| Structure | One new lump-sum loan | Revolving line |
| Market drop | Changes how much qualifies | Can trigger a maintenance call |
| Stock sold or pledged | Neither | Pledged |
Home equity lines are a third option. NerdWallet notes that lines on investment properties are tougher to get and that refinance closing costs run higher than on a line. Its companion explainer adds that a cash-out refinance gives you one new, larger loan, while a line sits on top of your first mortgage.
Common Mistakes That Stall a File
Most stalled files trace back to a handful of avoidable errors:
- Counting cash-out proceeds as assets. They never count.
- Assuming every dollar counts. Haircuts apply, and some holdings are excluded entirely.
- Treating derived income as a paycheck. It is a qualifying figure, not what you can afford.
- Ignoring other mortgages. Every property’s debt hits the ratio.
- Using stale statements. The depletion path wants statements 120 days old plus one within 45 days.
- Putting the wrong name on the account. Ownership must match.
- Trusting an online calculator. Divisors and percentages differ by lender, so a generic tool cannot show you the range.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the lender make me sell my stock?
No. Your securities stay invested. They support your qualification, and the property secures the loan. If your portfolio value drops before closing, the usable amount drops with it.
Can I use stock options or unvested shares?
No. Once they vest and you sell, the proceeds can count at the cash percentage after seasoning, subject to the lender’s review.
What is the maximum cash-out on this program?
On the depletion path, a cash-out refinance goes up to 60% loan-to-value on a principal residence, second home or investment property. On the qualifier path, cash-out terms are set by the lender and not published, so ask your broker, subject to underwriting. Terms vary by lender guidelines, property type, leverage, credit profile, and full file review.
Is this a no-doc loan?
No. Every file is fully underwritten. You provide account statements and property documents, and you skip traditional personal-income documentation, pay stubs and employment verification.
Can I use this for a rental property?
Yes, but only on the depletion path, where the loan is business-purpose. Investment property cash-out runs up to 60% loan-to-value. If the rent covers the debt well, a DSCR loan is worth comparing.
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. Programs are placed through select lenders, consumer lending is licensed in 16 states, and every file is subject to underwriting. This is not a commitment to lend.
A deeper walk-through of investment-property equity extraction lives in Lendmire’s guide to cash-out refinance on an investment property.
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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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. Investor.gov – Investor Alert: Securities-Backed Lines of Credit
3. NerdWallet – HELOC on investment property
4. NerdWallet – Home Equity Loan vs. Cash-Out Refinance
This article is part of Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: How to Qualify and Apply for an Asset-Based Cash-Out Refinance as a Professional Athlete · Asset-Based Cash-Out Refinance Lenders on a Condo · Best Asset-Based Cash-Out Refinance Program Without a Mortgage
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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Important disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a licensed mortgage brokerage. Lendmire is not a direct lender, depository institution, or financial advisor. All loan inquiries are subject to lender underwriting; this article does not constitute a commitment to lend. Rates, terms, and program guidelines are subject to change without notice and vary by borrower profile, property type, and state. Information in this article is general in nature and is not financial, legal, or tax advice. Equal Housing Opportunity. NMLS Consumer Access: nmlsconsumeraccess.org.