Current asset-based guidelines, updated from one source.
Treat these as the program’s limits rather than an offer: the largest loan on each path, the credit floor, the maximum leverage, and the retirement-account credit on either side of the age line. The tables beneath the cards are the working rules a loan officer applies to the statements, and they change here when the sheets change.
Up to $4,000,000 on assets alone; $3,500,000 when assets become income
Loan size follows the path. Covering the loan outright with usable assets reaches $4,000,000; spreading a pool of assets into a monthly income reaches $3,500,000 and starts at $125,000. The amount on either path is a program parameter, subject to the lender’s guidelines at lock.
The asset qualifier path’s published floor; the depletion path follows the suite’s score and amount matrix
The published floor is 600 for the asset qualifier path. The asset depletion path prices by score tier inside the documentation suite’s matrix, and the leverage available at a given score falls as the loan grows. Either way the score is one input among several, settled in underwriting.
That ceiling on a purchase and 75% on a refinance when assets cover the loan; 60% on a depletion cash-out
Leverage tops out at 80% on a purchase whichever path carries the file. The paths part on the refinance: 75% when the assets cover the loan, and on the depletion side 80% for a rate-and-term and 60% for a cash-out. Investment property, available on the depletion path only, is capped lower.
Credited under 59½, and at 59½ or older, when assets cover the loan; 70% at any age when assets become income
A 401(k) or IRA is credited at 90% of its balance for an owner under 59½ and 100% for an owner at 59½ or older on the asset qualifier path; the asset depletion path counts a flat 70% of the balance. Brokerage, savings, money market, and certificates of deposit count in full when the assets cover the loan.
| Account type | Credit toward the loan |
|---|---|
| Brokerage accounts (stocks, bonds, funds) | 100% of the balance |
| Certificates of deposit | 100% of the balance |
| Money market accounts | 100% of the balance |
| Savings and checking | 100% of the balance |
| Retirement accounts (401(k), IRA) — owner under 59½ | 90% of the balance |
| Retirement accounts (401(k), IRA) — owner 59½ or older | 100% of the balance |
| Account type | Share counted |
|---|---|
| Cash accounts | 100% of the balance |
| Certificates of deposit | 100% of the balance |
| Securities (stocks, bonds, funds) | 80% of the balance |
| Private stock | 75% of the balance |
| Retirement accounts (any age) | 70% of the balance |
| Real-estate equity | 60% of the balance |
| Path and occupancy | Purchase | Rate-and-term | Cash-out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset qualifier — primary residence or second home | 80% | 75% | set by the lender |
| Asset depletion — primary residence | 80% | 80% | 60% |
| Asset depletion — second home | 80% | 80% | 60% |
| Asset depletion — investment property | 65% | 65% | 60% |
Two paths behind these pages: on the asset qualifier path the usable assets must equal or exceed the whole loan and no employment or income is documented; on the asset depletion path the usable assets are divided across the published number of months (the table above) into a qualifying income that carries the housing payment and other debts through the debt-to-income test. Reserves are not required on the qualifier path at or below the refinance leverage; the depletion path asks for statements at least one hundred twenty days old plus a current one. Minimum assets on the depletion path: the lesser of one million dollars or one and a quarter times the loan, never below a quarter million liquid when assets are the only income. Lendmire is a broker, not the lender, and the lender is not named.
Current asset-based snapshot · updated October 21, 2026 · a Lendmire loan officer confirms the path, the asset credit, and the leverage for the file before an offer.
For informational purposes only. This is not a commitment to lend or extend credit, an offer, or a quote. Program parameters shown are wholesale lender guidelines in force on the date shown, are subject to change without notice, and every figure depends on the borrower, the property, the occupancy, the selected path, and full underwriting. Asset credit percentages and the qualifying arithmetic shown are illustrative; the lender’s own calculation governs. Lendmire is a mortgage broker, not a lender, licensed to broker consumer mortgages in sixteen states. NMLS #2371349.
What an asset-based mortgage is — and how the two paths qualify a file.
The program’s distinguishing rule is how much of an account it counts, and that it will count retirement money on the path that documents no income at all. For an Alabama household living on a portfolio, the practical questions are which path fits, how each account type is credited, and how long the money needs to have been in place. The four cards answer them in order.
For the program overview, see Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program; for the age rule on retirement withdrawals, see the IRS.
Two paths, one program
The asset qualifier path and the asset depletion path share a premise and differ in arithmetic. Both qualify an Alabama buyer on eligible accounts rather than earnings. The first requires the usable assets to equal or exceed the entire loan and documents no employment or income; the second does not require the assets to cover the loan: it converts them into a monthly income and runs that income through the debt-to-income test with the new payment included.
The asset qualifier path
No employment and no income is documented on this path. That is not a loophole; it is the structure. The lender’s ability-to-repay review rests on the assets themselves, which is why they must cover the whole loan rather than a share of it. An Alabama retiree whose statements add up to the loan amount is qualified without a tax return, a pay stub, or a bank statement income calculation.
The asset depletion path
The path exists for the household whose assets are substantial but short of the loan. The minimum is a stated pool of qualified assets or a multiple of the loan balance, whichever is less, with a floor on liquid assets when the depletion income is the only income in the file. When the asset income merely supplements documented earnings, the minimum-assets rule is waived and the combined ratio may run to forty-five percent.
Seasoning, statements, and what counts
Seasoning is the proof that the assets are the borrower’s to keep: two months of statements on the asset qualifier path, older statements plus the current one on the asset depletion path. Large recent deposits inside that window are read, not ignored: a transfer between the borrower’s own accounts is documented as such, a sale of property or a business with its paperwork, and a gift under the lender’s gift rules. An Alabama file that shows the trail cleanly meets fewer questions in underwriting.
Every input below is yours: the Alabama price, the loan, the balances by account type, the owner’s age against the age line, the benchmark, and the carrying costs. The calculator credits the accounts the way the asset qualifier path does, converts them the way the asset depletion path does, and shows the loan against each, with a thirty-year payment at the benchmark for context.
Alabama’s market in figures — and how asset-based lending fits.
Values set the loan the assets must cover or carry, and values differ across Alabama more than most people expect. Two of the Census figures below describe the state as a whole and two the markets Lendmire tracks within it.
Statewide figures provide general market context, not an appraisal or an income calculation. A high median value means a larger loan for the assets to cover and a larger monthly income for the depletion path to produce; a lower one means the same balance sheet goes further. The owner share says how established the market is, and the owner count how deep the comparable sales run.
Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 5-Year (2024) housing and population estimates, including tenure, home values, gross rents, and household income.
Where Alabama’s asset-rich buyers borrow — market by market.
Six Alabama markets, six local guides. What stays constant is the program; what changes is the price the assets must cover and the submarkets where asset-rich buyers borrow.
Huntsville
With owner households around 55,540, about 58% of households, Huntsville is a metropolitan market with a deep upper tier, and an asset-based mortgage is how the asset-rich, income-light part of that tier is financed. Census context: median value near $293,600, median household income near $74,714, population near 223K.
Mobile
Mobile carries one of the largest owner-household counts in Lendmire’s Alabama footprint, near 45,665, about 54% of households, and in a metropolitan market of that depth the households whose wealth sits in accounts rather than paychecks are a market of their own. Census context: median value near $193,300, median household income near $53,558, population near 203K.
Montgomery
Near 44,189 Montgomery households own (54% of the total); at the top of that market are the retirees, business sellers, and investors who buy on assets rather than income, and the asset-based paths are written for them. Census context: median value near $161,900, median household income near $56,811, population near 197K.
Birmingham
With owner households around 40,402, about 45% of households, Birmingham is a metropolitan market with a deep upper tier, and an asset-based mortgage is how the asset-rich, income-light part of that tier is financed. Census context: median value near $158,800, median household income near $46,051, population near 198K.
Hoover
Near 26,322 Hoover households own (71% of the total); at the top of that market are the retirees, business sellers, and investors who buy on assets rather than income, and the asset-based paths are written for them. Census context: median value near $412,200, median household income near $109,253, population near 93K.
Tuscaloosa
Tuscaloosa’s roughly 18,118 owner households (43% of the total) sit in a metropolitan market where a retiree or a seller of a business buys on the strength of the accounts, not the pay stub. Census context: median value near $255,500, median household income near $51,464, population near 111K.
From the largest Alabama market to the smallest, the file is qualified the same way: accounts sorted, shares applied, total against the loan or divided into income, leverage checked, credit read. A cash-out refinance follows the state’s home-equity rules where the state has them, and the loan officer confirms them before the path is chosen.
Four ways Alabama buyers put their assets to work.
Four ways Alabama buyers put the program to work, from a principal residence bought on assets alone to a rental financed on depletion income. Each use names the path and the detail that most often decides the file.
Keep the investments invested
An Alabama household that could pay cash often prefers not to: selling the portfolio interrupts its income and empties accounts that took decades to build, and the sale itself has consequences a tax adviser, not a lender, should weigh. The asset-based mortgage lets the assets qualify the loan while staying where they are. The accounts are documented, not drawn down, and neither path requires the balances to be moved.
Buy after a liquidity event, before the next venture
A liquidity event produces exactly the balance sheet the program is built for: assets well above the loan and earnings that have paused. An Alabama buyer in that position covers the loan on the asset qualifier path with no income in the file, or, if the proceeds are smaller, converts them into income on the depletion path with the seasoning excused.
Refinance a home the assets already stand behind
An Alabama owner with a mortgage written on income that no longer exists on paper refinances on the asset qualifier path when the usable assets cover the new loan. The refinance leverage sits below the purchase leverage; whether cash can be taken out on this path, and at what leverage, is set by the lender and is not published.
Buy a home on assets alone, with no income in the file
When the balance sheet covers the loan, an Alabama household keeps the income question out of the file entirely. The lender credits the accounts, confirms the total against the loan, checks the leverage for a purchase, and reads the credit report; reserves are not required at or below the refinance leverage, and the path reaches well into the jumbo range.
Measure an Alabama loan against the assets before requesting a review.
The starting figures are an Alabama price above the median, a loan at a share of the price inside both paths’ purchase leverage, and a balance sheet split among cash, brokerage, and retirement accounts with the owner under 59½. Change any of them. The verdict, the margin, the depletion income, and the payment update as you type.
Alabama asset coverage estimate
The starting figures are an Alabama price in the upper part of the market with a loan at seventy percent of it and a balance sheet that covers the loan at the under-59½ retirement credit. Every field is editable, and the benchmark updates weekly from the Freddie Mac series.
Editable benchmark: 7.40% as of October 15, 2026 · Freddie Mac 30-year average via FRED®. A conventional market reference, not an asset-based mortgage quote.
Illustrative starting assumptions: a $500,000 price above the Alabama median, a loan at seventy percent of the price, a balance sheet split among cash, brokerage, and retirement accounts with the owner under 59½, a thirty-year payment at the current Freddie Mac conforming benchmark, property taxes and insurance estimated for Alabama (U.S. Census Bureau). Every field is editable.
Illustrative estimate only — not a Loan Estimate, approval, quote, or commitment to lend. The credit percentages, the haircuts, and the divisor are wholesale program parameters hydrated from Lendmire’s guideline endpoint; the lender’s own calculation governs, and which accounts count, how they season, and what the age rule allows are settled in underwriting. The rate field carries the weekly Freddie Mac thirty-year conforming benchmark, a market reference and not an asset-based mortgage quote; the terms on an asset-based mortgage are set by the lender at lock. Taxes and insurance are estimates. Nothing here is tax or investment advice.
Same buyer, three ways to document the file.
An Alabama buyer who cannot document income the conventional way has three documentation routes in this program family, and the routes are not interchangeable: assets that cover the loan, assets converted into income, or business deposits read as income. The cards below put the three side by side on the questions that separate them.
Assets that cover the loan, assets as income, or deposits as income.
When the credited balances reach the loan, nothing else about income needs to be shown. The trade is the threshold: the assets must cover the loan itself, not a share of it, and investment property is not on this path. Reserves are not required at or below the refinance leverage, and the file is the statements, the credit report, and the appraisal.
Haircut assets divided by the divisor into a monthly income, then the debt-to-income test with the new payment. Principal residences, second homes, and investment property; purchase, rate-and-term, and cash-out at published ceilings; a minimum-assets rule when the income stands alone; longer seasoning.
A different question entirely: not what the household owns but what the business brings in. The bank statement loan suits the Alabama owner with strong deposits and modest savings, where the asset-based paths suit the household with strong savings and modest deposits. See Lendmire’s bank statement loan program.
Assets that cover the loan, assets that become income, deposits that become income: three answers to one question, and the right one for an Alabama household is read off its statements. The comparison on this page is run for real on every file before the lender’s terms are put in writing. Loans above the conforming limit on documented income: Lendmire’s jumbo loan program.
What to prepare for an Alabama scenario review.
An asset-based file is documented through statements rather than pay stubs, so the preparation is account-centered: every eligible account, every page of every statement for the required months, and the paperwork behind any large or recent deposit. The list below is the usual Alabama set.
This is a general preparation guide, not a universal checklist. The selected lender may request additional information based on the transaction, the property, the path, the accounts, and the credit picture. Nothing here is legal, tax, or investment advice.
Details that can change the loan.
What changes an asset-based file is rarely the headline figure. It is the retirement balance credited at a lower share because the owner is a year short of the age line, the deposit that has not seasoned, the account type the lender will not count, or the rental occupancy that moves the file to the depletion path. The items below catch them.
Use these checks to keep the Alabama file clean and fundable.
The checklist for an Alabama asset-based file starts with the accounts: the age of each retirement owner, the months of statements, the eligibility of each account type. The path and the leverage follow from the answers.
- Confirm the age rule: the depletion path haircuts retirement balances at a flat share regardless of age.
- Count the months: a sale of a business, an inheritance, or a settlement is excused from the depletion wait.
- Explain the deposits: unexplained deposits are set aside, reducing the usable total.
Retirement accounts and the age line
The owner’s age decides how much of a 401(k) or IRA counts on the asset qualifier path: a reduced share under 59½ and the full balance from 59½ on. For an Alabama file built mostly on retirement money, a birthday can be the difference between covering the loan and falling short, and a loan officer checks the date against the age line before the path is chosen.
Seasoning by path
The lender wants to see that the money has been the borrower’s for a while and is not a loan dressed as an asset. Recent transfers are traced to the account they came from; recent deposits are documented with their source. An Alabama file with a clean trail seasons without friction; one with unexplained deposits waits.
Large and recent deposits
Sale-of-business, inheritance, and legal-settlement funds are excused from the depletion path’s seasoning but still documented with their source. For an Alabama file, the paperwork behind the deposit is as important as the balance, and gathering it early is what keeps the calendar. The source documents travel with the statements.
The minimum-assets rule on the depletion path
The rule exists so that the depletion income rests on a real pool rather than on arithmetic. It is waived when the asset income supplements documented earnings, which is why an Alabama household with a part-time income and meaningful savings is often written as a supplemented file rather than a standalone one.
Leverage by purpose
Whether cash can be taken out on the asset qualifier path, and at what leverage, is set by the lender and not published; the depletion path’s cash-out ceiling is published, and cash-out proceeds never count as assets. An Alabama loan officer confirms the cash-out treatment with the lender before a refinance is structured.
From an Alabama asset review to keys in hand.
The process is short on paperwork about income and long on paperwork about accounts. An Alabama buyer who understands that order, statements first, then contract, then underwriting, then closing, arrives at each step prepared.
Asset review
The first conversation settles the shape of an Alabama file: which path the balances support, what leverage the purpose allows, how long the accounts have seasoned, and whether the usable total clears the loan with a margin. The review names the path, and the loan officer writes the outcome down before any offer is drafted.
Contract and appraisal
The contract sets the price the loan is measured against; the appraisal confirms the value supports it. On an Alabama file where the assets just cover the loan, an appraisal that lands under the price is answered with a larger down payment, which lowers the loan the assets must cover.
Underwriting
Underwriting on an asset-based file is about the accounts: every page of every statement, every large deposit explained, every retirement owner’s age confirmed, the seasoning counted. On the depletion path the ratio is calculated with the new payment; on the asset qualifier path the total is confirmed against the loan.
Closing
The final figures arrive in the closing disclosure, the funds to close are wired from a documented account, and the Alabama home records in the buyer’s name. Nothing about the portfolio changes unless the buyer chose to draw the down payment from it.
A brokerage that reads both paths.
Asset-based files reward careful reading. Which accounts count, at what share, on which path, with what seasoning, at what leverage for the purpose: each is a place where a file placed carelessly costs the buyer a larger down payment or a longer wait. Lendmire reads them in order, before the offer, for every Alabama buyer.
Both paths, one set of statements
An Alabama file is never assumed onto a path. The balances are read both ways, and when the depletion income would supplement documented earnings that version is run as well. The recommendation is the version with the cleanest file and the leverage that fits the purpose. The loan officer shows the arithmetic, not just the answer.
The account rules explained before the offer
Which accounts count, how retirement money is credited by age, how long each account must season, what a large deposit needs behind it: an Alabama buyer hears these before the contract is signed, not after the underwriter asks. The margin above the threshold is shown, so the down payment and the closing costs can be planned around it.
Licensed, consumer-purpose, in writing
Lendmire is a mortgage broker, not a lender, and the lender behind these pages is never named. The program parameters shown are wholesale guidelines, subject to change and to full underwriting; the Alabama loan officer’s written terms are what the buyer relies on.
Trusted by buyers & families alike.
Alabama asset-based mortgage FAQs
The questions below are the ones an Alabama loan officer hears first from a buyer who has assets and no income on paper. The answers describe the program’s rules in words; the figures live in the snapshot above.
What is an asset-based mortgage?
Think of it as the mortgage for the buyer who could pay cash but would rather not. The accounts stay invested, the lender reads them on paper, and the loan is sized to what the usable assets cover or to the income they produce. For an Alabama household with wealth and little income on paper, it is often the mortgage that fits.
How does the asset qualifier path work?
It is the simplest file in the program, and the one that asks the assets to cover the whole loan. For an Alabama retiree with a portfolio equal to the loan, the file is the statements, the credit report, and the appraisal; the age rule on retirement accounts is the detail most often checked.
How does the asset depletion path work?
The assets are haircut by type and divided by the divisor into a monthly income that runs through the ratio test. Seasoning is longer on this path: statements at least four months old plus a current one, with sale-of-business, inheritance, and legal-settlement funds excused. Cash-out refinances have their own ceiling, cash-out proceeds never count as assets, and a first-time investor needs a stronger score than an owner-occupant.
How are 401(k) and IRA balances counted, and why does 59½ matter?
The age line is applied per owner and per account. An Alabama couple with accounts on both sides of 59½ sees each credited by its own owner’s age, and the sum counts against the loan. The accounts are not drawn on; the rule governs the credit, not the custody.
What credit score does an asset-based mortgage need?
A clean recent housing record and a score at or above the floor are the expectation. An Alabama buyer with a strong portfolio and a weak score is not repaired by the portfolio; the credit question is answered first, and the asset question second.
How is this different from a bank statement loan?
Deposits versus balances. The bank statement program applies an expense factor to a run of business deposits and calls the result income. The asset-based program credits or haircuts the balances and either covers the loan or divides them into income. A retiree with no deposits has nothing for the first and everything for the second.
Are reserves required?
The program is light on reserves because the qualifying assets are the reserves. The practical question for an Alabama buyer is whether the down payment and closing costs are drawn from the same accounts that cover the loan, since the lender reads the balances after those draws.
Can I take cash out?
Cash-out is a depletion-path feature with a published ceiling; on the asset qualifier path it is at the lender’s discretion. For an Alabama file the loan officer confirms which path the refinance sits on and what leverage the purpose allows before the new loan is sized.
Which accounts count, and which do not?
Brokerage accounts, savings and checking, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, and retirement accounts count on both paths. Custodial accounts, deferred compensation, escrow balances, foreign funds, cash on hand, stock options, unvested restricted stock, and funds held at non-regulated companies do not. Real-estate equity and private stock count on the depletion path only.
How long does an asset-based mortgage take to close?
The timeline is set by the appraisal, the title work, and the documentation of the accounts, not by the program. An Alabama file whose statements are complete and whose deposits are documented moves on the ordinary purchase calendar; one with unexplained deposits or missing pages waits for them.
An Alabama mortgage sized to the balance sheet, not the pay stub.
Share the balance sheet once; the review covers the asset qualifier path, the asset depletion path, and the alternatives on the same statements. The terms come in writing from a licensed loan officer.
This guide covers Alabama — for the program overview, see Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program.
Related programs: Bank Statement Loans · Jumbo Loans · Super Jumbo Bank Statement Loans