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
The largest loan on the asset qualifier path is $4,000,000, provided the usable assets equal or exceed it; the asset depletion path tops out at $3,500,000. Neither figure is a quote, and the lender’s own calculation of the usable assets governs the amount.
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
The leverage ceilings are 80% for a purchase and 75% for a refinance on the asset qualifier path, and 80% for a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% for a cash-out on the asset depletion path, both on a principal residence or second home. The leverage table shows the investment-property row.
Credited under 59½, and at 59½ or older, when assets cover the loan; 70% at any age when assets become income
The age line at 59½ is a program rule, not a tax rule, though it echoes one: below it the asset qualifier path credits 90% of a retirement balance, above it 100%. The asset depletion path ignores age and counts 70% of the balance before dividing by the months.
| 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.
This page describes program parameters, not an offer. The amounts, the credit floor, the leverage, the credit shares, the haircuts, and the seasoning are wholesale guidelines, subject to change without notice and to full underwriting; the statements, the credit report, and the appraisal decide every file. The calculator is illustrative and the lender’s own calculation governs. Lendmire is a mortgage broker, not a lender, licensed for consumer mortgages in sixteen states. NMLS #2371349.
What an asset-based mortgage is — and how the two paths qualify a file.
The asset-based program is one program with two doors. Through the first, a Carmel buyer walks in with statements that add up to the loan and leaves employment and income out of the file entirely. Through the second, a buyer whose balances do not cover the loan walks in with the same statements and the lender turns them into a monthly figure to test against the payment. The cards below describe each door and the rules at the threshold.
For the program overview, see Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program, or the statewide guide at Asset-Based Mortgage in Indiana; 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 a Carmel 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
Two months of statements for each qualifying account document the path, and the balances are read as they stand after the credit percentages. The credit floor is published; the leverage is published; the largest loan is published. What the lender settles file by file is which accounts are eligible and how the age rule applies to each retirement account, and a Carmel loan officer settles that before an offer is written.
The asset depletion path
On the asset depletion path the lender applies a haircut to each account type, adds up what remains, and divides the total by a fixed number of months to produce a monthly qualifying income. Cash and certificates of deposit count in full, securities at a lower share, private stock lower still, retirement accounts lower again regardless of age, and real-estate equity lowest. A Carmel file then runs through the debt-to-income test with the new payment included.
Seasoning, statements, and what counts
The statements are read twice on a Carmel file: first for seasoning, two months on the asset qualifier path and a statement at least four months old plus the latest one on the asset depletion path, then for how much of each eligible account counts. Covering the loan credits most accounts in full and retirement accounts by the owner’s age; converting assets into income applies haircuts by account type and ignores age. The same balance sheet produces two usable totals, and the loan officer shows both before underwriting settles the path.
Every input below is yours: the Carmel 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.
Carmel’s market in figures — and how asset-based lending fits.
An asset-based mortgage is written against the top of a local market, and these are Carmel’s numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau: the population, the median home value, the share of households that own, and the owner households the program is sized against. Program figures live in the snapshot above; the figures here describe the market, not the file.
Read the figures as backdrop. These are context figures, not underwriting inputs. A typical value sets the scale of the loan, the ownership share says how many households are likely to be buyers rather than renters, and the owner count says how wide the comparable pool is when the appraisal is written.
Data sources: U.S. Census Bureau — ACS 5-Year (2024) housing and population estimates, including tenure, home values, gross rents, and household income.
Distinct Carmel neighborhoods, distinct asset files.
The Carmel market breaks into submarkets, and an asset-based mortgage reads differently in each: a condominium near the center, a second home on the water, an estate on acreage, a rental on the far side of town. The cards describe the typical file in each and what the path choice turns on there.
Close-in architect-designed homes
Value drives the leverage on a one-of-a-kind Carmel home; the accounts drive the rest. A loan officer runs the file at the contract price and at a lower appraised value so the buyer knows the margin on both before the offer. A margin above the loan is the usual protection. On a home in Carmel priced at or above the median, the asset qualifier path finances up to 80% of the price on a purchase — the balance of the price is the down payment, and the usable assets must cover the loan itself.
Two-to-four-unit homes
The owner-occupant in a Carmel duplex or fourplex is read as a principal-residence buyer on the asset rules; the pure investor is read on the depletion path alone. Property eligibility for multi-unit homes follows the placing lender, and a loan officer confirms it before the path is chosen. Roughly 28,551 Carmel households own their homes on the latest Census estimate — 74% of all households, the pool an asset-based purchase joins.
Newer luxury infill and new construction
Builder inventory and new infill in Carmel are bought on assets by households that have just sold something larger. The proceeds season (two months of statements on the asset qualifier path, longer on the depletion path), the credited total is measured against the new loan, and the file is placed on the path the total supports. The median owner-occupied home value in Carmel runs near $486,800 on the latest Census estimate.
High-rise and luxury condominiums
Carmel’s high-rise and luxury condominiums draw the buyers the program is built for: a household downsizing from a house it owns outright, with the proceeds in a brokerage account and no salary to show. The unit is a principal residence or a second home on either path, the dues enter the depletion ratio, and the lender’s project review runs alongside the asset review. Median household income in Carmel sits near $141,505 on the latest Census estimate.
Second homes and pied-à-terre purchases
A Carmel pied-à-terre bought by a household whose principal residence is elsewhere is a second-home file at the second-home leverage on either path. The asset qualifier path covers the loan with the statements; the depletion path converts them. Neither asks about the income that supports the other home. About 26% of Carmel’s households rent — roughly 9,875 renter households on the latest Census estimate.
Estate properties
Carmel’s estate properties are where the program’s largest loans are written, and where the asset qualifier path is most often the fit: a balance sheet that covers a loan at the top of the program with no income in the file. The appraisal on an estate is usually the slowest and hardest part of the file; the assets are usually the easy part. Carmel is home to about 102K people and sits within the Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN area.
Whichever Carmel neighborhood the home sits in, the asset-based questions are the same: which accounts count, at what share, whether the total covers the loan, and if not, what income the depletion path produces. The cards are context; the snapshot is the rule.
Four ways Carmel buyers put their assets to work.
What a Carmel buyer does with an asset-based mortgage depends on the balance sheet and the occupancy. The four uses below cover the typical purchases and refinances, with the path, the leverage, and the account rules that apply to each.
Finance a second home or a rental on assets
Second homes are a natural fit: a Carmel household with a portfolio and a principal residence elsewhere buys the second home on assets, covering the loan outright when the balances allow and depleting them into income when they do not. Rentals follow the depletion path’s investment ceiling and its cash-out rules.
Buy a home on assets alone, with no income in the file
The defining use of the program is the purchase qualified on the balances: brokerage, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and retirement accounts credited by the owner’s age, adding up to the loan. For a Carmel retiree the file is the statements and the credit report, and the home can be the principal residence or a second one.
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. A Carmel 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.
Keep the investments invested
For a Carmel buyer weighing a cash purchase against a mortgage, the asset-based program offers the mortgage without the income file. The assets are counted on paper, the home is financed, and the portfolio stays invested. A loan officer shows the two paths on the actual balances before the offer is written.
Measure a Carmel loan against the assets before requesting a review.
The starting figures are a Carmel 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.
Carmel asset coverage estimate
The starting figures are a Carmel 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 $675,000 price above the Carmel 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 Indiana (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.
A Carmel 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.
Business or personal deposits over a run of statements, read as income with an expense factor, for the self-employed owner whose tax returns understate the business. Balances are not the point; cash flow is. Leverage and reserves follow that program’s own matrix. 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 a Carmel 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 a Carmel 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 Carmel 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.
Local details that can change the loan.
These are the questions a Carmel loan officer asks before recommending a path, because each can change the loan: the retirement credit, the seasoning, the eligible accounts, the occupancy, and the leverage for the purpose. None is a surprise if it is asked early.
Use these checks to keep the Carmel file clean and fundable.
The checklist for a Carmel 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: each retirement account is credited by its owner’s age on the asset qualifier path.
- 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 a Carmel 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. A Carmel file with a clean trail seasons without friction; one with unexplained deposits waits.
Large and recent deposits
A large recent deposit is read, not ignored. A transfer between the borrower’s own accounts is documented as a transfer; proceeds of a sale are documented with the closing or the purchase agreement; a gift is documented as a gift. A Carmel file with a deposit that cannot be explained is a file with a smaller usable total, because the lender sets the deposit aside.
The minimum-assets rule on the depletion path
When depletion income is the only income in the file, the pool of qualified assets must meet a minimum: the lesser of a stated amount or a multiple of the loan balance, and never below a liquid floor. A Carmel buyer with a small loan clears it easily; a buyer with a large loan and a modest pool may not, and the minimum is read before the income is even calculated.
Which accounts count
Not every balance is an asset to the program. Brokerage, savings, money market, certificates of deposit, and retirement accounts count. 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. A Carmel loan officer sorts the statements into the two piles first.
From a Carmel asset review to keys in hand.
Four steps carry a Carmel asset-based loan from review to closing. Nothing on this page commits anyone to lend; the written terms come from a licensed loan officer after the review, and the appraisal and the underwriting decide the rest.
Asset review
The first conversation settles the shape of a Carmel 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 a Carmel 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
Conditions, when they come, are usually documentary: a missing statement page, a deposit without its source, an account that needs its holdings shown. A Carmel buyer who gathered the list on this page meets most of them before they are asked. The underwriter’s questions are the loan officer’s questions asked a second time, on the same statements.
Closing
At closing the down payment and the closing costs are paid, the loan funds, and the accounts that qualified the file stay where they were. The lender reads the balances as they stand after the funds to close are drawn, which is why a Carmel file keeps a margin above the threshold.
A brokerage that reads both paths.
Lendmire is a mortgage brokerage licensed for consumer lending in sixteen states, and on an asset-based file the brokerage’s job is to read the balance sheet against both paths, place the loan with the wholesale program that fits, and put the terms in writing. The lender is never named on these pages; the arithmetic is.
Both paths, one set of statements
A Carmel 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: a Carmel 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 Carmel loan officer’s written terms are what the buyer relies on.
Trusted by buyers & families alike.
Carmel asset-based mortgage FAQs
The questions below are the ones a Carmel 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 a Carmel household with wealth and little income on paper, it is often the mortgage that fits.
How does the asset qualifier path work?
It covers the loan with the balances. Brokerage, savings, money market, and certificates of deposit count in full; retirement accounts count at a reduced share under 59½ and in full from 59½ on; the accounts combine. A Carmel buyer whose credited total reaches the loan is written on this path with two months of statements per account.
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?
A 401(k), a traditional or Roth IRA, and similar employer plans are read the same way: by the owner’s age on the asset qualifier path and at a flat haircut on the depletion path. Vested balances count; stock options and unvested restricted stock do not. A Carmel loan officer confirms each account’s treatment at the review.
What credit score does an asset-based mortgage need?
Credit enters through a floor on one path and a matrix on the other, with the housing history read on the depletion path. The figure for the asset qualifier floor is in the snapshot; the depletion path’s requirement depends on the loan amount and the leverage, and a loan officer names it for the specific Carmel file.
How long do the assets need to be in the accounts?
Two months on one path, a statement at least four months old plus a current one on the other. Transfers between the borrower’s own accounts are traced rather than treated as new money; large deposits are documented with their source. A Carmel file with a clean trail seasons without friction.
What sets the timeline on an asset-based mortgage?
The program sets no closing date of its own; the contract, the appraisal, and the completeness of the file set the pace. The seasoning is the one timing rule the program itself imposes: two months of statements on the asset qualifier path, longer on the depletion path except for excused funds. A Carmel loan officer reads the calendar at the review.
How much can I borrow against the price or the value?
Leverage and the asset threshold work together on the asset qualifier path: lowering the loan with a larger down payment lowers the usable total needed to cover it. The calculator shows the largest loan the assets would cover inside the ceiling for the purpose chosen.
Do I need to show any income at all?
No tax returns, no pay stubs, no bank statement income calculation on the asset qualifier path. The file is the statements for the qualifying accounts, the credit report, and the appraisal. The depletion path adds a ratio test using the income the assets produce.
Are reserves required?
Not on the asset qualifier path at or below the refinance leverage; above it the lender sets the requirement. The depletion path lists no reserve months of its own, though the assets producing the income are by nature in reserve. A Carmel loan officer confirms what, if anything, must be held after closing.
A Carmel mortgage sized to the balance sheet, not the pay stub.
When you are ready, a Carmel review sizes the loan, settles the path and the leverage, and produces written terms. Nothing on this page commits anyone to lend.
This guide covers Carmel — for the statewide guidelines, markets, and scenarios, see Asset-Based Mortgage in Indiana, part of Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage program.
Nearby markets in Indiana: Anderson · Bloomington
Related programs: Bank Statement Loans · Jumbo Loans · Super Jumbo Bank Statement Loans