The Quick Read: A pro athlete, musician or actor can qualify for a home loan on the balances in their own accounts instead of on a contract or pay history, through select programs where eligible assets either cover the whole loan or are converted into monthly qualifying income, subject to underwriting.
- Assets are documented. No income documentation never means no documentation. Lenders review account statements and how long the money has been in place.
- Qualifier path. Eligible assets, after the credit percentages, must equal or exceed the entire loan. Loans run up to $4,000,000, with up to 80% loan-to-value on a purchase of a principal residence or second home.
- Depletion path. Usable assets divided by 60 months become monthly qualifying income, which then runs through a debt-to-income test.
- Contract promises do not count. Unpaid contract money, deferred compensation, stock options and non-vested restricted stock units are not eligible. Loan-out balances count only after they reach your personal accounts and season.
- Rentals are a separate track. A rental purchase usually moves to a DSCR loan, which qualifies primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines.
Why Contracts Don’t Turn Into Paper Income
A contract is a promise of future pay. A mortgage underwriter wants proof of money you already hold or income you can document. That gap is where athletes and entertainers get stuck.
Athletes face four problems. The headline contract total can be much larger than the money the team is actually obligated to pay. Careers are short. Pay swings from year to year. And business deductions and entity structures can make a tax return look far smaller than gross earnings.
Entertainers have a different version of the same problem. Actors, musicians, producers and creators are paid by the project. Residuals and royalties arrive in lumps. Income often flows through a loan-out company before it reaches you. A strong year can be followed by a long gap between projects.
Standard income-based underwriting prefers a long, steady, documented history. A trade explainer on non-QM lending sorts these alternatives into bank statement, DSCR and asset-based types. The asset-based types skip the question of what your contract says. They ask what you own.
One more distinction matters. A contract-secured loan is not a mortgage. It is a short-term loan that uses the contract as collateral. American Banker’s reporting on banking pro athletes describes these loans as typically running the length of the contract. This article is about the other thing: a mortgage on a home, qualified on your assets.
Key Terms Defined
Non-QM loan: A mortgage that falls outside standard agency rules and is underwritten to its own program guidelines.
Asset qualifier: A path where eligible assets, after credit percentages, must equal or exceed the entire loan, with no employment or income documented.
Asset depletion: A path where eligible assets are converted into monthly qualifying income, which must carry the housing payment and other debts.
Credit percentage (haircut): The share of an account balance that counts toward qualifying. A balance counted at 80% is haircut by 20%.
Seasoning: The length of time money has sat in your account, shown through statements.
Loan-out company: A business entity that receives your pay and then pays you, common among actors, musicians and some athletes.
DSCR (debt service coverage ratio): Property rent measured against the full housing payment. A DSCR loan is the usual tool for buying a rental.
How Asset-Based Qualification Works, Step by Step
Across the wholesale network Lendmire works with, asset-based qualification follows the same logic. You qualify on one path at a time, never both at once. Each path has its own credit percentages, leverage limits and seasoning rules.
Path one: the asset qualifier
The lender adds up your eligible assets after applying credit percentages. That total must equal or exceed the entire loan amount. You document no employment and no income. Lendmire’s piece How to Qualify for a Mortgage Using Assets Instead of Income covers this path in more depth.
Key figures, through select programs and subject to underwriting:
- Loans run up to $4,000,000.
- Leverage reaches up to 80% on a purchase and 75% on a refinance, for a principal residence or second home.
- The credit score floor is 600.
- Seasoning is 60 days, with two months of statements for each qualifying account.
- No reserves are required at or below 75% loan-to-value. Above that, the lender sets them.
Whether cash-out proceeds are allowed on this path is set by the lender and is not published, so plan as if you will not get cash out.
Here is an illustration. Picture a veteran player buying a principal residence with an $800,000 loan. He holds $330,000 in brokerage accounts (counted at 100%, so $330,000). He holds $300,000 in a 401(k) and is under 59½ (counted at 90%, so $270,000). He holds $200,000 in savings (counted at 100%, so $200,000). Usable assets total $800,000, which matches the loan, so he is reviewed on assets alone. The lender’s own calculation governs the real file.
Path two: asset depletion
The lender applies the haircuts, adds the usable total, and divides it by 60 months. The result is monthly qualifying income. That income must carry the full housing payment and your other debts through the debt-to-income test.
- Loans run from $125,000 to $3,500,000.
- Leverage reaches up to 80% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out refinance, for a principal residence or second home.
- On an investment property, leverage reaches up to 65% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out.
- Cash-out proceeds never count as qualifying assets.
- The credit score follows the lender’s matrix. A first-time investor on this path needs 700.
- Housing history is 0x30x12. One 30-day late in the last twelve months is considered case by case. Multiple bankruptcies are not eligible.
- Statements must be 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 that seasoning.
- Qualified assets must be at least the lesser of $1,000,000 or 1.25 times the loan. When asset depletion is your only income source, you also need at least $250,000 in liquid assets.
Say a producer between projects holds $1,500,000 in securities (counted at 80%, so $1,200,000) and $300,000 in cash (counted at 100%, so $300,000). Usable assets are $1,500,000. Divided by 60 months, that is $25,000 of monthly qualifying income. That income then carries the housing payment and other debts through the debt-to-income test.
If you also have documented income, asset-derived income can supplement it up to a 45% debt-to-income ratio. When it supplements, the minimum-assets rule is waived.
What counts and what doesn’t
Credit percentages differ by path. These are the qualifier-path figures:
| Asset (qualifier path) | Share that counts |
|---|---|
| Brokerage accounts | 100% |
| CDs, money market, savings | 100% |
| 401(k) or IRA, under age 59½ | 90% |
| 401(k) or IRA, age 59½ or older | 100% |
These are the depletion-path figures:
| Asset (depletion path) | Share that counts |
|---|---|
| Cash accounts and CDs | 100% |
| Securities | 80% |
| Private stock | 75% |
| Retirement accounts, any age | 70% |
| Real-estate equity | 60% |
Several things do not count on the depletion path at all: custodial accounts, deferred compensation, escrow accounts, foreign funds, cash on hand, stock options, non-vested restricted stock units and funds from non-regulated financial companies.
Other asset classes are not published as eligible on either path. These include cryptocurrency, precious metals, collectibles, business accounts beyond your ownership share, and pledged or borrowed funds. The documented route is to convert them to cash, deposit that cash in a regulated account, season it, and let the lender review the source.
Athletes: Signing Bonuses, Protected Money and Endorsements
For an athlete, the contract is the story and the lender mostly ignores it. A signing bonus that has landed in your account is simply cash. It counts like any other balance once it meets the seasoning rules and the source is reviewed. A bonus you are still owed does not count at all.
The same goes for the rest of the contract. Money the team has not yet paid is not an asset. The headline total, the incentive clauses and the option years all fall outside the file. Deferred compensation, stock options and non-vested restricted stock units are not eligible on the depletion path.
Endorsement and appearance money works the same way. The deposits become assets when they sit in a personal or joint account you own. The stream itself is not counted as income on an asset-only file.
This is why the asset route suits the short earning window. You are not asking a lender to bet on year six of a career. You are showing what you hold today.
Entertainers: Royalties, Residuals and Loan-Out Money
For entertainers, the big question is where the money sits. Pay often lands in a loan-out company first. That company’s account belongs to the business, not to you.
Business accounts count only up to your ownership share, and the published route is clearer than that. Distribute the money to your personal account at a regulated institution. Then let it season. A lender reviewing the file will want a clean paper trail from the entity to your name, with statements showing the distributions.
Timing matters. A pattern of regular, documented distributions looks very different from a large transfer the week before you apply. Move money well ahead of the application, and keep the records. Tax treatment varies, so consult a qualified professional before moving large sums out of an entity.
Royalty catalogs and residual streams are not published as eligible assets. Their value does not count while they remain a stream. The cash they generate counts once it is paid, deposited and seasoned. If you sell a catalog, the sale proceeds become cash in your account, and the lender reviews that source.
What About Buying a Rental?
Much of the above covers a home you will live in, either a principal residence or a second home. If you are buying a rental, you can often skip the contract-income debate altogether. A DSCR loan is reviewed primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines. The lender also reviews your credit, down payment and reserves.
DSCR loans are designed for non-owner-occupied investment properties. Because they are business-purpose investor loans, they are reviewed differently from a standard owner-occupied mortgage. The CFPB’s business-purpose exemption weighs the loan’s primary purpose, and federal rulemaking treats investment-purpose loans as business-purpose. That treatment can be lost if you expect to live in the property for more than 14 days in the coming year, or if the cash-out proceeds go to personal spending.
DSCR does not work for a primary home. Some select lenders in the network review properties that fall below 1.00 coverage, but leverage and terms adjust. If the rent comes up short, the depletion path on an investment property is a possible alternative, at the 65% and 60% limits above. Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide covers rental financing in detail.
The strongest strategy keeps the two apart. Finance the home on your assets. Finance each rental on its rent. Each loan is underwritten differently, and neither one uses the other’s paperwork.
When Asset-Based Is the Wrong Tool
Asset-based financing is not always the best fit. This table compares the main approaches:
| Approach | What the program reviews | Main tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Asset qualifier | Eligible assets vs. whole loan | Needs large seasoned balances |
| Asset depletion | Assets turned into income | Haircuts and lower leverage |
| Bank statement | Deposits as income | Needs a deposit history |
| DSCR | Property rent vs. payment | Rentals only |
| Contract-secured loan | The contract itself | Short-term, not a mortgage |
Look elsewhere in these cases:
- You are buying a rental. Use DSCR.
- Your wealth is mostly unpaid contract money or illiquid holdings. Those items do not count until they become cash.
- You document steady income through deposits. A bank statement program is built for borrowers who document income with deposits.
- You want cash out on the qualifier path. Cash-out terms there are not published.
Borrowing against a portfolio at a private bank is a separate product. Lenders set those terms, and a falling market can force you to add collateral or repay. Assets that back a loan are different from assets that qualify you.
Life stage changes the answer too. A rookie often has little seasoned cash yet, so the first move is building balances in accounts you own. A mid-career player often has the strongest file. Retired athletes, and entertainers between projects, are in the exact situation depletion was built for: large balances, little current documented income.
Documents to Gather
Athletes:
- Statements for every account you want counted.
- A record of where the signing bonus landed.
- Documentation of any large deposit.
- Retirement account statements, with your age on file.
Entertainers:
- Personal account statements showing the distributions.
- Loan-out entity documents and records of each transfer.
- Proof of sale for any catalog or business interest.
- Brokerage and retirement statements.
Both:
- Government ID and credit authorization.
- Housing history for the past twelve months.
- Purchase contract and appraisal access for the property.
The Process, in Order
1. Inventory every account, including what sits in an entity.
2. Move and season any money that needs to be in your personal name.
3. Choose the path with your broker. Qualifier or depletion is a decision about your balances, not your contract.
4. The lender reviews statements, applies credit percentages and checks your credit.
5. The property is appraised, and title and insurance are reviewed.
6. Underwriting makes the final call.
7. The loan closes once underwriting clears.
Business managers and CPAs can assemble the statements. You stay the borrower. The asset-based loan is a consumer mortgage, so standard consumer mortgage disclosures apply. A DSCR loan is business-purpose and exempt from those disclosure rules. For a plain-language overview of the whole product, see Lendmire’s explainer on how an assets-only mortgage works.
Lendmire’s consumer mortgage lending is licensed in 16 states: Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington. Check that your state is on the list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can money I’m owed under a contract count as an asset?
No. Unpaid contract money is a promise, not a balance. Once it is paid and deposited in your own account, it counts like any other cash, after seasoning and a review of the source.
Can I use my 401(k) or IRA?
Yes, through select programs. On the qualifier path, balances count at 90% if you are under 59½ and 100% at 59½ or older. On the depletion path, retirement accounts count at 70% at any age. Each is subject to underwriting.
Does the money in my loan-out company count?
Not while it sits in the business account. Business accounts count only up to your ownership share, and the documented route is to distribute the funds to your personal account at a regulated institution and let them season.
What credit score do I need?
The qualifier path has a 600 minimum. The depletion path follows the lender’s score and loan-amount matrix, and a first-time investor on that path needs 700. A housing history of 0x30x12 is expected, with one late in twelve months considered case by case.
Can I buy a rental with this?
Only on the depletion path, at up to 65% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out for an investment property. Most rental buyers use a DSCR loan, which looks at the property’s rent instead of your finances.
Next Step
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. Reach the team at 828-256-2183. Programs change, every file is underwritten individually, and nothing here is a commitment to lend.
About Lendmire
Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a mortgage brokerage serving self-employed and high-net-worth borrowers in 16 states. Bank statement, P&L-only, 1099-only and asset-based mortgages are arranged through wholesale lending channels; Lendmire brokers the financing and the lender underwrites each application. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. accreditedschools.com: Non QM Loans Explained Bank Statement DSCR and Asset Based Loans
2. American Banker, banking pro athletes
4. Federal Register, Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage Standards final rule
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 Assets-Only Mortgage Loan Limits Work · How Asset Depletion Mortgage Eligible Assets Work on a Jumbo Loan · How to Qualify for an Assets-Only 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.