The Quick Read: Only when a select program accepts an investment property on asset depletion, which tops out at 65% loan-to-value on a purchase, and even then most Georgia investors do better with a DSCR loan that qualifies the rental primarily on its own rent while their assets cover the down payment and reserves. Asset depletion is a way of counting your income. It is not a rental-property program. Georgia adds no formula of its own, because the program figures do not change by state.
- Asset depletion turns a pile of eligible assets into a monthly qualifying income, using a 60-month divisor.
- On a rental, the depletion path is the only asset-based path that applies, at 65% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out refinance, subject to underwriting.
- A DSCR loan reads the property’s rent against its payment, so your portfolio does not need to become income.
- The purchase itself shrinks the asset pool that produces the income. A DSCR file avoids that problem.
- Weak rent is the main reason to look at depletion for a rental at all.
Key Terms Defined
Six terms come up again and again below. Here they are in plain words.
- Asset depletion: a method that divides your usable assets by a set number of months to create a monthly qualifying income. Nothing is sold or withdrawn.
- Asset qualifier: a different method that skips income entirely and tests whether your eligible assets cover the whole loan amount.
- Haircut: the share of an account’s balance a lender refuses to count. A 70% credit on a retirement account means a 30% haircut.
- Debt-to-income (DTI): your monthly debts, including the new housing payment, compared with your monthly income.
- Seasoning: how long money has sat in an account before the lender will count it.
- DSCR: debt service coverage ratio. It is the property’s monthly rent divided by its monthly payment for principal, interest, taxes, insurance and association dues.
Can You Use It for a Rental in Georgia?
You can, on one path only. Across Lendmire’s wholesale network, asset-based mortgages come in two forms, and a borrower is reviewed on one at a time. The asset qualifier path covers principal residences and second homes. It does not cover a rental. The asset depletion path is the one that can take an investment property.
That path has real limits. Leverage on an investment property tops out at 65% on a purchase or rate-and-term refinance and 60% on a cash-out refinance, through select programs and subject to underwriting. A principal residence or second home on the same path goes up to 80% on a purchase. Loan sizes run from $125,000 to $3,500,000.
So the gap is 15 points of leverage or more compared with a home you live in. For a rental, you put more cash down to qualify on assets.
Georgia changes none of this. The state does not add a depletion rule to investor loans. Program figures are the same in Atlanta, Savannah or a smaller Georgia town. Lendmire’s consumer mortgage lending is licensed in 16 states, Georgia among them, and the asset-based loans here are consumer mortgages.
How Asset Depletion Income Works
Asset depletion creates income on paper. It does not liquidate anything. Your accounts stay invested, and the lender runs a calculation to see whether the balance can carry the payment.
The steps look like this on the depletion path:
1. List your eligible accounts and statements. 2. Apply the credit percentage for each asset type. 3. Add up the usable total. 4. Divide by 60 months. The result is your monthly qualifying income. 5. Add the full housing payment and your other debts, then run the debt-to-income test.
Here is the sanctioned shape of the math, and it is illustrative only. The lender’s own calculation governs. Say you hold $1,500,000 in securities, which count at 80%, or $1,200,000. Add $300,000 in cash, which counts at 100%. That is $1,500,000 of usable assets. Divided by 60 months, you get $25,000 of monthly qualifying income. That income then has to carry the housing payment and your other debts.
Notice what the formula never does. It never looks at the rent the property will earn. It tests you, not the building.
Which Assets Count
Only some accounts count, and each counts at a percentage. On the depletion path, the credit looks like this, through select programs and subject to underwriting.
| Asset type | Share that counts |
|---|---|
| Cash accounts | 100% |
| Certificates of deposit | 100% |
| Securities | 80% |
| Private stock | 75% |
| Retirement accounts | 70% at any age |
| Real-estate equity | 60% |
Real-estate equity means equity in other property you own, never the home you are buying. The federal repayment rule counts assets other than the property that secures the loan, as the CFPB’s ability-to-repay text puts it.
Some assets do not count on this path at all. They include custodial accounts, deferred compensation, escrow accounts, foreign funds, cash on hand, stock options and non-vested restricted stock units. Funds from non-regulated financial companies are out too.
Cryptocurrency, precious metals, collectibles and business accounts beyond your ownership share are not published as eligible either. Neither are pledged or borrowed funds. The documented route for crypto or metals is to convert them to a seasoned cash balance in a regulated account. The lender reviews where the money came from.
On documents, the depletion path wants statements at least 120 days old at application, plus the most recent statement within 45 days. Money from the sale of a business, an inheritance or a legal settlement is excused from that seasoning. The assets are documented on every path. Skipping income documents never means skipping documents.
Credit still matters. The depletion path follows the lender’s matrix for score and loan amount. A first-time investor needs a 700 score. Housing history is expected to run 0x30x12, though one 30-day late in the last twelve months is considered case by case. A housing event needs 4 years of seasoning. Multiple bankruptcies are not eligible.
A Georgia Rental Purchase, Step by Step
Picture a retired Georgia investor who sold a business and holds the securities-and-cash mix shown above. She wants a rental and is shopping an investment property. Run the numbers this way, as a modeled assumption and not a quote.
Her usable assets are $1,500,000, which gives $25,000 of monthly qualifying income. That clears the minimum-assets rule, which is the lesser of $1,000,000 or 1.25 times the loan balance, and never below $250,000 liquid when depletion is her only income source. The loan can sit at up to 65% of the price on a purchase.
Now the part most people skip. The down payment on that purchase is 35% or more of the price, and it leaves her accounts. After closing, she holds a smaller pool than the one that produced her income. The first test is on the balance she has today. The honest planning test is on the balance she will have afterward, plus whatever she needs for a reserve cushion on a rental.
Buy a second rental the same way, and the pool shrinks again. Each purchase uses up some of the assets that qualified the last one. A portfolio built on this method hits a ceiling earlier than the investor expects.
Qualification here is illustrative and depends on credit approval, property review and underwriting.
What Happens to the Property’s Rent?
It depends on the program, and an investor should ask before signing a contract. The depletion math above does not include rent. Whether a given lender gives credit for the subject property’s rent, and how much, varies by program. Lendmire’s network does not publish a single treatment you can plan around, so treat any rental credit as something to confirm, never assume.
This is the heart of the decision. If rent is strong and covers the payment, the DSCR route reads that strength directly. If rent is thin, the depletion route ignores it and asks your balance sheet to carry the whole payment.
Asset Depletion, DSCR or Bank Statement for a Rental?
For a rental, DSCR is usually the natural fit, and depletion is the exception. Here is how the three paths compare.
| Path | What it tests | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
| Asset depletion | Your assets, turned into income | Rent is weak and your portfolio is large |
| DSCR | The property’s rent vs. its payment | Rent covers the payment |
| Bank statement | Income shown by deposits | You run a business with steady deposits |
A DSCR loan is reviewed primarily on property-level rental income covering the payment, subject to lender guidelines. Assets show up as down payment and reserves. They do not change the coverage number. A 1.00 coverage ratio is a floor on select programs, not a universal rule. Programs below 1.00 are available through select lenders in the network, but leverage and terms adjust.
To decide, work down this list:
- Rent covers the payment: go DSCR. Your portfolio stays intact and each property stands on its own.
- Rent falls short but your balance sheet is large: a DSCR file below 1.00 may still work through select lenders at adjusted terms. Asset depletion is the other option, at 65% on a purchase.
- Large portfolio, very thin or no rent: depletion may be the only asset-based way in, with the leverage limits above.
- Documented business income with uneven traditional personal-income documentation: a bank statement program is built for borrowers who document income with deposits.
Lendmire’s complete DSCR loans guide walks through how that coverage math works in more detail.
Georgia Details That Shape the Deal
Four practical points matter for a Georgia buyer.
Ownership. An asset depletion loan is a consumer mortgage. It is typically vested in your personal name, with limited room for an LLC. DSCR loans are built for LLC borrowers, subject to lender program eligibility. If you want a liability shield on a rental, that tilts the choice toward DSCR.
Business purpose. 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, as Lexology’s practitioner analysis describes. An asset depletion loan stays on the consumer side, and consumer disclosure rules apply to it.
Payment inputs. Whichever path you choose, the lender counts property taxes, insurance and any association dues in the payment. Georgia counties differ on all three, so pull real quotes for the specific property.
Short-term rentals. Short-term rental rules can vary by city, county, HOA, and property type, so investors should confirm local rules before relying on projected rental income.
One more thing on taxes. Tax treatment can depend on how the funds are used and how the property is held; borrowers should keep clear records and speak with a qualified tax professional before relying on any deduction.
Where Georgia Buyers Get This Wrong
Brokers see the same mistakes on asset-heavy files across a wide range of lenders. Here are the common ones.
Counting accounts that don’t count. A business account, a margin balance or a crypto wallet can look like money to you. It may not look like money to the lender. Move it into a regulated cash account early so the source can be reviewed.
Forgetting the statement clock. On the depletion path, statements need to be at least 120 days old, plus one within 45 days. Starting the paper trail after you find a house costs you time.
Ignoring the shrinking pool. The balance that qualified you is not the balance you will hold after closing. Run both numbers before contract.
Treating depletion like dividend income. The lender counts the portfolio itself, spread over 60 months. It does not count what the portfolio pays out.
Assuming one path blends with the other. The qualifier path and the depletion path have separate tables. A borrower is reviewed on one at a time. The depletion path does let asset income supplement documented income, up to a 45% debt-to-income ratio. When it supplements, the minimum-assets rule is waived.
Hunting for the loan type before checking the rent. Test the property’s rent against its payment first. If it clears the benchmark on a DSCR file, you may not need to convert your portfolio into income at all.
A pairing many investors use is asset-based qualification for the home they live in and DSCR for the rentals. For short-term rental buyers, how an STR investor qualifies on asset depletion versus rental income goes deeper.
How to Prepare Before You Make an Offer
Start before you go under contract. The paper trail is the slow part, and it has nothing to do with the loan itself.
- Gather statements for every account you plan to use, and note their ages.
- Separate personal accounts from business accounts.
- Convert crypto, metals or collectibles to a seasoned cash balance in a regulated account if you want them counted.
- Pull your credit report and check housing history.
- Get a realistic rent figure for the property and compare it with the likely payment.
- Run the post-closing asset math, not just the pre-closing math.
Qualifying details, leverage and eligibility all remain subject to lender guidelines. This is not a commitment to lend.
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. You can also reach the team at 828-256-2183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to sell my assets to qualify?
No. Nothing is sold or pledged. Asset depletion is a qualifying calculation, so the accounts stay invested and in your name. The lender reviews statements to confirm the balances are real and seasoned.
Can I combine asset depletion with a pension or Social Security?
Yes, on the depletion path. Asset-derived income may supplement documented income, up to a 45% debt-to-income ratio. The exact mix depends on the program and the lender’s review.
Can I use my retirement accounts?
On the depletion path, retirement accounts count at 70% at any age. On the qualifier path, 401(k) and IRA balances count at 90% under age 59½ and 100% at 59½ or older, but that path does not cover rentals.
Is asset depletion the same as DSCR?
No. They qualify different things. Asset depletion reads your balance sheet and turns it into income. DSCR reads the property’s rent against its payment, and your assets serve as down payment and reserves.
Can I buy more than one rental or use an LLC?
Multiple rentals are easier on DSCR, because each property stands on its own rent. Asset depletion is a consumer loan, typically vested personally, and each purchase draws down the assets that produce your income. DSCR loans can close in an LLC, subject to lender program eligibility.
Lendmire’s asset-based mortgage in Georgia page presents the program for Georgia borrowers.
About Lendmire
Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a mortgage broker licensed for consumer lending in 16 states. Scotsman Guide named Lendmire a Top Mortgage Workplace in both 2025 and 2026.
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References
1. CFPB Regulation Z § 1026.43
2. Lexology: business-purpose treatment of non-owner-occupied rental loans
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 for a Bank Statement or Asset Depletion Loan as a Rental Investor · How Asset Depletion Income Differs on a Primary Home vs Rental · How Asset Depletion Converts Savings Into Qualifying Income
Guides: Asset-Based Mortgage in Georgia
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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Required disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) operates as a licensed mortgage broker, not a direct lender or depository. The discussion in this article is general in nature and should not be relied upon as financial, legal, or tax advice — every investment scenario is unique and should be reviewed by a qualified professional. Any loan inquiry is subject to lender underwriting, and this article is not a commitment to lend or a guarantee of approval. Mortgage rates, loan terms, and program guidelines vary by borrower, property, and state, and may change without notice. Equal Housing Opportunity. Verify licensure at NMLS Consumer Access.