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Non-Qualified Loan

How Does an Asset-Based Mortgage Work?

February 10, 2020 By JMcHood

Did you know that you don’t have to have an income to qualify for a mortgage? As shocking as that sounds, it’s true. There’s a trick though. You have to be able to prove that you have enough assets to cover the mortgage payment for the next 30 years.

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The asset-based mortgage can help retirees or those just living off their assets to get a mortgage. Maybe you don’t want to exhaust all of your assets at once. If you don’t mind paying interest on the loan, you may be able to secure a mortgage even without verifying that you work.

What Type of Assets Can you Use?

You can use almost any type of liquid asset that you have available. In other words, you can’t use other pieces of real estate or a vehicle as an asset. But you can use things like your checking, savings, CDs, money markets, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and even retirement accounts.

You should know, though, that you can only use 100% off any cash you have on hand. This includes any checking or savings accounts. Any assets tied up in an investment will be taken at 70% of the current value. This allows the lender to account for any taxes and/or fees you may pay for using the funds.

Does Age Matter?

Your age may matter when applying for an asset-based mortgage. There are two reasons for this – retirement age and the length you will hold the loan.

As far as retirement goes, lenders care about your age so that you don’t deplete your retirement savings before you are even of retirement age. If you apply for an asset-based mortgage using your 401K or IRA and you are over the age of 65, a lender may be willing to count those funds. Again, they will only use 70% of the value to qualify it as income, though.

If you are far from retirement age, a lender may not be willing to count your retirement funds as income. If you are too far from retirement, it can be risky to let you use those funds to pay your mortgage. What does that leave you with when you retire?

Finally, your age matters to help determine the length of the loan. Generally, lenders use 360 months to determine your income. In other words, they divide your total assets by 360 to come up with your monthly income. If you are over the age of say 75, the lender may divide your income over 120 months rather than 360 months. Anyone younger than 75 years old, though, will likely have their assets divvied up over 30 years, though.

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What Will Lenders Use to Qualify?

Once you have the total amount of your assets based on the 70% formula with the exception of cash, checking, or savings accounts, you divide that number by 360. See the example:

You have $1,500,000 in assets. $300,000 of it is in cash, the remainder is in stocks, bonds, and IRAs. You are 45-years old. Lenders will do the following:

$1,500,000 – $300,000 = $1,200,000

$1,200,000 x .70 = $840,000

$840,000 + $300,000 = $1,140,000

$1,140,000/360 = $3,167 monthly income

The lender will use this figure to determine how much you can afford each month, just as they would if you made money from employment.

Qualifying for the Loan

Once you know your monthly income, the rest of the qualification process works much the same as any other loan. You must meet the credit score and debt ratio requirements of each loan program. The lender needs to make sure that you can afford the loan beyond a reasonable doubt. They will do so by verifying all aspects of your loan including taking a long, hard look at your credit history.

The question you need to ask yourself is if the asset-based mortgage makes sense. Many people know this mortgage as an asset depletion mortgage. As the name suggests, you deplete your assets. You need to make sure this is a smart choice for you not only now, but well into the future. What will the future hold? How will you pay for your expenses moving forward? Are you retired for life or will you seek employment again sometime in the future?

These are things you must consider when determining if the asset-based mortgage makes sense. Talk with lenders to see what options are available to you and make sure you can comfortably afford the loan before making any decisions.

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Filed Under: Lending Guidelines, Self-Employed

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