A bank statement loan calculates your income from money that actually landed in your accounts rather than from a tax return you legitimately deducted down. The rule that decides whether it works: transfers between your own accounts are stripped out of the deposit calculation.
Business owners who sweep from an operating account to personal, which is most of them, watch their qualifying income collapse for that reason alone. Fix the account structure first and this product works well.
How the deposit calculation works
The lender reviews twelve or twenty four months of statements, business or personal, and builds an income figure.
What counts. Deposits representing business revenue or, on a personal account program, income reaching you.
What gets removed:
- Transfers between accounts you own. Operating to personal, savings to checking, one business account to another. Stripped.
- Loan proceeds, including a draw on a line of credit.
- One-time and non-recurring deposits. A sale, a refund, a gift, a tax refund.
- Anything unexplained or irregular. Expect to document large or atypical deposits individually.
The expense factor. On a business bank statement program the lender applies an expense ratio to gross deposits to estimate net. Some use a fixed percentage; some accept a CPA letter or a profit and loss statement supporting a different figure. That percentage moves your qualifying income materially and it varies between investors, which is why placement matters as much as rate.
On a personal bank statement program, deposits are typically treated closer to net because the money has already reached you.
Twelve versus twenty four months. Twenty four usually prices better and smooths a soft quarter. Twelve can help if your recent year is far stronger. Run both.
The three mistakes that cost people the loan
1. Running everything through one account. If revenue, personal transfers and owner draws all flow through the same account, the lender cannot distinguish them and strips anything ambiguous. Clean account separation, established well before you apply, is worth more than any rate shopping you will do.
2. Restructuring inside the review window. Changing banks, opening accounts or consolidating entities during the twelve or twenty four months being reviewed creates gaps and transfers that read badly. Do it before the window or after closing.
3. Assuming revenue equals qualifying income. After the expense factor it is not. Ask for the specific factor before you fall in love with a price.
If your tax returns support the loan, take the conventional or agency financing. Nearly always the cheapest money available. Bank statement lending is non-QM and prices differently than agency financing because the risk profile is different. It exists for the file where the returns genuinely do not describe your income, not as a way to skip paperwork.
What Stonegate adds
Stonegate is a gated community in central-north Scottsdale off Thompson Peak Parkway, a master-planned development with a community center, pools and tennis, and a wide product range from townhomes through larger single family homes.
The price band straddles the conforming loan limit. Which side you land on changes your reserve requirement, your ratio tolerance and your documentation depth. On a bank statement loan, which is already non-agency, crossing into larger loan amounts narrows the investor field further. See Jumbo Loans in Scottsdale.
Reserves land harder on a non-QM file. Non-QM programs frequently require more reserves than agency loans do, and a business owner's cushion often sits in the operating account. Money in a business account is not automatically counted as yours, and moving it out has tax consequences your CPA should see first.
Attached product means project review. Townhomes get underwritten as part of their project: owner-occupancy ratio, reserves, litigation, delinquencies and single-entity ownership. See Scottsdale Luxury Condo Financing.
Good comparable data. A master-planned community with real transaction volume means appraisal risk is materially lower than in the custom estate markets further north.
No mandatory private club obligation of the kind the equity golf clubs carry, which is favorable for your ratio. Community dues still count, so ask how many associations bill the address and get the budget and reserve study. See HOA Dues, Club Dues and Assessments.
If the deposits do not support it either
Asset depletion. Qualifying income from verified liquid assets rather than deposits. Often stronger for a business owner who has accumulated real liquidity.
No-ratio. No debt-to-income test at all. Credit, assets, reserves and the property carry the file. Frequently the answer for the borrower declined more than once by lenders whose only tool was a ratio.
A larger down payment, weighed against the reserve requirement.
Twelve months before you buy
- Separate your accounts. Business revenue in, owner draws out, on a clean schedule. This one habit does more for your approval than anything else here.
- Stop moving money without a paper trail.
- Get your CPA and your lender in one conversation.
Sixty days out:
- Ask for the specific expense factor, and whether a CPA letter or profit and loss statement can support a better one.
- Run twelve and twenty four month versions and compare.
- Get every association's dues, budget and reserve study.
- Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is a calculator fed a revenue number. An underwritten pre-approval means someone ran your statements through the deposit analysis.
Why bring this file to us
- We run the deposit analysis before you write an offer, so the number you shop with is the number the underwriter will reach.
- We run it both ways, twelve and twenty four month, and against asset depletion, and use whichever carries the house.
- Broker model. Expense factors and eligible-deposit rules vary widely between non-QM investors.
- The full toolkit, agency through bank statement, asset depletion and no-ratio non-QM.
- You talk to the principal. Ricky Khamis is President of EPiQ Lending, NMLS #173141, lending in Arizona since 1999 and a 2025 Presidents Club Winner at CMG Home Loans. Direct line: (480) 999-9842.
EPiQ Lending is NMLS #1936984, at 7975 N. Hayden Road, Suite A-101 in Scottsdale. Verify all of it before you trust any of it: Ricky's EPiQ Lending profile, the Scottsdale branch, and the license itself at NMLS Consumer Access. Hold every lender to that standard, including us.
Send me twelve months of statements before you write in Stonegate and I will tell you what the deposit analysis actually produces.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Bank statement program terms, expense factors and eligible deposits vary by investor and change over time. Association obligations vary by community; confirm current terms with the association. Rates, terms, and program guidelines change and depend on credit approval, property appraisal, and other qualifying factors. Not all applicants will qualify. Non-QM and no-ratio financing carries different pricing and terms than agency financing. Consult your tax advisor before moving funds out of a business entity.
Looking at a specific home? Send me the address and I will run the numbers: rickykhamis.com/analyze
