You sold the business, took the distribution, or exited the position. You have more liquidity than at any point in your life, and on a mortgage application you look unemployed. That file gets declined regularly, and not because the borrower is weak. It is because the lender's only tool is a debt-to-income ratio and there is no longer a monthly income to put in the numerator.
Desert Highlands attracts exactly this buyer. The answer is to stop forcing a ratio calculation and use a structure built for a balance sheet.
Why the obvious path fails you
Standard qualifying asks what recurring monthly income you receive. After an exit the honest answer is often "very little, and I do not need any," which is financially excellent and procedurally fatal.
Worse, the proceeds usually do not solve it. A one-time capital gain is generally not treated as recurring income. It appears on your return as a large number that an underwriter explicitly backs out, because non-recurring income cannot be used to qualify. Your best financial year can reduce your qualifying income to almost nothing.
That is the trap. It is not a judgment about you, and it is not permanent.
The structures that fit
Asset depletion. The lender converts verified liquid assets into a monthly income figure over a defined period. This is the primary instrument here.
- Checking, savings, money market and taxable brokerage form the core, with brokerage commonly discounted.
- Retirement accounts are discounted further, sometimes only counting at withdrawal age.
- Pledged assets generally do not count, and a securities-backed line's payment counts against you.
- Business accounts are not automatically yours. Proceeds still sitting in an entity need documented access and, depending on structure, ownership.
- Seasoning matters. Sale proceeds that have not landed are not assets you can use.
- The divisor varies by program, which is why the same balance sheet produces different qualifying income at different investors.
No-ratio. No debt-to-income calculation at all. Credit, assets, reserves and the property carry the file. For a genuinely complex post-exit balance sheet this is often cleaner than making a ratio behave.
If you do still have documented recurring income, run it both ways. A full documentation jumbo is nearly always the cheapest money available. Asset depletion, no-ratio and other non-QM structures price differently than agency financing because the risk profile is different.
What Desert Highlands adds
Desert Highlands opened in 1983 with a Jack Nicklaus course, making it one of the original north Scottsdale golf communities, and it hosted the first two Skins Games. The inaugural 1983 event put Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player on the same card, which is a piece of televised golf history that happened on this property.
Three things that follow for your file.
An established community means a longer sales history, which helps. Unlike the newest developments, there is a real transaction record here. That does not eliminate appraisal risk on a large custom home, but the comparable data is less thin than in communities with two hundred homesites.
It also means an older housing stock in parts. A community founded in 1983 contains homes of that era alongside newer construction and extensive renovations. Condition, systems and any deferred work become live questions, and on a jumbo file the appraisal and any repair conditions can move your timeline. Ask what has been updated and when.
The club obligation is the item to settle first. Mandatory dues and minimums are counted against whatever qualifying figure your structure produces. An initiation deposit is cash out of your accounts and generally does not count toward reserves.
For a post-liquidity-event buyer qualifying on assets, that compounds: the deposit reduces the very balance your qualifying income is derived from, and it does not count as reserves either. Model the club decision and the loan decision together, not in sequence. See How a Scottsdale Golf Club Membership Affects Your Mortgage Approval and HOA Dues, Club Dues and Assessments.
The timing problem nobody warns you about
If the sale has not closed, your proceeds are not assets. If it just closed, they may need seasoning and documentation. If they are still inside an entity, you have a structure question before you have a loan question.
Talk to your lender before the transaction closes, not after. The difference between a clean file and a six week documentation fight is usually decisions made in the weeks around the event: which account the money lands in, whose name is on it, and whether anything gets pledged.
And talk to your CPA before moving funds between entities and personal accounts. The tax consequences of solving a mortgage problem can be larger than the mortgage problem.
Before you write in Desert Highlands
- Talk to your lender before the liquidity event closes if that timing is at all possible.
- Document the source of funds thoroughly: purchase agreement, closing statement, wire trail.
- Do not pledge the portfolio without understanding what it removes from your qualifying assets.
- Get the club's current membership plan and confirm whether membership is mandatory at your address.
- Model the initiation deposit against your depletion calculation before committing to either.
- Ask what has been renovated and when, and get the appraisal ordered early.
- Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is a calculator that will tell a post-exit buyer they do not qualify.
Why bring this file to us
- We do not run your file through a ratio calculation and call it a day. A decline elsewhere is usually a tooling problem, not a credit problem.
- Broker model. Depletion divisors and eligible-asset rules vary widely, and at this loan size the field is narrow. Placement is the whole job.
- We model the club deposit against the calculation before you write the check.
- The full toolkit, full documentation jumbo through 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 your asset statements and the timing of your event before you write in Desert Highlands, and I will tell you which structure carries the file.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Asset depletion calculations, eligible assets and discount factors vary by investor and change over time. Club membership structures and association obligations vary by community; confirm current terms with the club and 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 between entities or personal accounts, and regarding the tax consequences of any liquidity event.
