If a meaningful share of your pay is stock, the rule that decides your Grayhawk approval is this: vested equity that already flowed through your W-2 generally counts as income, and unvested shares generally do not. A buyer earning a large total compensation number on paper can qualify for far less than they expect, because the underwriter is using the part that has actually landed and is likely to keep landing.
Grayhawk draws exactly this buyer, and the club and association obligations land on top of a qualifying figure that was already smaller than the offer letter suggested.
How an underwriter reads equity compensation
The two tests. Almost every guideline applies the same pair. First, history: typically a two year track record of receiving this income. Second, continuance: evidence it will continue, commonly for at least three more years. Both have to be satisfied. A grant that vests fully next year and stops fails the continuance test no matter how large it is.
What documents it. Two years of W-2s, recent paystubs showing the income, your vesting schedule and grant agreements, and often a letter from your employer confirming the arrangement continues. The vesting schedule is the document most buyers do not think to bring, and it is the one that answers the continuance question.
Averaging. Equity income is generally averaged over the documented period, usually twenty four months. If your vesting is front-loaded or lumpy, the average can sit well below what last year alone looked like.
Price volatility. Where the value of the income depends on a share price, expect conservatism. A lender may average across the period, use a trailing price, or apply a haircut. Publicly traded, liquid stock with a steady vesting cadence is treated far better than thinly traded or restricted holdings.
Private company equity. Options and units in a private company with no liquid market are a different conversation entirely. Generally not usable as qualifying income until there is a documented history of actual, realized, recurring proceeds.
Bonus income follows a similar structure: two year history, documented likelihood of continuance, averaged. A first-year bonus usually does not count.
A new job with an equity package is the hardest version. An offer letter may support base salary on some programs, subject to start date rules, but an equity component with no receipt history generally does not support qualifying income. Plan around your base.
What Grayhawk adds
Grayhawk sits in north Scottsdale off Thompson Peak Parkway, built around the Raptor and Talon courses, with a wide mix of product from attached and semi-custom homes through larger estate lots in the enclaves.
Product mix decides your loan type. Grayhawk is not one price band. Attached and smaller detached product can sit near or below the conforming limit while the estate product is firmly jumbo. Which side you land on changes the reserve requirement, the ratio tolerance and the documentation standard. See Jumbo Loans in Scottsdale.
Attached product means project review. If you are buying a condominium or an attached unit within the community, the project gets underwritten as well as you: owner-occupancy ratio, reserves, litigation, delinquencies and single-entity ownership. That review can fail independently of your file. See Scottsdale Luxury Condo Financing.
Layered associations. A community association plus, depending on the enclave, a sub-association. Ask how many bill the address before you price the house.
The club question. Grayhawk's courses and clubhouse operate on their own terms, and arrangements change. The underwriting fork is what matters: if any club obligation is mandatory for owners at your address, the dues and minimums are counted against your debt-to-income ratio. An initiation deposit is cash out of your accounts and generally does not count toward reserves. Get it in writing rather than relying on what a neighbor says. Full mechanics in How a Scottsdale Golf Club Membership Affects Your Mortgage Approval and the wider stack in HOA Dues, Club Dues and Assessments.
The squeeze, in one sentence
Your qualifying income is the averaged, documented, continuance-proven portion of your compensation, and the obligation stack is the full monthly cost of owning in a master-planned golf community. Both move against you at once, which is why a Grayhawk buyer with a very healthy offer letter can be told a number that feels wrong.
It is not wrong. It is just measuring something different than you are.
When the income test does not clear
If your documented equity history supports the purchase on a conventional or jumbo loan, take it. That is the cheapest money available. When it does not, these are the documented alternatives. None is a shortcut around qualifying, each proves repayment capacity differently, and each prices differently than agency financing because the risk profile differs.
Asset depletion or asset utilization. Qualifying income derived from verified liquid assets rather than earnings. This is frequently the right instrument for an equity-compensated buyer: if years of vested shares have accumulated into a brokerage account, that balance can do work that the income calculation will not. Retirement accounts are typically discounted and pledged assets generally excluded. Note that shares pledged against a line of credit usually stop counting.
Bank statement. For the buyer with self-employment or consulting income alongside the W-2, twelve or twenty four months of deposits with an expense factor applied.
No-ratio. No debt-to-income test at all. Credit, assets, reserves and the property carry the file. The structure for the borrower whose balance sheet is strong and whose income calculation simply does not describe them.
One caution specific to this buyer: borrowing against your own portfolio to fund the down payment adds a payment to the same ratio you are trying to clear. Run that comparison before you do it.
Before you write in Grayhawk
- Gather the vesting schedule and grant agreements now. This is the document that answers continuance, and it is the one nobody brings.
- Two years of W-2s and recent paystubs, plus an employment letter confirming the arrangement continues.
- Ask in writing whether any club obligation is mandatory at the specific address.
- Ask how many associations bill the address and what each charges.
- If the unit is attached, request the HOA questionnaire, budget, reserve study and master insurance certificate before you remove contingencies.
- Count your reserves honestly: after closing, at the applicable discount, excluding anything pledged.
- Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is a calculator fed your total comp number. An underwritten pre-approval means someone actually applied the history and continuance tests to your vesting schedule.
Why bring this file to us
- We ask for the vesting schedule on the first call. Most lenders ask for paystubs and discover the problem in underwriting.
- We run the income both ways, as documented equity income and as asset depletion, and use whichever actually supports the house.
- Broker model. Multiple investors rather than one bank's shelf, and equity compensation treatment varies meaningfully between them.
- The full toolkit, agency and jumbo through asset depletion, bank statement and no-ratio non-QM, chosen on the file rather than on inventory.
- 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 vesting schedule and two years of W-2s before you write in Grayhawk, and I will tell you what actually counts.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Equity compensation and bonus income treatment varies by investor and changes over time. Club 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 regarding the tax consequences of selling or borrowing against equity holdings.
