At Camelback Golf Club the question that decides your loan is not your income. It is what you are actually going to do with the property, because a resort golf setting is precisely where second home and investment classifications blur and where lenders look hardest.
Get the classification right and the file is straightforward. Get it wrong deliberately and it is mortgage fraud, not a shortcut.
The classification, precisely
Second home. Occupied by you part of the year, suitable for year-round use, a reasonable distance from your primary residence, and under your exclusive control, not subject to a rental or management agreement that dictates when it is occupied and by whom.
Investment property. Held to produce income. Higher down payment, priced accordingly, and the only category where the property's rental income genuinely enters your qualifying calculation.
Three things specific to a resort golf setting that disqualify a second home:
- A management agreement that controls occupancy. Hand that control to a rental program and the exclusive control test fails.
- Mandatory rental pooling, which also raises condotel questions on attached product.
- A pattern of rental use inconsistent with personal enjoyment. A property rented most of the year is not a second home in substance, whatever the paperwork says.
On a second home, rental income generally does not count. You qualify carrying this payment on top of your primary housing expense, with reserves on both. Buyers underestimate this consistently. See Second Home or Investment Property in Scottsdale.
What Camelback adds
Camelback Golf Club sits at the base of Camelback Mountain with two eighteen hole courses, The Padre and The Indian Bend, in a resort setting a short drive from Old Town Scottsdale and Scottsdale Fashion Square.
Resort-adjacent product raises the condotel question. If you are buying attached inventory in or around a resort operation, a project can be classified as a condotel and fall outside agency financing entirely where it operates like a hotel: front desk or registration, daily housekeeping, rental desk services, mandatory rental pooling, or central reservation systems. Ask directly and early. See Scottsdale Luxury Condo Financing.
If the unit is attached, the project is underwritten as well as you. Owner-occupancy ratio, commercial square footage, reserves, litigation, delinquencies and single-entity ownership all fail projects independently of the borrower, and the owner-occupancy bar is stricter for a second home or investment purchase than for a primary residence.
Central Scottsdale location means good comparable data. Unlike the far north estate communities, this is an established area with real transaction volume. Appraisal risk is materially lower.
Confirm whether any club obligation attaches to your address. Where mandatory, dues and minimums count against your ratio and an initiation deposit is cash out that generally does not count toward reserves. See How a Scottsdale Golf Club Membership Affects Your Mortgage Approval and HOA Dues, Club Dues and Assessments.
If the ratio does not clear carrying both homes
Take the conventional or jumbo second home loan if it does. Cheapest money available. When it does not, each of these documents repayment capacity differently and prices differently than agency financing.
Asset depletion. Qualifying income from verified liquid assets rather than earnings. Frequently right for a second home buyer whose wealth is in accounts.
Bank statement. Twelve or twenty four months of deposits with an expense factor applied, for the self-employed buyer whose returns are deducted down. See Bank Statement Loans in DC Ranch.
No-ratio. No debt-to-income test at all.
And if it is genuinely an investment, DSCR tests the property's income against the payment instead of your personal income. If the numbers only work with rental income in them, that is the honest answer, not a lesser one.
Before you write at Camelback
- Decide occupancy honestly, in writing, before you apply.
- Ask directly whether the property participates in a rental program or pool, and whether the building offers hotel-style services.
- If attached: HOA questionnaire, budget, reserve study, master insurance, litigation disclosure and the owner-occupancy percentage, before contingencies are removed.
- Confirm you qualify carrying both housing payments, with reserves on both.
- Confirm any club obligation attaching to the address.
- Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is a calculator that has not seen your primary residence's payment sitting alongside this one.
Why bring this file to us
- We ask the occupancy question properly on the first call and tell you which classification your actual use supports, including when that answer costs you money.
- We read the project documents before you are committed, not after the appraisal fee is spent.
- Broker model. When a project is non-warrantable or a classification is awkward, one bank's shelf gives you one answer.
- The full toolkit, agency and jumbo through DSCR, asset depletion, bank statement, portfolio condo financing 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.
Tell me how you will actually use the property and I will tell you which classification it supports and what that costs.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Occupancy definitions, condominium project standards and rental income treatment vary by investor and change over time. Rates, terms, and program guidelines change and depend on credit approval, property appraisal, and other qualifying factors. Not all applicants will qualify. DSCR, non-QM and portfolio financing carries different pricing and terms than agency financing.
Looking at a specific home? Send me the address and I will run the numbers: rickykhamis.com/analyze
