If you are self-employed and buying in Ancala, the number that decides your approval is not your revenue and it is not the purchase price. It is your qualifying income after an underwriter rebuilds it from two years of tax returns, measured against a monthly obligation stack that includes the association and, where it applies, the club.
Buyers work out the mortgage payment and stop there. The stack is what actually moves the approval, and in a country club community it is larger than people expect.
How an underwriter rebuilds your income
Two years of filed returns, through Fannie Mae Form 1084 or Freddie Mac Form 91. Not your revenue, not your profit and loss.
- Schedule C: net profit line 31, plus depreciation, depletion and business use of home added back, minus non-recurring income, divided by 24.
- 1120S and K-1: your W-2 wage counts. K-1 ordinary income counts only where distributions are documented and the business has the liquidity to keep paying them. Obligations payable within a year subtract unless you evidence they roll.
- 1065 and K-1: same treatment, with guaranteed payments included.
- Schedule E: rental net with depreciation, amortization, taxes, insurance, interest and HOA added back where allowed, minus full PITIA.
Three rules that matter more than the arithmetic:
- A write-off is a trade. Each dollar of aggressive deduction saves tax at your marginal rate and costs roughly four to five dollars of buying power at normal ratios. Fine on purpose. Expensive by accident in the two years before you buy.
- Declining income becomes the baseline. Year two lower than year one generally becomes your qualifying income, not the average.
- A K-1 without distributions is paper. Retained earnings are not spendable income, and underwriting frequently agrees.
What Ancala adds
Ancala sits in east Scottsdale against the McDowell Mountains, a gated private country club community with mountain views and a mature, established feel rather than the newest construction.
The obligation stack is the story here. Community association dues, any sub-association where one applies, and separately the club. Each is billed independently and buyers routinely quote one number and meet the second at underwriting. Ask specifically how many associations bill your address and what each charges before you price the house. See HOA Dues, Club Dues and Assessments.
The club question decides your ratio. The test is always the same: if membership is mandatory at your address, the dues and minimums are counted against your debt-to-income like a car payment. If it is optional and you have not joined, generally nothing is counted. An initiation deposit is cash out of your accounts and generally does not count toward the reserve requirement a jumbo program applies after closing.
That combination, dues in the ratio and deposit out of reserves, is why strong buyers in club communities get smaller approvals than they expected. Get the club's current membership plan and the community's governing documents in writing rather than relying on what a neighbor said. Full mechanics in How a Scottsdale Golf Club Membership Affects Your Mortgage Approval.
Price band straddles the conforming line. Ancala carries a range of product, and which side of the conforming loan limit you land on changes the loan materially: reserves held after closing, ratio tolerance, and documentation depth all tighten above it. Your tax return decides which side you get. See Jumbo Loans in Scottsdale.
Established community, better comps. Unlike far north communities with a couple of hundred homesites, an established east Scottsdale community has a real transaction record. Appraisal risk is genuinely lower here, which is worth something on a jumbo file. The tradeoff is an older housing stock in parts, so condition, roofs and systems become live questions. Ask what has been updated and when.
When the returns do not support the purchase
Take the conventional or agency jumbo if your returns support it. It is nearly always the cheapest money available. When they do not, none of what follows is a shortcut around qualifying. Each proves repayment capacity a different way and each prices differently than agency financing.
Bank statement. Twelve or twenty four months of business or personal statements, income derived from deposits with an expense factor applied. Fits consistent deposit flow. Transfers between your own accounts are stripped from the calculation, which is what sinks the owner who sweeps from operating to personal. See Bank Statement Loans in DC Ranch.
Asset depletion. Qualifying income calculated from verified liquid assets rather than earnings. Retirement accounts typically discounted, pledged assets generally excluded.
No-ratio. No debt-to-income test at all. Credit, assets, reserves and the property carry the file. The structure for the borrower whose reportable income genuinely does not describe their position.
Before you write in Ancala
- Ask in writing whether club membership is mandatory at the specific address and whether an obligation transfers with the property.
- Ask how many associations bill the address and what each charges.
- Get the budget, reserve study and any approved assessment, not just the current dues figure.
- Count reserves after closing, at the applicable discount, excluding any initiation deposit and anything pledged.
- Get your CPA and your lender in one conversation before the returns that will qualify you are filed.
- Ask what has been renovated and when on an older home.
- Get fully underwritten, not pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is a calculator that has never seen your K-1 or your club dues. An underwritten pre-approval has seen both.
Why bring this file to us
- We read the returns ourselves. Schedule C, 1120S, K-1, Schedule E, add-backs and all, before you go looking at houses.
- We ask about the club and the associations on the first call, because in a country club community that stack sets your price more than a quarter point of rate will.
- Broker model. Multiple investors rather than one bank's shelf, which is what a self-employed jumbo file needs when the first answer is no.
- The full toolkit, agency and jumbo through bank statement, asset depletion 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 two years of returns and the association's dues before you write in Ancala, and I will tell you what the stack does to your approval.
Equal Housing Opportunity. This is general information, not a commitment to lend or an offer to extend credit. Club membership structures, dues and association obligations vary by community and change over time; confirm current terms directly 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 any deduction or distribution strategy.
