09/21/2026
"Do you make plenty of money, but your tax returns don't show enough income for the house you want to buy." - I can help!
Let's look at a Bank Statement loan! A Bank Statement loan is allowing a lender to use documented bank deposits/cash flow to calculate qualifying income instead of relying primarily on W-2 income or traditional tax-return income.
How it works:
You provide bank statements depending on the lender/program, this might be 12 or 24 months of:
- Personal bank statements
- Business bank statements
- Or sometimes both
The lender reviews the deposits and determines which ones can be used.
The lender calculates qualifying income
This is the important part! Suppose a self-employed borrower has
average eligible business deposits of $20,000/month the lender might use an expense factor of 50%, meaning:
$20,000 × 50% = $10,000/month qualifying income
that $10,000 is then used in the mortgage qualification calculation.
IMPORTANT keep in mind the actual expense factor varies by lender and program, so you shouldn't assume 50% is the debt ratio for every bank statement loan it could be substantially less.
Carri Cameron| Mortgage Specialist| #1124666
