No-Ratio Loans
The file that states no income — and the three things that stand in for it.
Every other page on this site is about proving income some way: tax returns, deposits, a P&L, a lease, a balance sheet. This one is about a program that does not calculate a debt ratio at all, because the borrower states no income and no employment. It exists lawfully because the lender is a certified community development financial institution, and it is not a loophole: reserves, equity, clean credit and mandatory homeowner counseling replace the income arithmetic. It reaches 80% financing to three million dollars on a home you live in or a second home. It is the rarest instrument on this site, and the one most worth understanding before you want it.
Who this is built for
Households whose resources are real and whose income is not documentable
Recently retired, between businesses, living on family support, on trust or foreign-earned resources that no domestic return will show. The money is there; the paperwork that other programs need is not.
Buyers who have already been declined on the ratio
A debt-to-income calculation that fails on paper — because the income is irregular, or new, or simply not reportable — ends most applications. This program does not run that calculation.
Owners with equity and no way to refinance it out
Cash-out exists here, to 75%, and the reserves it requires can come partly from the proceeds. For an owner whose income vanished from the returns but whose equity did not, this is frequently the only refinance that closes.
Second-home buyers with assets and awkward income
The same grid applies to a second home. A buyer whose primary is paid off and whose income lives in a structure no underwriter can read has a door here that the agencies do not offer.
Send a rough picture of the assets and the credit — the reserves and the score decide this one, and both are knowable in the first conversation. If the answer is a different page, I will say which.
Talk it throughThis is not a no-doc loan
No income is stated — but reserves, equity, credit and counseling are all documented, and all four are required.
Three facts that reframe it, from the sheet itself:
The honest comparison is not against a documented loan — if your income documents, a documented loan is cheaper in equity and you should take it. The comparison is against not buying, or against selling. For a household with real resources and unreadable income, this program is the difference between those, and the equity it asks for is what it costs.
| It is a documented-assets loan | Reserves are sourced and seasoned | The income calculation is absent; the asset documentation is not. Six to nine months of payments in reserve, from your own funds, is the file. |
| Counseling is the mechanism, not a hoop | Required on every transaction | A certified community development lender may lend without an income calculation on a consumer loan when it pairs the loan with homeowner education. That is why the program exists and why the requirement cannot be waived. |
| 620 and no ratio, on one grid | A combination nothing else here offers | Every other page that reaches a 620 score documents income somehow. This one reaches it with none stated — at 65% financing, which is the honest price. |
Program parameters reflect one lender’s current matrix, revised 08/03/2026, and change without notice. Not all applicants will qualify.
How it actually works
Three substitutes for an income calculation, and a fourth thing the program requires that nothing else on this site does.
Reserves do the work income usually does
Six months of the full housing payment in reserve at 75% financing or below; nine months above it. A first-time buyer needs two. Those reserves are documented like income would be anywhere else — statements, sourced, seasoned. It is a documented-assets loan that happens not to compute a ratio.
Equity does the rest
The leverage is lower than a documented file would get at the same score — 80% at the top of the ladder, 65% at the bottom. The gap is the cushion, and it is not negotiable.
Credit history is read closely
Twelve clean months on every mortgage, seven years past a foreclosure, four past a bankruptcy or short sale, and a real tradeline history — or, for a first-time buyer, twelve months of documented rent in its place.
Counseling is mandatory
At least one borrower completes homeowner education counseling on every transaction, purchase or refinance. It is a condition of the program, not a suggestion — it is part of how a lender lawfully lends without an income calculation, and this page would be dishonest to bury it.
The grid, and what stands in for income
One lender, one sheet, three tables: the ladder to two million, the ladder from two to three, and the requirements that replace the income calculation.
One lender’s consumer no-ratio matrix, revised 08/03/2026, for a primary residence or second home, loans from $100,000 to $2,000,000:
| Credit score | Purchase or rate-and-term | Cash-out refinance |
|---|---|---|
| 740 or better | 80% | 75% |
| 720 | 80% | 70% |
| 680 | 75% | 65% |
| 660 | 75% | 65% |
| 620 | 65% | 60% |
Read the ladder as a price list for the missing income calculation. At 740 the program asks twenty percent of equity for a purchase; at 620 it asks thirty-five, and it asks for more reserves above 75% financing on top. The cash-out column is the one people come here for and the one that surprises them least — no cap on the cash-out amount, and on loans under a million the reserves may come partly or entirely from the proceeds, depending on leverage. The one row worth reading twice is 620: a program that runs no income calculation still opens at that score, and nothing else on this site combines those two facts.
Representative of one lender’s consumer no-ratio matrix, revised 08/03/2026. Primary residence and second home, loans $100,000 to $2,000,000. Maximum financing and credit score are separate limits shown only in the combinations printed together in the source. Reserves of six months at 75% financing or below and nine months above it are required, two months for a first-time homebuyer, plus two months for each additional financed property. Homeowner education counseling is required on every transaction. The lender is a certified community development financial institution. Not all applicants will qualify.
The same sheet’s upper band, loans from $2,000,001 to $3,000,000, primary residence or second home:
| Credit score | Purchase or rate-and-term | Cash-out refinance |
|---|---|---|
| 740 or better | 80% | 70% |
| 720 | 75% | 70% |
| 680 | 75% | 65% |
| 660 | 75% | 65% |
Above two million the program asks two appraisals rather than one, and there is no 620 rung — the band starts at 660. Otherwise the shape holds: the top of the ladder still reaches 80% on a purchase, the cash-out side gives up five points at the top, and everything below 720 sits at 75. Combined with the first table this is a program that runs from a hundred thousand dollars to three million on a single set of rules, which is unusual for anything, and unusual twice for a file with no income on it.
Representative of the same lender’s consumer no-ratio matrix, revised 08/03/2026, loans $2,000,001 to $3,000,000. Two appraisals are required above $2,000,000. Maximum financing and credit score are separate limits shown only in the combinations printed together in the source, and do not combine with the first table. The same reserve and counseling requirements apply. Not all applicants will qualify.
The requirements that replace the calculation, from the same sheet. These are the whole underwrite, so they are worth reading as carefully as the leverage:
| The requirement | What the program asks | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Reserves — the substitute for income | Six months of the housing payment at 75% financing or below; nine months above it | A first-time homebuyer needs two months. Each additional financed property adds two, to a ceiling of twelve. |
| Where the reserves come from | Your own seasoned funds | Gift funds may cover the entire down payment and cash to close, but never the reserves. |
| Reserves on a cash-out | From the proceeds, in part or in full | Under a million: at 50% financing or below, entirely from proceeds; above 50%, two months from your own funds and the rest from proceeds. |
| Homeowner education counseling | Required on every transaction | At least one borrower completes it, purchase or refinance. This is the condition that makes the program lawful, not a formality. |
| Housing history | No late mortgage payment in the last twelve months | On every mortgage you hold, not just the subject. |
| Credit events | Seven years past a foreclosure; four past a bankruptcy, short sale or deed in lieu | Measured from discharge. Consumer lates in the last twelve months need a written explanation. |
| Tradelines | Two reporting for twelve months, or one for twenty-four | Waived with three credit scores. A first-time buyer may substitute twelve months of documented rent. |
| Who can borrow | Citizens, permanent residents, and non-permanent residents with US credit and an acceptable visa | No ITIN route on this program; that page covers what exists. |
Four structural rules complete the picture. No prepayment penalty and no interest-only: the loan is fully amortizing and can be paid off freely. Impounds are required. In a declining market the appraiser flags, financing is capped at the grid or 70%, whichever is lower. And the property list is wide — houses, townhomes, condominiums, two-to-four units, modular, rural, mixed-use, log homes, up to twenty acres — with one rule that matters on this coast: a Florida condominium financed above 70% requires a full condominium review, which is a longer and more expensive underwrite than a limited one, and is worth building into the timeline of any Florida condo file from day one.
Representative of the same lender’s consumer no-ratio matrix, revised 08/03/2026. Reserve, counseling, credit, tradeline and property requirements are as published in that source and are determined per file. Texas home-equity refinances and high-cost loans are not permitted. Certain states carry minimum loan amounts or additional counseling requirements. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
The boundaries that decide these files
What you actually hand over
The reserves, sourced and seasoned
Statements showing the required months of housing payment in your own funds. This is the document the program is built on.
The down payment, and where it came from
Gift letters if gifted — the whole down payment may be. Reserves cannot come from the same gift.
The counseling certificate
At least one borrower completes homeowner education counseling. Scheduled early, because a file cannot close without it.
Credit, including the tradeline history
Two tradelines for twelve months or one for twenty-four, waived with three scores; a first-time buyer may substitute twelve months of documented rent.
Nothing about income
No returns, no pay stubs, no employment verification. Stating none is the program; do not manufacture any.
Where it wins — and the honest trade-offs
Told straight, because this page is useless otherwise.
No debt-to-income calculation runs. If that arithmetic is what has been declining you, this program does not perform it.
Most no-income routes on any shelf are investment-only and business-purpose. This one is consumer credit on a primary residence or second home, to $3,000,000.
An owner with equity and no documentable income can refinance out of it, and on smaller loans the reserve requirement can be met from the cash itself.
The down payment may be entirely gifted. The reserves may not — which is exactly the right place for the line to be.
A documented loan — full, bank-statement, asset-utilization — asks less equity at the same score. This program is for income that cannot be documented, not for income that would rather not be.
Twenty percent at the top of the ladder, thirty-five at the bottom, and more reserves above 75%. Nothing here is cheap in cash; it is only cheap in paperwork.
Gift funds can buy the house and cannot sit in reserve. A household whose assets are all borrowed or gifted does not fit, and that is the program working as intended.
This entire page is one lender’s matrix, revised 08/03/2026. It is the only consumer no-ratio program on this shelf that can be published; the others are either investor-only, unconfirmed, or outside Florida.
The reserves and the score decide it
Send a rough picture of the assets you hold and your credit score. Those two things settle whether this program fits — and, just as often, whether a documented loan would ask less of you. Either answer comes back plainly.
Questions people actually ask
Open the full Q&A — what is documented, why counseling is required, and when a documented loan is the better answer ▾
+Is this a no-doc loan?
No, and the difference matters. No income is stated and no debt ratio is calculated — but the reserves are documented and seasoned, the down payment is sourced, the credit history is read closely, and counseling is completed. It is a documented-assets loan without an income calculation, which is a different and lawful thing.
+How can a lender make a loan without checking income?
Because this lender is a certified community development financial institution, and it pairs the loan with mandatory homeowner education counseling. That combination is how a consumer loan can lawfully close without an ability-to-repay calculation based on income. The reserves and equity it requires are how it manages the risk. It is not a loophole; it is a category.
+Why is the counseling required?
It is part of the mechanism that makes the program lawful, and the program has no version without it. At least one borrower completes it on every transaction, purchase or refinance. It is short, it is scheduled early, and a file cannot close without the certificate.
+Can I use it to refinance and take cash out?
Yes, to 75% at the top of the ladder, with no cap on the cash-out amount. On loans under a million, the reserve requirement can be met from the proceeds — entirely at 50% financing or below, and above that with two months from your own funds and the rest from the cash.
+I have a good score but no tax returns. Is this better than a bank-statement loan?
Usually not. A bank-statement loan documents income from deposits and asks less equity at the same score; if you have twelve months of business deposits, that page is the better read. This program is for the file where no income documentation of any kind is possible — not the file that would prefer to skip it.
+What if my credit is at 620?
The program opens at 620, at 65% financing on a purchase and 60% on a cash-out, to two million. That is the only place on this site where a 620 score and no income calculation meet on one grid. Above two million the floor is 660.
+Does this work on a rental property?
Not this program — it is primary residence and second home only. A rental qualified with no ratio computed exists as business-purpose credit, and it lives on the DSCR page with its own grid.
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Loan programs, explained honestly
The program described is a consumer no-ratio mortgage offered through a third-party lender that is a certified community development financial institution, is subject to lender approval and underwriting approval, and changes without notice. Figures reflect that lender’s matrix revised 08/03/2026. No income is stated and no debt-to-income ratio is calculated; the lender instead requires documented and seasoned reserves of six months at 75% financing or below and nine months above it (two months for a first-time homebuyer, plus two months for each additional financed property), a documented down payment which may be gifted, a qualifying credit and housing history, and completion of homeowner education counseling by at least one borrower on every transaction. Primary residence and second home only; loans $100,000 to $3,000,000; two appraisals above $2,000,000. Maximum financing and credit score are separate limits shown only in the combinations printed together in the source. Florida condominiums financed above 70% require a full condominium review. Texas home-equity refinances and high-cost loans are not permitted; state-specific minimum loan amounts and counseling requirements apply. Mortgages by Guido and MTGCASA are not community development financial institutions and are not affiliated with any government agency. Not all applicants or properties will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend. Equal Housing Opportunity.