Bank statement HELOC: equity drawn on deposit income.
A second-lien line of credit documented by your deposits. The first mortgage and its terms stay exactly where they are.
Twelve to twenty-four months of statements do the documenting.
The HELOC sits in second position. The first is untouched.
We route to the desks that write self-employed seconds.
In short
Key takeaways
- Your first mortgage does not change: same balance, same payment. The line records behind it as a separate second lien.
- Combined loan-to-value is the ceiling: first-mortgage balance plus the full line, divided by home value, typically capped at 80 to 85% as of mid-2026.
- Desks underwrite the payment at the fully drawn line amount. Plan to draw $60,000 of a $270,000 line and the test still runs at $270,000.
- Fewer wholesale desks write bank statement seconds than write bank statement first mortgages, so shopping the file matters more here, not less.
Written and reviewed by the Intel Loans, Inc. lending team · NMLS #2858705Updated July 2026
What this desk looks at
A low locked first mortgage is an asset. This desk lets the self-employed borrow behind it instead of trading it away.
The first plus the line, measured against value, sets the ceiling.
The same bank-statement math as the first-lien lane.
Its balance and payment stay in the math but never reopen.
Draw, repay, and draw again inside the term's windows.
The payment test
Underwritten at the fully drawn amount
Here is the mechanic that decides these files, and the one no other page on this site covers. The desk does not qualify you on what you plan to draw. It qualifies you on the payment the line would carry if you drew every available dollar the week it opened.
The arithmetic follows. Your deposit-derived income has to cover the fully drawn line payment stacked on top of everything you already carry: the first mortgage plus every debt on the credit report. If you plan to draw $60,000 of a $270,000 line for a kitchen and a dock, the test still runs at $270,000.
This is how the fully drawn test quietly shrinks lines. A file whose deposits support the full-draw payment on $270,000 gets $270,000. A file whose deposits only carry $150,000 gets offered $150,000, whatever the CLTV ceiling says, because the income gate and the equity gate are separate and the lower one wins.
The back end matters as much. Draw-period payments are often interest-only, which keeps them low while deferring every dollar of principal to the repayment period, where the required payment steps up by design. We will not print pricing figures for any phase of it: plain candor says the number that matters is the one disclosed in your agreement, so that’s the only number we stand behind.
Why the full draw gets tested
Once the line records, you can draw to the limit without asking anyone. The lender is committed to every dollar of the line from the day it opens, so it underwrites every dollar from the day it opens. On thin deposits, desks counter with a smaller line rather than a decline, which is why sizing the line before application beats guessing.
The requirements
Bank statement HELOC requirements as of mid-2026
The honest availability picture first: fewer wholesale desks write bank statement seconds than write bank statement firsts, and fewer still hold the 85% CLTV end of the range. The product is real and the desks compete, but the pool is smaller as of mid-2026.
Treat these ranges as the shape of the field across the desks we broker to, not any single lender’s matrix. On a product this thinly distributed, the matrix that fits your file is the whole game.
| Criterion | Typical range | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Statements | 12 or 24 consecutive months, personal or business accounts | 24 months usually reads stronger; the averaging and expense-factor rules live on the bank statement loan page |
| Combined LTV (CLTV) cap | Around 80 to 85%, counting the full line amount | Credit score and line size trade against the cap; 85% is the thin end of the pool |
| Credit floor | 680 to 700 | Second liens hold credit to a higher floor than firsts; 720 and up widens the desk pool |
| Line size | Roughly $50,000 to $500,000 | Bigger lines pair with lower CLTV; lines under $50,000 are hard to place at all |
| Draw and repayment structure | Draw period of 5 or 10 years, then 10 to 20 years of repayment | The required payment changes at the transition; interest-only draw phases step up hardest |
| Qualifying payment | Calculated at the fully drawn line amount | The centerpiece mechanic above; it sizes lines as often as CLTV does |
| Property and occupancy | Primary residence is the core program; some desks add second homes | Investment property routes to a DSCR second lien instead |
| Seasoning of the first mortgage | Commonly 6 to 12 months since the first closed | A recently modified or recently cashed-out first tightens the CLTV math or pauses eligibility |
Three routes, one equity
Three ways to reach the same equity
Equity has three standard exits, and the choice mostly comes down to what you are willing to do to the first mortgage. This page’s borrower has already answered that: nothing.
A cash-out refinance rewrites the entire first mortgage to reach the cash, which reprices every dollar of the balance you kept on purpose. The two second-lien routes leave the first alone: a closed-end second delivers one fixed lump sum on a set schedule, while the line keeps the borrowing open and the payment variable.
The sorting question is the spend. One known invoice, say a $90,000 roof and seawall contract, points at the fixed second. Spending that arrives in stages over two or three years is what a line is for. Compare all equity options holds the full decision framework, including the cases where repricing the first wins after all.
| Bank statement HELOC | Cash-out refinance | Closed-end second | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What happens to the first mortgage | Unchanged; the line records behind it | Replaced entirely by a new, larger first | Unchanged; the loan records behind it |
| Payment behavior | Variable; moves with the index and steps up at the draw-to-repayment transition | One new payment on the full combined balance | A second scheduled payment that stays put |
| Flexibility | Draw and repay repeatedly during the draw period | One disbursement at closing; borrowing more later means another refinance | One lump sum at closing |
| Documentation | 12 or 24 months of bank statements | Full income file, or bank statements on a non-QM version | Full income file at most desks; bank statement seconds in closed-end form are scarcer |
| When it wins | Staged spending behind a first mortgage worth keeping, documented on deposits | When replacing the first mortgage makes sense on its own | A known one-time amount and a payment that never moves |
Worked example
A Naples contractor, line by line
Hypothetical example for illustration only, not a quote or an offer. A Naples general contractor owns a home that appraises at $850,000. The first mortgage carries a $410,000 balance and a payment worth keeping, so it stays exactly as written. He applies with 12 months of business bank statements.
The ceiling is pure arithmetic: appraised value times the CLTV cap, minus every dollar already secured by the home. The underwrite is not. His deposits have to carry the $2,210 full-draw payment on top of the payment worth keeping and the rest of his credit report, and here they do with room to spare. If they carried only half of it, the desk would cut the line to match, and the $270,000 ceiling would stay a number on a worksheet.
The honest part
What a bank statement HELOC costs you
It prices above the full-doc version of itself. A second lien already prices above a first, and bank statement documentation adds a premium on top of that. If your tax returns can genuinely support a standard HELOC, that file is cheaper to place and more desks compete for it. We look at the returns before routing you to the deposit version, and we will tell you when full-doc wins.
The fully drawn test can hand you less line than the equity math promised. CLTV arithmetic might allow $270,000 while the deposits only support $150,000, and the smaller number wins. A cash-out refinance sized to the exact amount you need sometimes clears underwriting where the full-line test fails. That comparison belongs on paper before you pick a structure, not after the line comes back smaller than the plan needed.
The payment moves, and the move is built in. Variable pricing means the required payment can rise without a single new draw, and the draw-to-repayment transition raises it again by design as deferred principal comes due. If the plan needs a payment that never changes, that plan is describing a home equity loan, and we will say so.
How it compares to cash-out
No restart on the rate or the clock you already won.
Deposits qualify the line, not tax returns.
A line you draw as needed, not a lump sum you pay on from day one.
From statements to a live line
Size the line before anyone pulls credit.
Send the estimated value and every lien balance, with a note on how the business banks. We run the CLTV ceiling and the fully drawn payment test the way each second-lien desk runs them, then put the answer in writing.
Run the ceiling
Home value times the CLTV cap, minus every existing lien. One mortgage statement and a value estimate produce the maximum line in about two minutes.
Send the deposit picture
Which accounts, how many months you can document, your ownership stake, and your credit range. No hard credit pull at this stage.
We shop the second-lien desks
The pool writing bank statement seconds is smaller than the first-mortgage pool, and we know which desks hold the 85% CLTV end. Your file goes to the ones that actually compete for it.
Valuation, title update, recording
The desk orders a valuation and title gets a search and an update. The line records behind your first, and the first mortgage never enters the process.
Adjacent moves
If this isn’t quite your file
Questions we actually get
How do the draw period and the repayment period work?
During the draw period, commonly 5 or 10 years, you can draw and repay repeatedly up to the available line, and the required payment is often interest-only. When the draw period ends, access stops and the balance amortizes over the repayment period, commonly 10 to 20 years. The required payment typically steps up at that transition because deferred principal comes due. Read the transition terms in the line agreement before the first draw, not at year nine.
Does opening the line change my first mortgage?
No. The line records as a separate junior lien, and the first mortgage keeps its balance and its payment untouched, with the same servicer collecting it. Your first lender’s consent is not required to record a lien behind it. The two loans only meet later: refinancing the first while the line is open requires the line’s lender to agree to stay in second position, called resubordination, and not every desk signs that quickly.
Personal or business statements: which works on a line?
Both, and the averaging runs exactly the way it does on a bank statement first mortgage: 12 or 24 consecutive months, with an expense factor applied to business-account deposits, commonly 50% by default as of mid-2026. Personal statements typically get credit for eligible deposits without a factor. The full deposit math, including how a CPA letter moves the factor, lives on the bank statement loan page and applies here unchanged.
What does the line cost to open and to keep?
At opening, plan for an appraisal or a lighter property valuation, plus a title search and update. The county records the new lien for a fee. Where a particular desk charges them, add an origination fee at closing or an annual fee to keep the line open; some desks also charge an early-closure fee inside the first two or three years. Every one of these appears on your disclosures before you sign, and we put each desk’s fee sheet next to its pricing when we shop the file, because a line that looks cheaper up front can cost more across a ten-year draw-and-repayment life.
What happens to the line when I sell the home?
It gets paid off and formally closed at the sale, alongside the first mortgage. Your title company orders a payoff figure and a close-out letter, because paying the balance to zero does not by itself terminate a revolving line; the lien stays on title until the account is closed. If the desk charges an early-closure fee and the sale lands inside that window, it appears in the payoff. Both liens release at closing and the remaining equity comes to you as proceeds.
Is the interest on the line tax-deductible?
Sometimes, and a mortgage broker is the wrong person to rule on it. Under current federal rules, interest on home equity borrowing is generally deductible only when the proceeds buy, build, or substantially improve the home securing the line, subject to overall loan limits. Draws spent on a truck or a tuition bill generally do not qualify. Keep records of where each draw went, and put the question to your tax professional before you count on the deduction.
Find the ceiling before you plan the spend.
Send the estimated value and the first-mortgage balance, plus a note on how the business banks. We come back with the CLTV math and the short list of desks that write this product, in writing.
This is not a commitment to lend or an offer of credit. All loan approvals are subject to credit review, underwriting, and property evaluation. Programs, terms, and conditions are subject to change without notice.
Intel Loans, Inc., NMLS #2858705. Licensed in Florida. Verify our licensing at nmlsconsumeraccess.org. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Home equity lines of credit are typically variable-rate products; the index, margin, caps, and draw and repayment terms are set by the lender and disclosed in your agreement.
This page describes consumer-purpose lines on a primary residence unless noted.
Worked examples on this page are hypothetical illustrations for education, not quotes or offers. Your value, liens, available line, and payment figures will differ.