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Non-QM

Loans outside the Qualified Mortgage definition. For income that is real but does not fit the standard documentation.

Who it is for

Self-employed borrowers, people whose income is in assets rather than paychecks, and investors buying on the property’s own cash flow.

Decided at

  • Day one
  • 0–3 yr
  • 3–7 yr
  • 7–15 yr
  • 15–30 yr

What separates it from its nearest neighbour: It is defined by what it is not. "Qualified Mortgage" is a regulatory definition, and a loan that falls outside it is still bound by the ability-to-repay rule.

The published rules

These are programme rules, not Plinth policy. Where a figure is reset each year — conforming limits, FHA county limits, the USDA fee, the VA fee table — the mechanism is described and the number is not, because a stale number on a lending page is worse than no number.

What Non-QM means
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defines a Qualified Mortgage under the ability-to-repay rule. A loan that does not meet that definition is a non-QM loan. It is a regulatory category, not a quality grade.
Ability to repay still applies
Being outside the QM definition does not exempt a lender from verifying that you can repay. That obligation is the rule; QM is a specific safe harbour inside it. Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.
Common documentation routes
Bank-statement programmes use deposits over 12 or 24 months instead of tax returns. Asset-depletion programmes convert liquid assets into a qualifying income figure. DSCR programmes qualify an investment property on its own rent against its own payment.
Features you may meet here
Interest-only periods and, occasionally, balloon structures appear in this category and rarely elsewhere. Both change the shape of the loan in the later bands of this page significantly.

What it will not do

  • Pricing is generally higher than an agency loan, because the risk is not being taken by an agency.
  • If your income can be documented conventionally, it almost always should be. This category is for when it genuinely cannot.
  • Guidelines vary by investor more than in any other category on this page.

What to find out before you go further

  1. 01Whether two years of tax returns really would fail, or only feel inconvenient.
  2. 02Which documentation route fits your actual income shape.
  3. 03Whether the loan carries an interest-only period, and what happens on the day it ends.

No obligation, and no transmission

Ask about Non-QM

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