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RSU Income Qualification

How will lenders count your vesting RSUs?

Your situation

Company type

Pre-IPO RSUs are essentially uncountable at agency lenders. A handful of private banks (JPM PB, Goldman PWM, BMO Family Office, Stifel) will still count them with documented tender/secondary history — but it’s materially harder than pre-2023.

Your RSU grant status

The new-hire-grant trap: with no refreshers yet, conservative underwriters can classify it as one-time bonus and exclude all RSU income.

RSU history & forward vest
$
$
$

Stock volatility

Forward stock-value haircut by volatility: low ~25% (mega-cap stable), medium ~30% (typical), high ~40% (recent IPO / heavy beta). Most lenders use a recent close; some run a 30/60-day average.

$
Qualifying income by lender approach
Same exact W-2s, vest schedule, and grant letter — different underwriters can produce dramatically different qualifying incomes. Plan to lender-shop 5-7 (sometimes 10) if RSU is >30% of your comp; the spread between best and worst desk is routinely 30-50% of qualifying income.

Optimistic underwriter

$275,600

RSU: $75,600/yr

counts new-hire as ongoing

Fannie Mae (DU)

$226,460

RSU: $26,460/yr

standard conventional

Freddie Mac (LP)

$237,800

RSU: $37,800/yr

standard conventional

Conservative underwriter

$200,000

RSU: $0/yr

excludes new-hire as bonus

Range of likely qualifying income

$200,000 – $275,600

Lender-dependent. The conservative end ($200,000) qualifies you for a home around $800,000 at 4x income; the optimistic end ($275,600) qualifies you for around $1,102,400. That’s a difference of $302,400 in home buying power purely based on which underwriter reads your file. Use the Affordability calc for a more precise number with your DTI and rate.

Base salary

$200,000

always counted

24-month RSU average

$120,000

only 1 year — not yet a true 24-mo avg

Forward 12mo vest at haircut

$75,600

600 shares × $180 × 70%

What this models — and what to verify with a lender

The new-hire grant is the most contentious classification. Some underwriters count the full vest stream as ongoing variable comp; others classify the entire 4-year grant as “sign-on bonus” and exclude it. Same person, same grant, different outcomes. Lender-shop.

Pre-IPO RSUs are typically uncountable. Most conventional lenders won’t count them at all because there’s no liquidity event yet. A few boutique private banks historically did with strong documentation; this is harder post-2023 banking changes.

What this calc doesn’t model:

  • 30/60-day stock price averaging some lenders use instead of recent close
  • Trending-down rule (Fannie defaults to trailing-12, not 24-mo avg, when current year is below prior)
  • Specialty / non-QM / portfolio lender overlays, which can be materially more generous
  • Grant letter language (“annual equity award” vs “sign-on/initial grant” can flip the call)
  • The 3-yr continuance requirement — we assume your unvested grant covers 3+ yrs past closing; if not, get an HR continuance letter on letterhead
  • Recent layoffs or hiring freezes at your employer (kills the “reasonable likelihood of continuance” argument)
  • PSUs / MSUs / performance stock — treated more conservatively than time-vesting RSUs because the share count itself isn’t certain

See the full RSU mortgage guide for the new-hire-grant trap, documentation checklist, and lender-shopping tactics.