TL;DR:

• Most lenders won't count RSUs as income unless you have 2 years of vesting history they can see on paper.
• Vested RSUs do count as assets/reserves even when they don't count as income.
• Start prepping 6–12 months before you want to buy if equity is a big part of your comp.

The conversation nobody prepares for

You walk into a lender with something like:

• $160K base
• $120K/year in RSUs
• A few hundred thousand in unvested stock

In your head, you make $280K and you're doing great.

Then the underwriter looks at your file and says:

"Okay, so we'll qualify you based on $160K salary."

You're thinking: "What about the RSUs? What about the equity?"

To them, RSUs are:

• Volatile
• Hard to model
• Easy to explain away to their boss if they just ignore them

So by default, they ignore them unless you give them exactly what they want.

RSUs as income vs RSUs as reserves

Lenders think about your equity in two completely different buckets:

1. RSUs as income — can they rely on ongoing vests to justify a bigger loan?
2. RSUs as reserves — do you have enough assets to cover the down payment, closing costs, and a few months of payments?

Even if they refuse to treat your RSUs as income, they'll happily look at your vested shares as part of your assets.

| | RSUs as Income | RSUs as Reserves | | --- | --- | --- | | What it affects | How big a loan they'll give you | Down payment & closing | | 2-year history needed? | Usually yes | No | | Source of comfort | "Will you still be paid?" | "Do you have a buffer?" |

If you've got $100K in vested RSUs, that's still $100K you can convert into cash for a down payment. You just have to plan for taxes.

The 2-year rule

Most lenders want to see two full years where RSU income shows up on your W-2.

Not just:

• "I have a big grant"
• Or "I started last year and have one vest"

They want to see:

• Year 1: RSU income actually paid
• Year 2: RSU income actually paid

Their logic: if it's hit your paychecks for two years, it's not just a one-time signing bonus.

So if you're only 6–12 months into your first grant, expect:

• RSUs mostly ignored for income
• Loan sized off base salary
• RSUs only helping as assets

That doesn't mean you shouldn't buy. It just means don't walk in assuming "$280K total comp" is the number they'll use.

The 6–12 month prep timeline

If equity is going to matter for your down payment, don't wait until you find a house to think about this.

6–12 months before you apply

• Download your vesting history from your brokerage
• Save copies of grant agreements
• Pull the last 2 years of W-2s
• Stop random selling — let a consistent pattern show up
• Get a rough sense of how much equity you're willing to sell

3–6 months before

• Talk to a few lenders, not just one
• Ask straight up: "How do you treat RSU income? What documentation do you need?"
• Verify how they'll treat your vested RSUs as reserves
• Make a plan for which shares you'd sell and roughly when

0–3 months before

• Actually start selling the slices you earmarked for the down payment
• Keep an eye on taxes (more on that next)
• Don't radically change your employment situation mid-mortgage process if you can avoid it

Selling RSUs for the down payment (and the tax bill)

When you sell RSUs, there are two tax pieces:

1. At vest — the value that hits your account is ordinary income (already on your W-2)
2. After vest — any gain or loss between vest price and sale price is capital gain or loss

Simple version:

• Sell right at vest → very little extra tax. You've already paid the ordinary income part.
• Hold and stock goes up → you'll owe capital gains when you sell.
• Hold and stock goes down → you might get a capital loss you can use, but you also just lost house money.

If you're using RSUs for a down payment, you're not trying to win the stock market. You're trying not to get surprised by taxes.

Don't assume:

"I sold $80K, so I have $80K for the house."

If $15K of that was post-vest gains, some of that is going to the IRS later. Leave a buffer.

What the lender actually wants to see

Make it stupidly easy for the underwriter to say "yes."

Documents to have ready:

• 2 years of W-2s (showing RSU income if you have it)
• Grant agreements for current grants
• Screenshots/PDFs of your vesting schedule
• Recent brokerage statements showing:
  • Vests coming in
  • Current share balances
• If they ask for it: a simple letter from your employer confirming your comp structure

The more organized you are, the less likely they are to shrug and ignore your equity.

How I use Tarqeq for this

When I'm thinking about housing stuff, I care about:

• How much of my equity is already vested
• What that's worth after tax if I sell it
• How much is realistically going to show up as income over the next 1–2 years

So in Tarqeq, I set it up so I can see:

• Vested vs unvested at a glance
• Rough after-tax proceeds if I sell a certain %
• Upcoming vests month by month

Then I can walk into a lender knowing:

"Here's my salary. Here's my equity. Here's what I'm actually willing to sell, and I know the tax hit."

You don't want to be trying to do all that math in your head while you're signing mortgage disclosures.

See your equity the way a lender will →

References

• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.1-09 — RSU income eligibility requirements
• Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.1-01 — General income documentation requirements
• IRS Topic 427 — Stock options and RSU taxation
• IRS Topic 409 — Capital gains when selling vested shares