Walk into a bank branch with a Schedule C showing $42K in wages and $480K in gross receipts, and the first thing the loan officer sees is risk. They’re trained to treat restaurants as volatile, even though the National Restaurant Association shows 65% of independent eateries remain profitable after five years. Traditional underwriters plug your net income into a debt-to-income calculator and stop there.

At NMHL, we underwrite to cash flow, not just taxable income. That means we add back depreciation, depletion, business-use-of-home, and any one-time equipment expenses you wrote off. We also recognize that many owners pay personal expenses through the business—health insurance, cell phone, vehicle leases—so we use gross deposits and apply a fixed 50% expense factor that mirrors real-world operations. The result is a qualifying income that is often 3–4× what a conventional lender will use.

Path 1: Bank Statements Only
Upload 12 or 24 months of business or personal statements via our secure portal. We total the deposits, knock off 50% for expenses, and divide by the number of months. Credit score 620+, down payment as low as 10%, loan amounts to $3 million.

Path 2: P&L + CPA Letter
Perfect when your revenue rebounded in 2024 but the 2023 return is still ugly. A CPA or licensed bookkeeper prepares a YTD profit-and-loss on NMHL letterhead, signs an attestation, and we qualify you at the stated net plus documented add-backs. Close in 30 days with as little as 5% down on conforming balance loans.

Path 3: Asset Depletion
If you’ve owned the restaurant five-plus years and have $750K in liquid assets (retirement counts at 70%), we simply divide that total by 360 months and treat the result as monthly income. No tax returns, no statements, no P&L—just verification of the assets.

• Portland food-truck-turned-brick-and-mortar: $290K purchase, 12-month bank statements, 22% cash deposits, qualified at $9,350/month income, closed with 4.875% fixed (5% down).
• Miami sushi franchise co-owner: $1.1 million condo, K-1 showed $48K but gross deposits $1.4M annually, used 24-month P&L, 10% down, 6.125% fixed, closed in 28 days.
• Austin BBQ pitmaster: $525K refinance to pull cash for second location, 580 credit score, used asset-depletion on $820K in stocks, no income docs, rate 7.49%—still saved $1,100/month versus merchant cash-advance debt.

Each borrower came in convinced they’d never qualify; two had already been denied by their local credit union. The key was matching the right documentation to the right loan program instead of forcing a square peg into a conventional hole.

Start with a 90-second soft-pull pre-qual form—you’ll see exactly what we can offer without dinging your credit or filling out 15 pages of minutiae. Prefer to talk it through? Call 1-800-NMHL-YES and ask for the restaurant-owner hotline; you’ll reach an LO who actually knows what a QSR versus full-service P&L looks like.

We’ll send you a one-page checklist: last two months of business statements, driver’s license, and a short questionnaire about ownership percentage and tip handling. Upload photos of those documents from your phone—no need for scanners or accountants on day one. Within 24 hours you’ll have a qualifying amount, rate range, and closing-cost estimate you can hand to any realtor. If you’re not ready yet, we’ll map out exactly what to do over the next 90 days to flip a maybe into a definite yes.

Thousands of restaurant owners are already homeowners because they took ten minutes to ask, "What’s possible?" You deserve the same clarity. Whenever you’re ready, we’re here—no judgment, no jargon, just coffee-shop-level conversation about getting you those keys.