I looked into this a year or two ago. Apparently there are ways for the HELs to be underwritten taking into borrower
ASSETS in addition to the more usual income method.
You may wish to search on this for further info.
Not all loan originators may be aware of these less common methods. It would probably be good upfront in the process to understand if the originator has experience in documenting loans underwritten based on assets (not income).
Here are a few links that I found just now that may help your research into this area.
https://www.thestreet.com/story/122...mortgage-when-you-have-assets-not-income.html
Use Your Assets - Freddie Mac
http://www.freddiemac.com/learn/pdfs/uw/docmatrix.pdf
-gauss