DSCR Investor Loans
The property qualifies. You just sign.
No tax returns, no W-2s, no debt-to-income calculation, no employment verification. A DSCR loan asks one question: does the rent cover the payment? If the answer is close enough, the file works — and your own income is never examined.
Who this is built for
Investors whose returns understate them
Depreciation and write-offs make a good landlord look broke on paper. This program never opens the return.
Anyone already carrying several mortgages
Conventional financing counts every payment against you and caps how many properties you can hold. Here each property stands on its own.
Buyers who need to move quickly
Fewer documents means fewer things to go wrong late. In a market where a seller takes the cleanest offer, that is worth more than a slightly better rate.
Anyone buying through an LLC
Entity vesting is normal on this program, not an exception you have to argue for.
Not sure whether a property pencils? Send me the address and the rent — the ratio takes about a minute to run, and it decides everything else.
Run a property by meNobody asks what you earn. They ask what the property earns
No tax returns. No W-2s. No debt-to-income. The question is whether the rent covers the payment — and it does not have to cover it perfectly.
Debt service coverage is just rent divided by the total monthly payment. A property collecting $3,000 against a $2,700 payment sits at 1.11. Most people assume it has to clear 1.00 to work. It does not.
Interest-only is available and changes this arithmetic materially, because the ratio is measured against the payment you actually make. A property that misses at 0.94 on a fully amortizing payment can clear 1.00 interest-only. That single structural choice has rescued more investor files than any rate negotiation.
| The rent covers the payment | A ratio of 1.00 or better | Full leverage available, the widest choice of programs, and the best pricing. Most files sit here. |
| The rent falls a little short | A ratio of 0.75 to 0.99 | Still eligible. Leverage steps down roughly five points and the credit bar rises, but a property that nearly carries itself is financeable. |
| The rent is not counted at all | No ratio | A separate route for properties that cannot document rent yet. Leverage tightens again and fewer programs offer it, but it exists. The consumer version — no income stated on a home you live in — is a different program. |
Interest-only requires a ratio of at least 1.00 at most lenders, so it moves a marginal file into the top band rather than rescuing one far below it. Ratio bands, leverage and credit minimums vary by lender and program.
How it actually works
One ratio decides most of it.
The appraiser sets the rent
A Form 1007 rent schedule comes back with the appraisal. That number is what counts — not the listing, not the seller’s spreadsheet, and not what you hope to get.
That rent is divided by the full payment
Principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues. The result is your debt service coverage ratio.
The ratio sets your tier
At 1.00 the property covers itself exactly. Above that you have cushion. Below it you are asking the lender to accept a shortfall — which some will.
Your income never enters the file
There is no debt-to-income calculation, because there is no income under review. That is the entire point of the product.
What you can qualify for
Five programs publish five different answers, and the gaps between them are where deals get placed — each tab is a single program’s own grid, and figures from different programs never combine:
Loan size and credit move together here, so both appear on every row. Neither figure is available in combination with a different row.
| Loan amount | Credit score | Maximum loan-to-value |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $1 million | 700 and above | 80% |
| Up to $1 million | 640 – 699 | 75% |
| Up to $1 million | 620 – 639 | 65% |
| Up to $1 million | 600 – 619 | 60% |
| $1,000,001 – $1,500,000 | 700 and above | 80% |
| $1,000,001 – $1,500,000 | 660 – 699 | 75% |
| $1,000,001 – $1,500,000 | 640 – 659 | 65% |
| $1,500,001 – $2,000,000 | 700 and above | 75% |
| $1,500,001 – $2,000,000 | 660 – 699 | 70% |
| $1,500,001 – $2,000,000 | 640 – 659 | 65% |
| $2,000,001 – $2,500,000 | 700 and above | 75% |
| $2,000,001 – $2,500,000 | 660 – 699 | 70% |
| $2,000,001 – $2,500,000 | 640 – 659 | 60% |
| $2,500,001 – $3,000,000 | 700 and above | 70% |
| $2,500,001 – $3,000,000 | 660 – 699 | 65% |
| $2,500,001 – $3,000,000 | 640 – 659 | 60% |
Those are purchase figures at a ratio of 1.00 or better, running from $125,000 to $3 million. A cash-out refinance sits roughly five to fifteen points lower and is unavailable at some of the weaker rungs entirely. Below a 1.00 ratio the whole grid steps down about five points, and the no-ratio route steps down again. Two things here are unusual and worth knowing: there are rungs at a 620 and even a 600 credit score, which most investor programs will not touch, and reserves are not required at all at or under $1.5 million — two months above that, six above $2.5 million, with cash-out proceeds able to satisfy them. Interest-only is available from a 660 score. There is also a route that qualifies on your assets instead of the rent, if the property does not cover itself but your balance sheet does. Short-term rental income is accepted at slightly reduced leverage, and this is the part worth planning around: a property with twelve months of documented booking history is held to a materially lower ratio than one where the income is a projection. Buying something with an operating history is worth real leverage. One thing to be clear-eyed about: the low rungs on this ladder are real, but they are not cheap. Both weaker credit and higher leverage carry pricing adjustments, and at the bottom of the credit range those adjustments are substantial rather than marginal. A rung existing is not the same as a rung being a good idea, and part of my job is telling you which one you are looking at.
Representative of one program’s matrix effective 03/16/2026. Tiers, ratio bands, credit minimums, reserve and documentation requirements differ by lender and program and change without notice. Maximum loan-to-value, maximum loan amount and minimum credit score are separate limits shown here only in combinations that appear together. Warrantable condominiums, non-warrantable condominiums, condotels and rural properties each carry their own lower ceilings. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
That first table is one program. A second one reaches higher on a purchase — but only on a purchase — and it does not stop at a million and a half: the same grid carries a 640 score out to two million. These are that program’s own figures and they do not combine with the other grids on this page.
| Credit score | Maximum loan-to-value | Purchase only |
|---|---|---|
| 720 and above | 85% | Up to $1.5 million |
| 660 – 719 | 80% | Up to $1.5 million |
| 640 – 659 | 75% | Up to $1.5 million |
| 620 – 639 | 65% | Up to $1.5 million |
| 600 – 619 | 60% | Up to $1.5 million |
| 660 and above | 75% | Up to $2 million — the same program, one balance band further out |
| 640 – 659 | 75% | Up to $2 million — the same seventy-five, twenty points of credit lower |
| 620 – 639 | 65% | Up to $2 million — purchase only at this rung |
Read the conditions on that top rung before you plan around it, because they are narrow and they matter here more than in most markets. Anything above 80% requires a ratio of at least 1.20 rather than 1.00, six months of the property’s payment held in reserve, and — the one that catches Miami buyers — a property type limited to single-family, townhome, planned unit development, or a warrantable condominium located outside Florida. A Florida condominium does not reach this rung at all. If the area is designated a declining market, another five points come off. Above $1.5 million this program steps down to 75% and then to 70%, which is lower than the first table at several rungs, so the better route genuinely depends on the file. Cash-out is not part of this: at the same strong credit scores a cash-out refinance sits at 80%, and the extra leverage here exists on purchases only. It also prices for itself — the additional leverage carries a pricing adjustment of its own, on top of any credit adjustment. Tell me the property type and the score and I will tell you which of the two routes actually wins.
Representative of a separate program’s summary, version 08/17/2026, and shown separately because figures from two programs never combine. Purchase transactions only; maximum loan-to-value, minimum credit score and maximum loan amount are separate limits shown here only in combinations that appear together. Loan-to-value above 80% additionally requires a minimum debt service coverage ratio of 1.20, six months of reserves, and an eligible property type as described. Programs, tiers and requirements change without notice. Not all applicants or properties will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend.
When independent grids agree, the number stops being one program’s opinion. A third program prints the same 75-to-80 architecture at strong credit. Purchase and rate-and-term, ratio of 1.00 or better:
| Loan amount | Maximum loan-to-value | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| To $1 million | 80% | From a 720 score; 75% at 680, 70% at 660 |
| To $1.5 million | 75% | From 700 |
| To $2 million | 75% | From 720 |
| Below a 1.00 ratio — to $1 million | 75% | From 700, in the 0.75-to-0.99 band — independently confirming the band exists |
Its rulebook is where the corroboration gets useful. Short-term rental income is accepted — but capped at 70% leverage and a full 1.00 ratio, which echoes what the first two grids charge for projections. First-time investors qualify at a 700 score with a 1.00 ratio, no exceptions — the same higher bar this page already describes. And one honest difference worth knowing as a portfolio grows: this program counts financed properties and stops at twenty, where the other grids on this page impose no such ceiling. Corroboration cuts both ways — when three programs agree on the shape, trust the shape; where one is stricter, that is real information about how the market reads the risk.
Representative of a third program’s product profile dated 08/03/2026. Business-purpose loans on investment property; occupancy of the subject property is not permitted. Figures from different programs never combine. Maximum loan-to-value, minimum credit score, loan amount and coverage requirements are separate limits shown only in combinations that appear together in the source. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
The grids above hold eighty percent to a million and a half and step down past it. This one carries the same eighty into seven-figure territory — the newest DSCR matrix on my shelf, purchase and rate-and-term at a ratio of 1.00 or better:
| Loan amount | Maximum financing | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| To $1.5 million | 80% | From a 700 score — and cash-out holds 80% at 720 |
| To $2 million | 80% | From 700, purchase and rate-and-term — where the other ladders have stepped to 75% |
| To $2 million | 75% | From 680 — the same seventy-five, sixty points of credit lower |
| To $2.5 million | 70% | From 700; 65% from 660 — the program ceiling |
| To $1 million — a foreign national | 70% | No US credit score required, on the same 1.00 coverage — purchase or rate-and-term |
That second row is the reason this tab exists: two million dollars at eighty percent, on rent alone, where the other ladders on this page have already stepped down. The conditions are ordinary rather than exotic — loans above two million take two full appraisals, cash-out caps at a million and a half, a declining market costs five points across every rung, and rural property caps at sixty-five with ten acres. Row homes are ineligible in every state, which is worth knowing before an offer. And the balance ladder does not stop at two: a separate program on my shelf holds eighty percent all the way to three million dollars.†
From a single program’s published matrix effective 08/13/2026 — the debt-service-coverage grid at a ratio of 1.00 or better, loan amount by credit score, purchase and rate-and-term except where cash-out is stated. Minimum loan $100,000; a coverage ratio below 1.00 carries its own band with a $200,000 minimum and six months of reserves. Figures from different programs never combine. Maximum financing, credit score and loan amount are separate limits shown only in combinations printed together in the source. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
Bigger buildings run on their own programs, and a fourth program publishes exactly that grid — five-to-nine-unit residential, on printed terms:
| The file | Maximum loan-to-value | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase or rate-and-term | 75% | From a 700 score, to $2.5 million; 70% at 680 |
| Cash-out | 70% | From 700; 65% at 680 |
| The coverage bar | 1.15× | Higher than the 1.00 the one-to-four grids ask — bigger buildings must clear more |
The conditions scale with the building: twenty-four clean months of housing history and a full seven years since any major credit event — the strictest clock on this page — plus six months of reserves, loans from $350,000, at most two vacant units counted at three-quarters of market rent, and title held in an entity with a personal guaranty. The appraisal is a commercial narrative report with a broker price opinion on top — more cost and more calendar than a house appraisal, worth building into the contract dates. No first-time investors and no short-term rentals here. The same program’s one-to-four grid separately corroborates two rules this page already states: short-term rental income wants a 1.15 cover, a five-point haircut and twelve months of operator history, and a first-time investor qualifies at a 1.00 cover and a 700 score, long-term leases only. Two more lenders print five-to-eight-unit grids of their own, and a mixed-use and commercial route exists — all on the multi-family page.
Representative of a fourth program’s matrices effective 08/04/2026 — the five-to-nine-unit grid and, for the corroborating rules, its one-to-four-unit program. Business-purpose loans on investment property; occupancy is not permitted. Figures from different programs never combine. Maximum loan-to-value, credit score, loan amount and coverage requirements are separate limits shown only in combinations that appear together in each source. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
Every grid above asks the rent to cover the payment. One program on my shelf prints four separate ways to qualify on the same matrix — and carries the ladder a million dollars further than anything else on this page:
| Loan amount and route | Maximum financing | Credit score |
|---|---|---|
| To $1 million — rent covers the payment | 80% | From 660, the whole way down |
| To $3 million — rent covers the payment | 75% | From 720 |
| To $4 million — rent covers the payment | 65% | From 700; 60% at 660 |
| To $1 million — the rent falls short, from 0.75 | 75% | From 700 |
| To $1 million — the rent is not counted at all | 75% | From 740 |
| To $1.5 million — a foreign national | 65% | No credit score required at all |
Read that table as four doors rather than one ladder. The first three rows are the ordinary case and they run higher than the rest of this page — four million dollars on rent alone, where the other grids have stopped at three. The fourth row is a property that does not quite carry itself and still finances at seventy-five percent. The fifth counts no rent whatsoever. And the last row is the one worth flagging: this program writes foreign nationals to a million and a half with no credit score of any kind — not a thin file, not a substitute score, none required — where the tab to the left tops out at a million. A foreign buyer whose purchase sits between those two numbers has a door here and nowhere else on this page. Above two million the program takes a second appraisal, and the four-to-six-million range is capped at sixty percent and priced case by case, so bring me that one early rather than late.
From a single program’s published matrix effective 08/01/2026 — investment occupancy only, purchase column, each row printed on its own coverage band as labelled. Minimum credit score 660 except on the foreign-national band, which requires none. Maximum financing is 80% on purchase and rate-and-term and 75% on cash-out; cash-out is unlimited at or under 60% financing and caps at $1.5 million above it. Non-warrantable condominiums cap at $1.5 million. Loans above $2 million require a second appraisal and loans from $4 million to $6 million are capped at 60% and underwritten case by case. That program’s matrices state no geographic limits, so state availability is confirmed per file. Figures from different programs never combine, and figures from different coverage bands do not combine with each other. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
† From a separate program’s published matrix effective 07/30/2026: 80% financing, purchase or rate-and-term, from a 700 credit score, to a program maximum of $3,000,000 — business-purpose investment property, with loans above $1,500,000 requiring that same 700 score and nine months of reserves. Cash-out above $1,500,000 caps at 65%. Figures from different programs never combine; programs change without notice. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
‡ From a further program’s published matrix effective 07/31/2026, on its 1.00-or-better coverage band: 75% financing to $1,000,000 from a 620 credit score, investment property. Ten points above what the main ladder on this page offers at the same score. Figures from different programs never combine; that program’s own ratio, reserve and property rules apply.
What you actually hand over
A Form 1007 rent schedule
Ordered with the appraisal, and required on one-unit properties for both purchases and refinances. Two-to-four unit properties use Form 1025 instead.
The lease, or booking history
If the property is already rented, the lease. If it is a short-term rental, twelve months of remittance statements from the booking platform.
Entity documents, if you are buying in an LLC
Articles, operating agreement, and the vesting details. Corporations and revocable trusts work too.
Reserves
Three to nine months of the property’s payment depending on loan size and leverage. Cash-out proceeds count toward this.
Proof you have somewhere to live
Lenders require you to maintain a primary residence and will ask for evidence of it. More on that below.
A business purpose affidavit
You certify the loan is for business purposes and acknowledge that consumer protection laws applicable to consumer mortgages do not apply to it.
Want the exact list for your file before you ever apply? Build your document checklist — the list changes with your answers, printable and yours to keep.
Where it wins — and when it is not the right loan
Five things that end these files, and none of them are obvious.
No returns, no W-2s, no employment verification, no debt-to-income calculation. Write-offs, a new business, a complicated year — none of it is the lender’s question.
Most people assume the rent must clear the payment outright. It does not — there are printed bands below that line, and files close in them every month.
The ratio is measured against the payment you actually make, so a property that misses on a fully amortizing payment can clear on an interest-only one. That is structure, not a loophole.
These programs are built for investors who already own property, so the next purchase is not blocked by the last one the way agency financing eventually blocks it.
This surprises almost everyone. Lenders require you to maintain a primary residence and will compare it to the subject property. If the investment property is nicer than where you live, the file draws occupancy-fraud scrutiny and needs additional review. Renting your own home is workable, but you will need to show an active lease. Worth raising before you make an offer, not after.
A DSCR loan is business-purpose credit. Occupying it is not a technicality you can quietly work around — it changes the loan’s legal character entirely and the affidavit you sign says so.
Ineligible on essentially every mainstream DSCR program, including the largest wholesale program in the country. Residential over commercial needs a genuinely different program, and that is a call worth making early. I have routes for it.
First-time investors face a higher bar across the board — some lenders require a ratio of at least 1.00 and a stronger credit score, and some will not let a first-time investor use short-term rental income at all. Both conditions are survivable if you know about them in advance.
DSCR prices above conventional investment financing. If you personally qualify on tax returns and are not already carrying several mortgages, a conventional loan will usually cost less. This program earns its place when the returns do not work, the property count is high, or speed decides the deal.
Run the property before you write the offer
The calculator below is the one I use on live files. Enter the price, the rent, the taxes and the insurance, and it will show the ratio, the break-even rent, and what a program is likely to offer against it. Ten minutes there is worth more than any conversation about rates. That one answers the lender’s question. Two others answer yours — the cap rate works the income and operating expenses down to NOI, and the full analysis runs cash flow, cash-on-cash return, and what the property returns in total if you ever sell it.
Questions people actually ask
Open the full Q&A — the ratio, the rent schedule, and the fine points ▾
+What does DSCR actually mean?
Debt service coverage ratio — the property’s rent divided by its full monthly payment, including taxes, insurance and any association dues. At 1.00 the rent covers the payment exactly. The calculator on this page works it out from your numbers.
+Do you check my income or my debt-to-income ratio?
No. Neither one enters the file. That is what separates this from every other investment loan, and it is why investors with several properties or heavy write-offs end up here.
+What if the rent does not quite cover the payment?
You still have options. There are tiers down to about 0.75, and a no-ratio route below that. Leverage tightens at each step and the credit requirement rises, but a property that nearly carries itself is financeable. Interest-only is also worth modeling, since the ratio is measured against the payment you actually make.
+Can I use Airbnb or short-term rental income?
Often yes, and how you prove it matters more than most people realize. Twelve months of remittance statements from the booking platform is treated far more generously than a projection from AirDNA or the appraiser. On some programs a projection means clearing a ratio well above 1.00, where documented history clears at 1.00. If you are choosing between two properties and one has an operating history, that history is worth real leverage. The full short-term picture — a printed nightly-rental grid, a band below 1.00, and how the market itself gets scored — has its own page.
+Can I close in an LLC?
Yes, and it is normal here rather than an exception. Corporations and inter vivos revocable trusts also work. Bring the entity documents early and we will vest it correctly from the start.
+How many of these can I have?
There is generally no cap of the kind conventional financing imposes at four or ten properties. Each property is underwritten on its own merits, which is precisely why investors move to DSCR once a portfolio starts growing.
+I had a bankruptcy or foreclosure. Am I out?
Not necessarily, and the range of answers here is wider than anywhere else in lending. Mainstream investor programs stop dead at a credit event inside the last three years. Others lend at two years, some at one, and there is at least one route that will look past a bankruptcy almost immediately — in exchange for a much lower loan-to-value and a substantial equity cushion left in the property. Leverage tightens sharply the more recent the event. What decides it is how much equity you have and how far back it was, so it is worth asking rather than assuming, even if it happened last year.
+What about five or more units?
A different program entirely, and one most brokers cannot place. Five-to-eight unit residential is available with a ratio of at least 1.00 and stronger credit, and one program on my shelf reaches ten units. Note that first-time investors are generally not eligible on those, and the appraisal is a commercial narrative report rather than the usual form — more cost, more time, worth knowing before you write the offer.
+Is there a prepayment penalty?
Usually yes — commonly up to five years, or whatever a given state allows. It is negotiable against rate, so if you expect to sell or refinance within a few years, say so at the start and we will price it that way.
+Does the appraiser’s rent number really override the lease?
The lender uses the Form 1007 rent schedule, and where there is a lease most will use the lower of the two. If the appraisal comes back under your assumption, the ratio moves and so does your leverage. That is the single most common late surprise on these files.
Schedule a Consultation
Loan programs, explained honestly
DSCR loans are business-purpose loans made for investment property and are not consumer credit; consumer protection laws applicable to consumer mortgage loans do not apply to them. Programs are offered through third-party lenders and are subject to lender approval, full underwriting, and change without notice. Program parameters including loan-to-value tiers, ratio bands, credit minimums, reserve and documentation requirements vary by lender and program and are not available in combination. Figures shown are maximums under stated conditions and come from multiple programs’ documents, each cited beside the table it supports. Figures from one program never combine with figures from the other. Not all applicants or properties will qualify. Occupancy of the subject property is not permitted. This is not a commitment to lend. Equal Housing Opportunity.