DSCR Loan Requirements by Lender

DSCR loan requirements come down to six things: the rent-to-payment ratio, a credit floor, a down payment, cash reserves, the property type and who holds title. What follows is each requirement as lenders publish it on their own pages, not a rule of thumb, so you can see which lenders a file clears before you apply. For rates, start with DSCR loan rates; for the lender list, DSCR lenders.

DSCR loan credit score requirements

Every lender with a published floor is between 620 and 680. Kiavi and LendingOne do not state one on their DSCR pages. A higher score buys a lower rate and, at some lenders, a lower ratio: Ternus asks 1.00x at 680+ credit but 1.15x at 660 to 679.

Express Capital Financing's FAQ also says that, across the market, the minimum is usually between 650 and 700 (Express Capital). A low score is not an automatic no at Easy Street Capital, which says it lends with partners in an LLC and to borrowers with recent mortgage late payments.

DSCR loan down payment requirements

Lenders publish leverage as a maximum loan-to-value, so the down payment is what is left. On a $300,000 purchase:

Most lenders top out at 80%, which means $60,000 down on this example; Express Capital Financing's 85% purchase limit brings it to $45,000, as do Visio Lending's 85% LTV purchase loans and Griffin Funding's 15% option for 740+ credit. Closing costs, points and reserves come on top. Cash-out refinances are capped lower, usually at 75% (Easy Street Capital, Upright, Lima One, LendingOne, Express Capital Financing).

Minimum DSCR requirements

The ratio is gross monthly rent divided by the full monthly payment: principal, interest, taxes, insurance and HOA dues. Published minimums run from none (Easy Street Capital, Griffin Funding) to 1.1 (Groundfloor), with higher floors for riskier files. The chart turns those minimums into the rent you would need on one example payment:

On this $300,000 purchase the payment is $1,866.96 a month, so a lender at 0.75 accepts $1,401 of rent and one at 1.25 wants $2,334. Below 1.00, Upright says it lends at reduced leverage with additional reserves. Lima One's rental page sets a 1.0 minimum, with its lowest rates at 1.2 or more. Check your own numbers with the DSCR calculator, and see what each DSCR ratio means.

Cash reserves

Few lenders publish an exact reserve figure. Upright says it typically wants a few months of PITIA, with more on larger loans, lower-DSCR files and multifamily (Upright). Express Capital Financing's FAQ puts the market range at 3 to 12 months of payments. On the example above, 3 months is $5,600.89 and 12 months is $22,403.56, held in the bank after the down payment.

Property type requirements

DSCR loans are for non-owner-occupied rentals. What counts as eligible varies most at the top end, between 4 and 10 units:

Five or more units moves some lenders into different terms: Upright asks 1.25x on 5 to 10 units. Offices, retail and larger buildings are covered on commercial DSCR loans.

Loan size requirements

A minimum loan size rules out cheap houses faster than any ratio. Published ranges, smallest minimum first:

Ternus also needs a $115,000 minimum property value, and RCN Capital an as-is value of $115k or more, so a lender's loan minimum is not the only floor.

Minimum property value and credit history

Lenders also screen the house and your history, separately from the score:

• Easy Street Capital: a third-party appraised value of at least $100,000 ($75,000 per property on portfolio loans), and a limit of one bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale in the past seven years (its FAQ).
• Ternus: a $115,000 minimum property value.
• RCN Capital: an as-is appraised value of $115k or greater.

Cash-out refinance requirements

Leverage drops when you take cash out. Easy Street Capital, Upright, Lima One, LendingOne and Express Capital Financing all cap cash-out refinances at 75% of value, against 80% (85% at Express Capital) on a purchase. On a rental appraised at $300,000, that is a $225,000 maximum loan before paying off the existing mortgage. The full comparison is on DSCR cash-out refinance.

Prepayment terms you will be asked to choose

Most DSCR loans charge a fee if you pay them off early, and the choice is usually yours at application: a longer penalty buys a lower rate. What each lender publishes:

Ask the lender to write out what each year of a step-down schedule such as 5.4.3.2.1 would cost on your balance. If you may sell or refinance within three years, price the loan with a short or no-penalty option as well.

Loan products: fixed, ARM and interest-only

Upright offers a 30-year fixed, a 30-year fixed with 10 years interest only, and 5/6 and 7/6 ARMs. Easy Street Capital offers a 30-year fixed with a partial interest-only period of 10 years, and LendingOne a 30-year fixed, 5/1 and 10/1 ARMs and interest-only. Interest-only raises your ratio because the payment is lower; some lenders reduce leverage on it, as Upright does.

Citizenship and residency

Express Capital Financing lists US citizens, foreign nationals and permanent resident aliens as eligible on its DSCR loan (its program data). Other lenders set their own rules for non-citizens; ask before you apply.

Who can borrow: individuals, LLCs and partners

• Easy Street Capital: entities (LLCs) and partners welcomed.
• Ternus: LLC, LP or corporation, with an individual guarantor.
• Visio Lending: an entity is required in GA, HI, IL, MA, NJ, NY, PA and VA (its lending map).
• Farm Bureau Bank, one of the banks that publishes a DSCR product, lets title vest in an LLC, S corporation, C corporation or revocable trust, and sets no limit on the number of financed properties you own.

More on titling and guarantees: DSCR loans for an LLC.

Income and documents

No personal income test is the point of the loan. Upright requires no tax returns and no employment verification; Easy Street Capital uses no debt-to-income ratio; Groundfloor asks for property income verification and a clear rental strategy instead. Expect a lease or the appraiser's rent schedule, bank statements for the down payment and reserves, and entity documents if you borrow through a company.

Short-term rental requirements

Rules split sharply. Easy Street Capital says no short-term rental history is required. Upright does not finance short-term rental purchases and refinances them only with documented income at 1.15x. Full detail is on DSCR loans for short-term rentals.

Worked example: one file against every lender

Take a borrower with a 660 credit score buying the $300,000 rental above with 20% down. The lease is $2,000 a month and the payment is $1,866.96, so the ratio is 1.07. Here is how that file reads against each lender's published floors:

10 of the 13 lenders clear on paper. Ternus needs 1.15 at this score, Groundfloor 1.1 and Visio Lending a 680 score. Raising the score to 680 would bring Ternus's minimum down to 1.00 and clear Visio's floor; a rent of $2,148 would clear Ternus at 660. Clearing a floor is not the same as getting the best price: Lima One, for one, keeps its lowest rates for ratios of 1.2 or more.

How interest-only changes the ratio

The same $240,000 loan at 6.5% costs $1,516.96 a month amortizing over 30 years but $1,300.00 interest only. With $350 of taxes and insurance, the full payment falls from $1,866.96 to $1,650.00 and the ratio on a $2,000 rent rises from 1.07 to 1.21. That can move a file past a 1.10 or 1.15 floor. The cost is that you pay down no principal during the interest-only years, and lenders such as Upright reduce leverage on interest-only loans.

Rent needed at three price points

Requirements bite differently as prices rise. The table holds the loan at 80% of price and 6.5% over 30 years, with taxes at 1% of the price a year and $1,200 of insurance; your taxes will differ by county. It shows the rent each price needs at three common minimums:

On a $450,000 house a 1.00 lender wants $2,751 of rent, more than the median rent in any of the 10 states with a DSCR page here. That is why many expensive markets only work at lenders with a minimum under 1.00 or with more than 20% down.

Which rent counts toward the ratio

The ratio is only as high as the rent the lender accepts, and lenders pick it differently:

• Kiavi uses the lower of 110% of the appraised market rent and your valid lease rent (Kiavi). With a $1,900 appraised market rent, a $2,000 lease counts in full, but a $2,200 lease counts as only $2,090.
• Easy Street Capital finances vacant properties and uses the market rent from the appraisal to project cash flow (Easy Street).
• Upright underwrites on in-place or market rent (Upright).
• Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions, a non-QM lender, offers an automated rental valuation in place of the appraiser's rent schedule on some 1-unit loans and accepts an AirDNA report for short-term rentals (Angel Oak).

If your lease is above market, expect the lender to cap it. If the unit is empty, the appraiser's rent schedule decides the file, so look at local rents for the same bedroom count before you order the appraisal.

All 13 lenders' requirements at a glance

Each lender's own DSCR page, read November 2, 2026. "Not stated" means the page does not give one.

What most often disqualifies a DSCR file

• A recent credit event. Easy Street Capital allows at most one bankruptcy, foreclosure or short sale in the past seven years.
• A cheap property. Ternus needs a $115,000 value and RCN Capital an as-is value of $115k or more; New Silver's loans start at $150,000.
• Owner occupancy. These loans are for rentals you do not live in. A home you plan to live in needs an owner-occupied loan instead.
• A short-term rental purchase at Upright, which does not finance them.
• Too many units. Most programs stop at 4, 8, 9 or 10 units; above that is commercial lending.

Requirements checklist

1. Rent covers the payment at your lender's minimum (see the chart above).
2. Credit at or above its floor, 620 to 680.
3. Down payment of 15% to 20% of the price at most lenders here (Express Capital Financing's FAQ says 20% to 30% is typical across the market), plus closing costs.
4. Reserves of several months of PITIA.
5. Property within its unit count and above its minimum value.
6. Borrower structure it accepts in your state.

Read from each lender's own website on November 2, 2026. Requirements change; confirm with the lender before you apply. Not financial advice.

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