Published October 22, 2026 · Guidelines dated March 2025 to September 2026
DSCR Lender Survey 2026: What 33 Lenders Actually Require
We lined up the published DSCR guidelines of 33 wholesale and correspondent lenders (84 programs) and counted what they actually require: the lowest DSCR they take, credit floors, leverage, loan sizes, property types, reserves and more. No lender names, no rates, just how the market is drawn.
Key findings
29 of 29
lenders with a published floor accept a DSCR below 1.00
21 of 29
go below 0.75 or offer a no-ratio option
80%
median max LTV on a purchase (740+ credit, 1.00 DSCR)
640
median minimum credit score (660 is the most common floor)
$100K–$3M
median lender’s loan size range
28 of 29
allow short-term rentals (Airbnb / VRBO)
- A ratio below 1.00 is not an exception in this market: every lender with a published floor allows it somewhere, usually with lower leverage.
- 85% is the leverage ceiling: 11 of 31 lenders reach it on a purchase at the reference tier, and none publish a first-lien DSCR LTV above 85%.
- 23 of 26 lenders that publish a housing-history rule accept at least one 30-day mortgage late in the past 12 months.
- Cash-out soon after buying is common: 10 of 16 lenders that publish a rule allow a cash-out refinance within 6 months of purchase.
1. The lowest DSCR lenders accept
Scope: 1-4 unit first-lien programs; each lender is counted at its most flexible program. 29 lenders publish a floor (2 of the 31 with 1-4 unit programs do not).
| Lowest DSCR accepted | Lenders |
|---|---|
| Below 0.75 (including no-ratio) | 21 |
| 0.75 to 0.99 | 8 |
| 1.00 | 0 |
| Above 1.00 | 0 |
14 lenders label a program or tier as no-ratio; 7 more price a sub-0.75 tier without a published floor. Among the 8 lenders without a sub-0.75 option, 7 stop at 0.75 and 1 at 0.80.
2. Maximum loan-to-value at a strong reference tier
Reference tier: credit score 740+, DSCR 1.00 to 1.19, one-unit single-family rental, experienced investor, US citizen, leased property, loan in the lender’s best size band.
| Loan purpose (lenders) | Median max LTV · range · distribution |
|---|---|
| Purchase (31) | 80% · 75-85% · 85%: 11, 80%: 18, 75%: 2 |
| Rate/term refinance (26) | 80% · 75-85% · 85%: 4, 80%: 19, 75%: 3 |
| Cash-out refinance (26) | 75% · 75-80% · 80%: 4, 75%: 22 |
14 of 31 lenders publish an 85% purchase cell somewhere, but 3 of them require a DSCR of 1.20-1.25 for it. Lower ratios, lower scores and short-term rentals usually cost leverage.
3. Minimum credit score
30 lenders, 1-4 unit programs, US-resident borrowers. Median lender minimum: 640. Most common floor: 660.
| Lowest minimum score | Lenders |
|---|---|
| No minimum score | 2 |
| 600-619 | 2 |
| 620-639 | 8 |
| 640-659 | 5 |
| 660-679 | 10 |
| 680-699 | 2 |
| 700+ | 1 |
4. Loan amounts
Single-property first-lien programs (blanket loans excluded).
| Median · range | |
|---|---|
| Smallest loan (29 lenders) | $100,000 · $75,000-$150,000 |
| Largest loan (31 lenders) | $3,000,000 · $2,000,000-$10,000,000 |
Maximum loan size: up to $2M: 2 lenders; $2M-$2.5M: 4; $2.5M-$3M: 11; $3M-$3.5M: 9; $3.5M-$5M: 3; above $5M: 2.
5. Property types
| Property type | Lenders allowing (of those with a published policy) |
|---|---|
| Single-family rental | 31 of 31 |
| 2-4 unit | 31 of 31 |
| Warrantable condo | 30 of 30 |
| Non-warrantable condo | 25 of 27 |
| Short-term rental (Airbnb / VRBO) | 28 of 29 |
| Rural | 16 of 24 |
| Mixed use | 7 of 28 |
| 5+ units (small multifamily) | 16 of 33 offer a 5+ unit program (max units: 8 at 7 lenders, 9 at 2, 10 at 5, no stated cap at 2) |
6. Borrower types and vesting
| Borrower | Lenders allowing |
|---|---|
| First-time investor (no rental history) | 26 of 26 |
| First-time homebuyer | 13 of 25 (11 for US borrowers; 2 only on a foreign-national program) |
| Foreign national | 19 of 27 |
| ITIN borrower | 7 of 22 |
| Vesting in an LLC or other entity | 30 of 30 |
7. Reserves
Months of PITIA (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, association dues) for a $500,000 purchase at 75% LTV, 740 credit, DSCR 1.00+, experienced investor. 25 lenders publish; median 3 months, range 0-6.
| Months of PITIA | Lenders |
|---|---|
| 0 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 |
| 3 | 12 |
| 4 | 1 |
| 6 | 3 |
21 of 25 raise reserves on larger loans (commonly 6 months somewhere between $1M and $2.5M, and 9-12 months on the largest loans). 21 of 25 let cash-out proceeds count toward reserves on at least one program.
8. Prepayment structure and interest-only
26 lenders publish prepayment terms. We count structures only, not penalty amounts.
| Question | Lenders |
|---|---|
| Borrower can choose no prepayment penalty (where state law allows one) | 13 yes · 4 require a minimum term · 9 not stated |
| Declining step-down structure offered | 14 yes · 10 single structure · 2 not stated |
| Longest prepayment term offered | 5 years: 23 · 3 years: 1 · not stated: 2 |
| Interest-only available on at least one DSCR program | 31 of 32 |
9. Mortgage lates and cash-out seasoning
26 lenders publish a housing-history rule. Most lenient published path per lender:
| Most lenient path | Lenders |
|---|---|
| More than one 30-day late, or a 60-day late (or lates priced rather than declined) | 12 |
| One 30-day late in the past 12 months | 11 |
| No 30-day lates in the past 12 months, or stricter | 3 |
Of the 12 most lenient lenders, 10 cap LTV at 70% or lower on that path. For cash-out on a recently bought property, 16 lenders publish an ownership rule: 7 have no minimum, 3 require 3 months and 6 require 6 months. Before the new appraised value can be used, LTV is usually based on the lower of the appraisal or the purchase price plus documented improvements (median wait for the full appraised value: 6 months, among 13 lenders that say).
Methodology and data dates
- Source: each lender’s own published matrices, guidelines and program pages from a mortgage broker’s DSCR guideline library (wholesale and correspondent partners), normalized into one record per program. Library compiled September 2, 2026; analysis run October 21, 2026.
- Lenders: 39 partner rows; brands that are trade names of one company sharing one credit box were merged; partners with no DSCR program, no published terms, or only stale data were dropped. Final count: 33 lenders, 84 programs.
- Counting: each lender counts once per metric, at its most flexible eligible program. Denominators differ by metric because not every lender publishes every term.
- Data age: program documents are dated March 2025 to September 2026 (5 undated). For 23 of 33 lenders the newest document is more than 60 days old; the median is 82 days. Lenders change guidelines often, so treat this as a snapshot.
- Limits: this is one broker’s lender network, not a census of the market. No rates, pricing, points, fees or prepayment percentages are included, and nothing here is a loan offer.
Use this data
Journalists, bloggers and researchers are welcome to cite or chart these numbers. Please credit and link the source:
Source: DSCR Lender Survey 2026, Save My DSCR Loan (savemydscrloan.com/dscr-lender-survey). Tanner Cook, NMLS #2090424.
Licensed CC BY 4.0: free to reuse with attribution.
Related
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum DSCR most lenders accept?
In our survey every lender that publishes a floor (29 of 29) accepts a DSCR below 1.00 on at least one 1-4 unit program, and 21 of them go below 0.75 or offer a no-ratio option. Ratios below 1.00 usually come with lower maximum leverage and a higher minimum credit score.
What credit score do DSCR lenders require?
The median lender minimum in our survey is 640, and the most common floor is 660. Two lenders publish a program with no minimum score (typically for borrowers without a usable score), and 2 have a scored floor between 600 and 619.
How much can you borrow against a rental with a DSCR loan?
At a strong reference tier (740+ credit, DSCR of 1.00, single-family rental), the median lender allows 80% loan-to-value on a purchase, 80% on a rate/term refinance and 75% on a cash-out refinance. 11 of 31 lenders reach 85% on a purchase; none publish a first-lien DSCR LTV above 85%.
Do DSCR lenders allow Airbnb and first-time investors?
28 of the 29 lenders with a published policy allow short-term rentals, and all 26 lenders that address it accept first-time investors with no rental history, though often with lower leverage or extra reserves.
Where does this data come from?
From each lender’s own published matrices, guidelines and program pages, collected in a broker’s guideline library and normalized into one record per program. Each lender counts once per metric (brands that share one credit box are counted as one lender). The full methodology and data dates are on this page.
Which of these lenders fits your deal?
We match each scenario against these lenders’ actual guidelines. Take the 60-second quiz; it doesn’t pull your credit.
Aggregate data for general information only; not a loan offer or commitment to lend. Guidelines vary by lender and change often, and meeting a program’s published minimums does not assure approval. DSCR loans are business-purpose loans for investment property. Cornerstone First Mortgage, LLC, NMLS #173855. Tanner Cook, NMLS #2090424.