Rental & DSCR financing
The loan is underwritten against the property.
Not against your paycheck.
Busy Bee Services places rental property and DSCR loans for investors buying, refinancing, or cashing out on property that produces rent. Programs available in all 50 states, purchase or refinance, for a single door or a growing portfolio.
The core idea
An investment property is judged by what it earns, not what you earn
A rental property loan looks at the deal differently than a mortgage on the house you live in. Your income still matters on some programs, but the property itself carries a lot of the weight. Rent is coming in every month, and the lender wants to know that rent covers the loan payment before they look much further.
That is the whole idea behind a DSCR loan. DSCR stands for debt service coverage ratio, and it is one of the more useful numbers in real estate investing because it answers a plain question: does the rent cover the payment? Once you can answer that, a lot of the rest of the file falls into place.
DSCR in plain words
How debt service coverage actually gets calculated
Take the monthly rent the property brings in, or the market rent a property will support if it is not yet leased. Divide that number by the total monthly cost of the loan, which usually includes principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. What comes out is the ratio.
A ratio of 1.0 means the rent exactly covers the payment. Above 1.0 means the property produces more than the loan costs, and the file gets easier from there. Below 1.0 means the rent falls short and the owner would need to cover the gap out of pocket every month, which is a harder file to place and a harder property to own.
What makes DSCR appealing to a lot of investors is what it does not require. Personal income, tax returns, and employment history matter far less than they do on a conventional home loan. The property speaks for itself. That also means a strong day job will not rescue a property that does not cash flow, and a modest day job will not sink one that does.
Two thousand dollars a month in rent against an eighteen hundred dollar monthly payment is a ratio above 1.0 and a straightforward file. The same rent against a twenty-four hundred dollar payment is a ratio below 1.0, and that gap is what a lender, and an owner, has to think hard about before closing.
What gets financed
Rental property, portfolios, and the deals in between
The same intake covers a first rental and a stack of twenty. The structure changes with the size and shape of the deal.
Single rental property
A single family home, a condo, or a small multifamily property bought to rent out. Financed on a purchase, or refinanced once it is stabilized and leased.
Portfolio loans
One loan against several rental properties at once instead of a separate note on each. Useful once an investor is holding enough doors that refinancing them one at a time stops making sense.
Cash out on equity
Equity built up in a rental can be pulled out to fund the next purchase or a rehab, without selling the property that built it.
Straight talk
Why this is not the same loan as your own house
A mortgage on the home you live in is priced and underwritten as owner-occupied. You are the one making the payment from your job, you are the one living there, and the lender treats it as lower risk on that basis. An investment property does not get that treatment, and it should not be expected to. There is no owner living in the unit absorbing the risk of a vacancy, and if things go wrong, an investor is statistically more likely to walk away from a rental than from the home they live in.
That difference shows up in every part of the file. Investment property loans generally ask for a larger down payment or more equity than an owner-occupied purchase would. They are priced as investment risk, not owner-occupied risk. A new investor without a rental history will usually see more questions than someone with a track record of managing properties. None of that is a reason to avoid investment financing. It is a reason to walk in knowing the deal you are actually being offered, instead of comparing it to the mortgage on your own front door.
Lenders we work with also want to see that a property, and an investor, can absorb a rough month. A vacancy, a repair, a tenant who pays late. Cash reserves and a plan for those moments are part of a strong file, not an afterthought.
Where this fits
Buying, refinancing, and rehabbing rentals
- Purchasing a rental. Financing a property bought specifically to rent out and hold, priced on the rent it will generate.
- Refinancing an existing rental. Replacing an existing loan on a property already producing rent, often to change terms or pull equity.
- Rehab and rent. Buying a property that needs work, funding the repairs, and holding it as a rental once the work is done. Related short term rehab financing runs through our hard money programs.
- Growing a portfolio. Adding properties over time and consolidating financing as the portfolio grows past a handful of doors.
Common questions
Before you apply
What is a DSCR loan?
DSCR stands for debt service coverage ratio. It measures whether the rent a property generates covers the monthly cost of the loan. Lenders we work with rely on this ratio heavily on rental property files, often ahead of the borrower's personal income.
Do I need to show my personal income and tax returns?
It depends on the program. A DSCR loan is built around the property's rent rather than your personal income documentation, which is why investors with complicated or self-employed income often prefer it. Other rental property programs weigh personal income more heavily. We match the file to the program that fits.
Can I close in an LLC or a corporation?
Yes. Investment property loans are commonly closed in the name of an LLC or a corporation rather than personally, which is standard practice among real estate investors.
Is it harder to get a loan on a rental than on my own home?
The process runs differently rather than simply being harder. Investment property financing is underwritten as investment risk, which generally means more equity or a larger down payment than an owner-occupied purchase, and closer attention to whether the property cash flows. It is a different kind of file, not a lesser one.
Can I finance more than one rental property at a time?
Yes. Portfolio loan programs place a group of rental properties under one loan instead of separate financing on each. This is common once an investor holds enough properties that refinancing them individually becomes inefficient.
What if I am buying my first investment property?
A first rental property is still financeable. Expect more attention to the property's numbers and your reserves since there is no rental track record yet to lean on. Apply once and we will tell you honestly which programs fit a first-time investor file.
Program figures on this site are third party lender program ranges. They are not an offer or commitment to lend and are subject to underwriting and approval.
Find out where your rental property deal actually lands.
One application, no credit pull, no fee. Purchase, refinance, or cash out, on one door or a portfolio.