Conventional VS DSCR Loan

[Juan David Maldonado]

Hey, I'm getting ready to purchase my first single family investment property. I have money saved up for a down payment plus more and good credit. 

Should I go the conventional loan or DSCR loan?

I want to scale up after my first property 

[Stacy Raskin]

Conventional can make sense if you don't have to worry about debt to income (DTI) issues and you have a W2 job or are self employed but don't write off everything on your taxes as a conventional loan will be based on your adjusted gross income on your tax returns if you're self employed. Depending on your credit, down payment, property details, if you're self employed you may have to use two years of tax returns.

Generally people will consider a DSCR loan if they have maxed out their DTI, don't have a regular W2 job, don't make enough money to underwrite a loan based o their income, would like to hold the property in an LLC or would like an easier underwriting process as the lender is only looking at the purchase property and not asking for lots of income documents or excessive documents for other real estate owned.

There are also some properties like nonwarrantable condos that can't be conventional so DSCR loans are the way to go on financing for that. Not all DSCR lenders do these but some do.

DSCR loans won't use your income to underwrite the loan.

DSCR loans are based off of down payment, credit score and either actual or market rents so it helps to supercharge an investor's real estate goals and net worth.

Here's a bit more in detail about how rates are calculated for DSCR loans:

1. Credit score- the higher the best. 760+ generally gets best pricing for investment property loans with most lenders

2. Loan to value ratio: The higher the loan to value ratio (LTV) is, pricing takes a hit. So your pricing will be higher for a 80% LTV loan than for a 60% LTV loan.

3. Prepayment penalties- usually 1-5 year terms. The shorter the prepayment term has an impact on increasing the rate.

4. Are you cash flowing the property? More on how that is calculated below. Is your DSCR ratio greater than 1-meaning are you cash flowing (according to the lender's criteria of mortgage, property taxes and insurance (and HOA) if applicable). Many lenders will not do a DSCR loan unless cash flowing. If they will do a loan with less than 1, the pricing takes a hit. This criteria is for 1-4 and 5-8 unit programs.

I've included an example below to help illustrate this.

So different lenders have different rates (which do vary even for DSCR loans) but these are factors they all consider.

See example below:

DSCR < 1

Principal + Interest = $1,700

Taxes = $350, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $50

Total PITIA = $2200

Rent = $2000

DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2000/2200 = 0.91

Since the DSCR is 0.91, we know the expenses are greater than the income of the property.

DSCR >1

Principal + Interest = $1,500

Taxes = $250, Insurance = $100, Association Dues = $25

Total PITIA = $1875 Rent = $2300

DSCR = Rent/PITIA = 2300/1875 = 1.23

DSCR lenders generally let you vest either individually or as an LLC. It's a great way to increase your net worth and these loans can also be used to pull cash out of a property as it appreciates allowing you to reinvest money into new deals.