Refinance question With a short term rental

[Joe S.]

So many lenders want there to be a tenant with a lease in place for a refinance. A couple that I’ve talked  to will even penalize you on your interest if you do not have a tenant in place before refinance. Are lenders not allowing for short term rentals or they simply don’t know how to package it? I know one workaround is to do a lease for the first year and then turn into a short term rental, but that could be a pain if you’re end goal is a short term rental and we wasted a whole year fooling around with a long-term rental.