Lender asking borrowers to commit to leases.

[Carmelo Caceres]

Hey guys, I have something to vent out and read some opinions. We own a duplex through a VA loan for two years and we started to process to refinance and get another Va loan for another investment property as a primary residence and turning the first one as a rental. We submitted applications to three different banks, two are on the approval process and one turned us down because they wanted us to commit to rental leases in order to get a pre-approval in which we completely disagreed and said no. We have been doing short term rentals and doubling the monthly income compared with what we would be making monthly with a long term lease and everything is documented. With a moratorium in place for over a year and some tenants living for free putting landlords in danger for a foreclosure, how can a lender would possibly ask for such a nonsense? We decided to go with a short term rental over a year ago for a reason and for us was the best possible decision at the time. Would love to read some opinions. Thanks