Nick Nagy · Short-term rental DSCR loans

Nick Nagy finances short-term rentals on projected income, not Form 1007.

A standard DSCR loan qualifies a rental property on its own cash flow. A short-term rental version can use a projection instead of the appraiser’s long-term rent estimate.

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The answer

The direct answer

A Debt Service Coverage Ratio loan qualifies a property on its own rental cash flow rather than the borrower’s personal income. The standard version leans on the appraiser’s Form 1007, a comparable rent schedule built to estimate long-term market rent. A short-term rental version instead uses a booking-platform revenue projection or a trailing host history, which can better reflect what a vacation property actually earns as a nightly rental.

What I tell people first

I do not force a short-term rental into a long-term rent form just because that is the form the file started with. If the property already has host-platform history, I use it. If it does not, I look for a lender who will accept a third-party revenue projection instead of guessing at a long-term rent number that has nothing to do with how the property will actually operate. I also check the local short-term rental rules before we go further, since a lender will not fund a file on a property that is not allowed to operate the way the borrower intends.

Who this page is for

This page is for you if you are buying or refinancing a property you plan to operate as a short-term or vacation rental, and a lender has tried to qualify it on long-term rent instead of what it actually earns nightly. It fits an investor buying in a coastal or mountain market where short-term demand runs well above long-term rent. It does not replace personal-income underwriting if you plan to occupy the property yourself. It also fits an owner refinancing an existing short-term rental who has been stuck with a lender that only knows how to read a long-term lease.

The fact this page stands on: Fannie Mae’s own Form 1007 is built to estimate long-term monthly market rent, and it cannot be more than 12 months old at the loan’s note date.
Source: Fannie Mae Selling Guide, topics B3-3.8-01 and B4-1.2-01, selling-guide.fanniemae.com, read September 6, 2026.
Last verified: September 6, 2026

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Nick Nagy NMLS #314880 · CA DRE #01444600 · Loan Factory, Inc. · 23 years About Nick · Licences, verified at source · Text 916-805-1933

Part of the Nick Nagy pages on go.homeaccesslist.com, and of the California Mortgage Answer Desk.

How it works

Why the appraisal form matters here

Fannie Mae’s own Selling Guide describes Form 1007, the Single-Family Comparable Rent Schedule, as the exhibit an appraiser completes to estimate a property’s long-term monthly market rent when a lender is using rental income to qualify a borrower. It is required for a one-unit investment property when rental income is used, and neither the appraisal nor the Form 1007 estimate can be more than 12 months old at the note date.

That form was built for a tenant on a lease, not a guest booking a few nights. On a genuine short-term rental in a strong vacation market, a long-term rent estimate can understate the property’s real earning power by a wide margin.

The detail that matters

What a short-term rental DSCR file uses instead

Instead of relying only on the long-term Form 1007 estimate, a short-term rental DSCR file can be built around a third-party booking-platform revenue projection, or around the property’s own trailing host history if it already has one. Not every DSCR lender accepts this approach the same way, so matching the file to a lender who actually underwrites short-term rentals is most of the work.

A third-party revenue projection for the property, when it has no rental history yet
A trailing host-platform history, typically twelve months, when the property already operates as a short-term rental
Local short-term rental rules and any HOA restriction on the specific property
The property’s own operating expenses, which still factor into the coverage calculation

The detail that matters

Confirming the rental is actually legal to operate

A DSCR loan qualifies the property on its income, but the income still has to be legal to collect. Some cities and HOAs restrict or ban short-term rentals outright, and a lender underwriting the file will want to see that the specific property and unit type is allowed to operate as one.

A property with a mixed history, rented long-term for part of the year and short-term for the rest, can complicate which income source a lender uses. I ask for a full twelve months of activity so the file reflects how the property is actually run, not just its best months.

This is also where working with a lender who has actually closed short-term rental DSCR files pays off, since an underwriter unfamiliar with the product can misread a normal seasonal pattern as a red flag.

Ask Nick about my rental file 237 lenders, one file, no second application.

Files like these

Three files, and what changed the answer

A buyer targeting a coastal short-term rental

The property has no rental history yet, so the file leans on a third-party booking-platform projection instead of a long-term Form 1007 estimate.

An owner refinancing an existing short-term rental

The property already has twelve months of host-platform history, which the lender can use in place of a third-party projection.

An investor comparing long-term and short-term files

The same property is run two ways, once under a standard long-term DSCR file and once under the short-term version, to see which income source the numbers actually support.

None of these is a promise about your file. They are shapes. The number on your own file comes from running it, which is the point of the form on this page.

Who answers

Nick Nagy

23 years in California lending · NMLS 314880 · CA DRE 01444600 · Loan Factory, Inc.

Dual licensed, so the loan side and the real estate side of a move get looked at as one problem instead of two. Most of what goes wrong in a move is a timing problem wearing a financing costume, and it is cheaper to catch it before you write an offer than after.

Financing is placed through Loan Factory, Inc. Real estate work is under CA DRE 01444600. More about Nick.

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The desk behind the file

One file, 237 lenders competing for it, and a broker who has done this for 23 years.

Loan Factory, Inc. is the brokerage. These are its published figures.

20,907+Loan Factory Google reviews

5.0Loan Factory average rating

237Lenders available through Loan Factory

48States Loan Factory is licensed in

A retail bank has one guideline book. A broker shops the same file across the shelf and finds the lender whose box it already fits.

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Straight answers

Questions people here actually ask

The follow-on questions, answered in the order they get asked.

Airbnb DSCR loan California

An Airbnb DSCR loan qualifies a California short-term rental on its own projected or trailing rental income instead of the borrower’s personal income, and instead of a long-term Form 1007 rent estimate the property was never going to earn as a nightly rental.

What is a short term rental DSCR loan?

It is a Debt Service Coverage Ratio loan where the income used to qualify comes from a booking-platform projection or trailing host history, rather than the appraiser’s standard long-term market rent estimate.

What is AirDNA DSCR?

It refers to using a third-party short-term rental analytics platform’s revenue projection as the income source on a DSCR loan, instead of the appraiser’s Form 1007 long-term rent figure.

Do I need twelve months of Airbnb history to qualify?

Not necessarily. A property with an existing host-platform track record can often use that history directly. A property with no history yet may instead use a third-party revenue projection, depending on the lender.

Can I hold a short-term rental in an LLC on this program?

Many DSCR lenders allow title to be held in an LLC. I confirm the specific lender’s vesting rules as part of matching the file to the right program.

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The person, not a call center

Talk to Nick Nagy directly

Text 916-805-1933, or send the situation through the form below. I read every one myself.

Mortgage loan originator, NMLS 314880, and licensed real estate salesperson, CA DRE 01444600, both under Loan Factory, Inc. 20,907+ Google reviews · 5.0 average · 237 lenders, the company's own published figures.

Text Nick at 916-805-1933 Or use the form below. No credit pull to start.

Your own file

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Tell me the situation in plain English. If your file changes anything on this page, I will run it on your actual numbers. Private, no obligation, and nothing is published or shared.

What happens after you send it

You send the situation. Your question, a number to reach you, and one line about where you are. No credit pull, no documents, nothing published.
Nick reads it himself. Your file goes against the programs that apply, shopped across 237 lenders through Loan Factory, not one bank's guideline book.
You get the number and keep it. A straight answer on what your file supports and what it does not. If waiting is the better move, that is the answer you get, and the numbers are yours either way.