The rental is empty. The last tenant left, the rehab just finished, or you are buying a house that has no one in it. A DSCR file still needs an income figure. Two numbers show up on these files, and they are not the same number. One is a signed lease: contract rent, with a tenant and a start date. The other is market rent: what the appraisal rent schedule says similar units actually lease for. This page is how that read works when the property is vacant or between tenants, which figure the file can defend, what you should bring, how lease-up timing changes the story, and when a bridge is the better first loan.
It is not a rewrite of what a DSCR loan is. The ratio, and why investors use it instead of a personal income file, already lives there. The side-by-side with a bank rental loan lives on DSCR versus a bank rental loan. This page starts after you already know the product, on the day the unit is vacant and someone has to say which rent goes on the file. It will not quote a ratio cutoff, a rate, a credit score, or a leverage figure. Those numbers live on a real term sheet.
Funded Funding is a national private-money brokerage. We are not a bank. We are not an NMLS-licensed consumer mortgage lender. The loan is business-purpose, closed in an LLC or another business entity. The desk floor is $100k. No owner-occupied. This is a nationwide note, not a city page. Start on the Funded Funding homepage for the product list, or read what the desk is.
The income figure is the rent the file uses
A DSCR read asks whether the property’s rent can carry the payment. The payment is the usual housing stack on an investor note: principal and interest, taxes, insurance, and association dues when the property has them. People shorten that stack to PITIA. The formula, and what the ratio is asking, stays on the DSCR explainer. This page will not restate it, and it will not publish a passing score.
What this page will name is the rent that goes into that comparison. On a leased, stabilized rental, that rent is usually sitting in a lease the appraiser can see. On a vacant rental, or a house between tenants, there is no in-place rent to point at. The file still needs a figure. The honest candidates are a signed lease, if one actually exists, and market rent from the appraisal rent schedule. Asking rent on a listing, last year’s rent, a text from a property manager, and a portal estimate are not those candidates.
A portal estimate, including a Zestimate-style rent, is not an appraisal rent schedule. It is a model. The rent schedule is an appraiser’s opinion, tied to rented comps: similar units, leased recently, close enough that a reader can see why they belong on the page. If your number only exists on a website, it is not the income figure.
Do not confuse a vacant-rent problem with a bank-box problem. A bank can say no because of your personal debts, a tax package, a financed-property count, or a rule that the loan must close in your name. Those nos have their own pages: DTI on a cash-flowing rental, two years of tax returns, the financed-property count, a personal-name close, and the map of them on when the bank says no on a rental. If the rent is real and the bank’s no was about you, you are not on this page’s problem. If the unit is empty and the rent is the open question, you are.
A signed lease is a contract, not a wish
A signed lease is a contract. Both sides have signed it. It names the property, the rent, the term, and when rent starts. A draft, a letter of intent, a text thread, a lease you prepared and nobody has signed, and a “we have a tenant lined up” are not a signed lease. Say what you actually have.
Contract rent is whatever that document says the tenant will pay. It can be above what similar units lease for. It can be below. It can start later. It can be with someone you know. Each of those is a different file, and none of them lets the lease outvote the market by itself.
- Above the comps. A lease written high does not become the income figure because the signature is real. If similar units do not lease there, the rent schedule will say so. The file is read on a number the comps can support, not on the number a tenant agreed to on paper.
- Below the comps. A lease written low is still the contract. Many programs will not give you credit for a higher market rent while a tenant is bound to pay less. The lower figure is the one the property is actually collecting. Terms vary by lender. A blog post will not promise that market rent replaces a cheap lease.
- Not started yet. A lease with a future start date is a contract and a vacancy at the same time. Rent does not exist until that date, and it does not exist if the tenant never takes the keys. Put the start date on the file. Do not describe a future lease as in-place rent.
- Related party. A lease to a relative, a partner, or another company you control is not stronger than an arm’s-length lease. If the rent only works because you are on both sides, the rent schedule is the document that matters. Do not manufacture a tenant to decorate an empty house.
Between tenants, the old lease is history. It shows what the last person paid. It is not income on an empty unit. Bring it if it helps the appraiser see the rent trail. Do not staple it to the application and call the house leased.
A short-term or furnished rental is a different income read. Projected nightly revenue is not a long-term lease, and it is not this page. If that is the plan, say so on the application. Do not dress a short-term projection up as a twelve-month tenant who does not exist.
Market rent is the appraisal rent schedule
Market rent, on a file like this, means the rent schedule in the appraisal. The appraiser looks at rented comps and says what the subject should lease for, as the subject sits, or as it will sit if the report is explicit about condition. That schedule is the income figure a vacant file can actually defend. Your asking rent is a hope. The schedule is the opinion the lender is paying to read.
Comps for rent are leased comps, not sales comps and not active listings you wish would rent at the top of the range. A renovated rental down the street does not prove your unfinished unit. A larger house does not prove a smaller one. Distance, condition, bed count, and how recently the comp actually leased are the usual reasons a comp stays or goes. If you already have a rent study or a property manager’s leased comps, bring them. They can help the conversation. They do not replace the appraiser’s schedule once the lender orders it.
Condition is the trap on a vacant house that just came out of a project. A rent schedule written as if the unit were finished, while paint, flooring, or a certificate the city wants is still open, is a schedule for a different house. Cash-out while the work is still open is cash-out denied because the property is mid-rehab. How value gets split between today and the finished picture is ARV versus as-is. An appraisal that came in, and a bank that still said no for a different reason, is the appraisal came in and the bank still said no. Market rent follows the same honesty. If the unit is not rent-ready, do not underwrite it as if a tenant could move in this week.
You do not pick the number. You can disagree with a schedule that used the wrong comps, and you can send the better ones. You cannot replace the schedule with the rent you need for the deal to work. If the only rent that makes the file work is a rent the comps will not support, the file does not work. A vacant house does not get a friendlier rule.
Lease versus market rent
Use the figure the file actually has. Three situations cover almost every vacant or between-tenant DSCR conversation.
Both a signed lease and a rent schedule exist. The lease is contract rent. The schedule is market rent. When they match, the income figure is quiet. When they do not, many programs read the lower of the two, because a high lease the market will not support is not income, and a low lease is what the tenant is actually paying. A lender can read the pair differently. Terms vary. A lease above the comps does not raise the income figure by itself. This page does not publish a ratio cutoff, and it will not tell you which dollar wins on your file before a program looks at it.
The house is vacant and there is no lease. Then market rent on the appraisal rent schedule is the income figure. There is no contract to average in, and there is no tenant to point at. The application should say vacant. A blank “rent” line filled with the number you hope to list at is not a substitute for the schedule. Bring the comps. Let the schedule land. If you cannot live with the schedule, you do not have a DSCR rent yet.
A lease is signed and the tenant has not started. You have a contract and you still have a vacant house until the start date. Both facts belong on the file. The income figure may follow the lease if the rent schedule supports it. The carrying cost until that start date is still yours. A future tenant is not in-place rent, and a lease that falls through before move-in puts you back on market rent and an empty unit.
What does not belong in any of the three: a listing rent, a verbal agreement, a lease signed after someone told you the file was short, or a portal number. If you are tempted to create a lease so the file looks leased, stop. A lease that exists only to satisfy a lender is the fact pattern these files get killed on. Say the house is vacant. Use the rent schedule.
What an investor should bring
The packet is short when the story is true. It gets long when the rent is a guess. Bring the pieces that let someone read the income figure without calling you to invent the rest.
- The lease, if any. Every page, both signatures, the rent, the term, and the start date. If the lease is not signed, do not send a draft and call it a lease. If there is no lease, say vacant in the first line.
- The rent schedule or the comps behind it. An appraisal rent schedule if you already have one. If you do not, leased comps a reader can check: similar unit, recent lease, condition that matches the subject. Not a portal printout.
- Entity documents. The LLC or other business that will take title and the loan, and who can sign. Why investors fund through an entity is the LLC note. A personal name on the deed is a different conversation, and this desk does not close the loan in your personal name to get around it.
- Unit count. Say whether the property is a one-to-four unit rental or something larger. This desk reads 1–4 unit investor files differently from 5+ unit and commercial files. A house you will call a rental and a small multifamily are not the same packet.
- Taxes and insurance. They sit inside the payment the rent is compared with. Bring the bills or the quotes. A rent figure with no tax and insurance story is half a file.
- The vacancy, in plain words. Between tenants, never rented, or just finished and not yet listed. How you are marketing it, if you are. What still has to be done before a tenant can take the keys.
- Cash to carry the empty months. The payment, taxes, insurance, utilities, and whatever make-ready is still open, until rent actually starts. Show that cash. Do not assume the ratio carries the house while it is empty.
Do not invent the rent. A bank denial, a thin tax return, or a vacant month does not license a fictional lease. Self-employed investors who already lost a bank file because write-offs crushed personal income are on write-offs versus a W-2 rental loan. That page is about you. This page is about the unit. Both can be true, and neither one is fixed by a made-up tenant.
Lease-up timing
Vacant at the application, vacant at the closing, and vacant when the first payment is due are three different moments. Name which one you are in. A house that will be leased “by closing” is still vacant today. A house that closes vacant and is supposed to be leased before the first payment is a lease-up, not a stabilized rental. The income figure can still be market rent. The calendar between here and a paying tenant is your carrying cost, not a feature of the ratio.
Make-ready sits in that calendar. If the unit needs work before it can be shown, the rent schedule for a finished rental is ahead of the house. Finish the work, or call the file what it is: a rehab, with draws, not a DSCR close on a photograph of the after. The schedule of those releases on a flip is how rehab draws actually work. A ground-up building that is not a house yet is a different note entirely.
Marketing is not a lease. A listing, a sign, and a handful of showings are how lease-up starts. They are not income. A tenant who “said yes” and has not signed is not a lease. Put the real status on the application so the file is not underwritten as leased and then discovered empty at closing.
Someone has to pay the carry while the unit is empty. That is the note, the taxes, the insurance, utilities, and any concession you give to get a tenant in. The DSCR comparison uses a rent figure. It does not wire you the rent you do not have yet. If you cannot carry a vacant month, a DSCR close on an empty house is a payment problem with a new name. Show the liquidity. If the liquidity is the whole question, say that too.
A bank’s seasoning clock is a different wait. The rehab can be done, the lease can be signed, and a conventional refinance can still say the purchase or the work is too new. That calendar is why the bank will not refinance the flip yet. Seasoning is their time requirement. Vacancy is whether a tenant is paying. You can be seasoned and vacant, or leased and too new for their box. Do not use one word for both.
A DSCR close on a vacant rental is not a promise that the tenant appears. It is a loan that used a defensible rent figure and still expects the payment. If lease-up slips, the payment does not slip with it. Plan the carry before you treat market rent as if it were already in the account.
When a bridge fits better
DSCR is the rental file. A bridge is the hold while a rental file, a sale, or some other permanent loan is still forming. Empty does not automatically mean bridge. A rent-ready house with a rent schedule you can defend can be a DSCR conversation even with no tenant in the unit. A house that is not a rental yet should not be forced into one.
A bridge is the better first loan when one of these is true.
- The work is still open. You cannot lease what you cannot show. Mid-rehab is a flip or a bridge with a scope, not a vacant DSCR with an imaginary finished rent.
- There is no rent schedule you believe. If the only rent that makes the payment work is a number you would not list, do not close a long-term rental loan on it. Hold the property on short-term capital until the rent is real, or do not do the deal.
- The program you need will not close until a lease exists, and the lease is still ahead of you. Some DSCR programs want a signed lease before they fund. If that is the program, and you do not have the lease, pretending you do is how files die. Short-term capital can carry the house while you lease it, and the DSCR file can be the takeout once the lease and the schedule agree.
That short-term capital, when the payment is interest and the principal waits for the takeout, is the interest-only bridge. The product itself is bridge loans for LLC investors. Read those pages for the hold. An interest-only payment helps the cash cost of waiting. It does not create a tenant, it does not approve the later DSCR file, and it does not extend itself because lease-up slipped. The bridge has a maturity. The DSCR loan is a new loan, if it happens.
Stay on the DSCR path when the house is rent-ready, the rent schedule is a number you can say out loud, you can carry the vacancy, and the loan is business-purpose in an entity. A bank that already said no because of DTI, tax returns, a property count, or a personal-name close is not a reason to switch to a bridge if the rental file is otherwise real. Those nos are why the DSCR path exists. Use when the bank says no on a rental to name which no you actually got. Use this page only for the rent figure on an empty unit.
When it works, and when it is a no
A DSCR file on a vacant rental can work when:
- You will not occupy the property. It is a business-purpose rental, closed in an LLC or another entity.
- The house is rent-ready. A tenant could take the keys without a project in between.
- The income figure is market rent the appraisal rent schedule will support, or a signed lease that the schedule does not contradict.
- You can carry the payment, taxes, insurance, and utilities until rent starts.
- The request is at or above the $100k desk floor.
It is a no when:
- You will live there, or the “vacancy” is a house you are about to move into. Owner-occupied is the wrong desk.
- The rent is a listing, a portal estimate, or a lease written to make the file look leased.
- The unit is still mid-rehab and the rent assumes the work is done.
- You cannot carry the property while it is empty.
- The request is under the $100k desk floor.
What this desk is — and is not
The property can be in any state we can close. We do not publish an office address. This is a national desk, not a city page. Terms vary by lender, property, and borrower entity. Not available in every state. A blog post is not your term sheet. We will not invent a rate, a credit cutoff, a leverage figure, a ratio threshold, or a lease-up clock measured in a number of days. Those are the numbers on a real note, or they are not numbers.
Business-purpose only. Borrowers close in an entity. If you will live in the property, this site is the wrong desk. We do not warehouse the loan. We are not a bank, and we are not an NMLS-licensed consumer mortgage lender.
How to put the file here
- Confirm it is a rental you will not occupy. If you will live in it, stop here.
- Entity ready to close. An LLC or other business entity that can take title and the loan.
- The rent, as it is. Signed lease if you have one. Appraisal rent schedule or leased comps if the unit is vacant. Say vacant when it is vacant. Include taxes and insurance, the unit count, and what still has to happen before a tenant pays.
- The carry. Where the payment comes from until rent starts. If the real need is time because the house is not a rental file yet, say bridge, and read the interest-only bridge note before you label it DSCR.
- Apply. Same intake as the rest of Funded Funding: the application. Apply here if the file is a vacant or between-tenant rental and the question is lease versus market rent.
Still unsure whether the file is a DSCR loan, a personal DTI problem, a seasoning wait, or an interest-only bridge while the rental file forms? That is what the intake is for, including the answer “the unit is empty and I do not have a lease.”
Frequently asked questions
Can a vacant rental be a DSCR file?
Yes, when the property is a rental you will not occupy, the income figure is a market rent the appraisal rent schedule will support, the house is rent-ready, and you can carry it until a tenant is in place. Vacant does not mean you may write any rent on the application. If there is no defensible rent, or the house is not ready to lease, it is not a rental file yet.
Does a signed lease replace market rent?
No. A signed lease is the contract rent. Market rent is what the appraisal rent schedule says similar units lease for. When both exist, many programs read the lower of the two, and the lender’s program decides. A lease above the comps does not raise the income figure by itself. Terms vary by lender. This page does not publish a ratio cutoff.
What if there is no lease yet?
Then the income figure is market rent on the appraisal rent schedule, not a draft, a listing, or a number from a portal. Bring rent comps you can defend. Say the property is vacant. Do not write a lease to a related party just to create a rent the market will not support.
What should I bring on a vacant DSCR file?
The lease if you have one, fully signed. The appraisal rent schedule or the rent comps behind it. Entity documents for the LLC or other business that will close. The unit count, and the tax and insurance figures that sit inside the payment. Cash to carry the property while it is empty. If you will live there, do not send the file.
When does a bridge fit better than DSCR on a vacant house?
When the house is not a rental file yet. Work is still open, there is no rent schedule you can defend, or the DSCR program you need will not close until a lease exists and that lease is still ahead of you. Short-term capital with an interest-only payment can hold the property while that file forms. A bridge does not create the rent, and it does not become the DSCR loan.
What is the minimum to fund, and who closes?
The desk floor is $100k. Files under that are not this desk. Borrowers close in an LLC or another business entity. The loan is business-purpose. If you will live in the property, this site is the wrong desk.
Ready to get funded?
If you have an LLC, a rental you will not occupy, and a rent figure you can defend — a signed lease, a market rent on an appraisal rent schedule, or both — send the file. Vacant is allowed to be said out loud. A made-up tenant is not. No fake funded counts. No stock testimonials. No owner-occupied stretch. No teaser rate that is not your file.
Ready to get funded?
Apply on the same intake we use live, or call or text (520) 552-7065.