What is a blanket loan?

A single loan secured by several properties at once, closed in one transaction with one payment and one set of documents, rather than a separate mortgage on each property.

How many properties do you need for a blanket loan?

Commonly five or more. Below that, individual DSCR loans are usually simpler and often cheaper. I write portfolio refinances from five doors upward, typically closing in 21 to 30 days.

What is a release clause?

The provision that lets you sell one property out of the portfolio without repaying the whole loan. It sets what you must pay down to release that property, usually more than its share of the balance.

Are blanket loans a good idea?

They are efficient when you intend to hold the portfolio and want one closing, one payment and one underwrite. They are a poor fit if you plan to sell properties individually, unless the release terms are genuinely workable.

BlogGuide

Blanket loans: refinancing five or more doors in one closing

One loan, one closing, one payment across a portfolio. What it solves, what it costs, and the release clause that decides whether you can sell one property.

August 17, 2026 · 4 min read

Once a portfolio reaches five or six doors, financing them one at a time stops being a strategy and starts being an administrative problem. Five closings, five sets of title work, five appraisals, five payments, five renewal dates, and five separate underwrites of the same borrower.

A blanket loan collapses that into one.

What it is

A single loan secured by several properties simultaneously. One closing, one set of documents, one payment, one maturity date. The lender takes a lien on each property in the pool and underwrites the pool's combined income against the combined debt service.

I write portfolio refinances from five doors upward, generally closing in 21 to 30 days.

What it solves

Fixed costs, spread. Title and legal per property fall considerably when done as one transaction. This is the same fixed-cost arithmetic that makes small individual loans awkward, working in your favour for once.

One underwrite instead of five. Particularly valuable if your personal income documentation is the bottleneck, since like a DSCR loan the qualification rests on the properties' income rather than yours.

Weak properties carried by strong ones. The ratio is calculated across the pool. A unit between tenants, or one with a below-market lease inherited at purchase, does not fail on its own if the portfolio's aggregate coverage holds. Underwritten individually, that property might not qualify at all.

Consolidated maturities. One date to manage rather than five drifting apart.

Capital released across the portfolio. Equity that accumulated property-by-property gets accessed in one transaction, which is usually the actual reason people do this.

What it costs

Cross-collateralisation. The central trade. Every property secures the whole debt. A serious problem on one is a problem for all of them, because the lender's remedy reaches the entire pool. This is the real risk and it should be understood before anything else.

The release clause governs your flexibility. More on this below, because it is the term that matters most and the one most often skimmed.

Slightly higher pricing than a single strong DSCR loan, generally, in exchange for the aggregation and the operational simplicity.

Prepayment penalties are common, often stepping down across three to five years. Negotiable, and worth negotiating specifically against your plans.

All the appraisals still happen. The closing is consolidated; the valuation work is not.

The release clause, which decides everything

If you read one clause in the document, read this one.

The release provision sets what happens when you want to sell a single property out of the pool. Without it, selling one property means repaying the entire loan, which is usually impossible and always expensive.

A workable clause specifies:

The release price. Typically 110% to 125% of that property's allocated share of the loan balance. You pay down more than its proportional share, which strengthens the coverage on what remains. That premium is normal; its size is negotiable.
How many releases are permitted, and whether there is a minimum remaining pool size.
Whether the coverage ratio must still be met after the release, which in practice means you cannot sell the best-performing property and leave the lender with the weakest.
Any fee per release.

Negotiate this at origination. Nobody has leverage to renegotiate a release clause at the moment they need to use it.

When a blanket loan is the wrong tool

You intend to sell properties individually in the near term. Unless the release terms are genuinely good, individual loans preserve far more flexibility.

The properties are geographically scattered across many states. Some lenders restrict this, and it complicates both title and management.

You have fewer than five doors. Individual DSCR loans are usually simpler and frequently cheaper at that scale.

The portfolio is mixed in a way that will not underwrite cleanly. Short-term rentals, a property with an active tenant dispute, or one under renovation can each complicate a pool that would otherwise be straightforward.

What to have ready

The full property list: addresses, types, unit counts
A rent roll with current leases and their expiry dates
Twelve months of operating history if you have it: rents collected, vacancy, repairs, taxes, insurance
Current mortgage statements and payoffs for what is being refinanced
Entity documents, in good standing
Any known issues, stated up front

That last one shortens everything. A vacancy or a problem tenant disclosed at the start is a modelling input. Discovered during underwriting, it becomes a question about what else was not mentioned.

Before you consolidate

Check the aggregate coverage against the debt you are asking for, and check what the release clause will let you do in three years, not just what the payment is next month. The deal calculators will run the portfolio arithmetic.

Five or more doors, 21 to 30 days to close. Send the portfolio over and you get written terms inside 24 to 48 hours.

Common questions

What is a blanket loan?: A single loan secured by several properties at once, closed in one transaction with one payment and one set of documents, rather than a separate mortgage on each property.
How many properties do you need for a blanket loan?: Commonly five or more. Below that, individual DSCR loans are usually simpler and often cheaper. I write portfolio refinances from five doors upward, typically closing in 21 to 30 days.
What is a release clause?: The provision that lets you sell one property out of the portfolio without repaying the whole loan. It sets what you must pay down to release that property, usually more than its share of the balance.
Are blanket loans a good idea?: They are efficient when you intend to hold the portfolio and want one closing, one payment and one underwrite. They are a poor fit if you plan to sell properties individually, unless the release terms are genuinely workable.

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