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DSCR calculator.
Gross rent over the full payment, which is the test a rental loan is underwritten against. No tax returns and no employment history enter into it. Credit and reserves are still reviewed.
Your deal, in focus
See how the numbers move.
Adjust the assumptions to explore your deal. Your estimate updates as you go.
This is a lender coverage screen, not rental cash flow. Vacancy, repairs, management, and capital replacements still cost money. Set property value and LTV to calculate the loan amount automatically. The maximum loan shown is income-only and does not apply a program LTV limit. Final lending value is subject to appraisal and program rules.
Use nonnegative figures. Financing shares and rental expense allowances cannot exceed 100%. Loan limits depend on the value or cost basis shown beside each field.
Assumptions behind this estimate
Ratio is gross rent divided by PITIA, the standard income test for one to four unit rentals. This tool screens at 1.25, which is a common threshold, and treats 1.00 as the floor where the rent stops covering the payment. Clearing the screen is not an approval: the appraisal and the market rent it supports, the property type and condition, credit and experience, reserves held after closing, and the individual program are all still underwritten, and any one of them can change the answer. The rate and term here are yours to set.
Debt service coverage
Your numbers at a glance
Each bar compares an amount. Bars are not portions of a total.
Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting.
At 1.20 the rent covers the payment but sits below this calculator's 1.25 screen. Holding the ratio at 1.25 would cap the loan around $169,311. Program, valuation, borrower, property, reserves and underwriting requirements still apply, and this is an estimate rather than an approval.
Rental income is the constraint at the model’s 1.25 DSCR target. Your LTV requests $180,000, while rent supports about $169,311. Try a lower LTV, more rent, or a lower rate.
Save these numbers, then adjust your inputs above.
Get terms on this deal
Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting.
This sends the numbers above straight to me for a person to underwrite. You get an initial written response in 24 to 48 hours, and a straight answer either way. Terms, if offered, are subject to underwriting and approval.
How to read it
What the number means.
The debt service coverage ratio is gross rent divided by the full monthly payment: principal, interest, taxes, insurance and any association dues. It is the standard income test for one to four unit rentals, and the reason the instrument exists is that your own income, your job and your tax returns do not appear in it. It is a screen the property has to clear, not the whole of what gets underwritten.
Most programs look for a comfortable margin above break even and hold a floor at break even itself. Below the floor the property does not service its own debt. Clearing the screen is where underwriting starts rather than where it finishes: the appraisal and the market rent it supports, the property type and condition, your credit and experience, the reserves you hold after closing, entity and insurance requirements, and the individual program all sit alongside the ratio, and any one of them can change the answer on a file whose coverage looks fine.
The number to be careful with is the rent. A lender will use a market rent from an appraisal rather than the rent you hope to achieve, and a model built on the optimistic one will qualify a deal that does not.
Questions
Understanding your results.
What DSCR do I need?
It depends on the program, but the pattern is consistent: there is a floor around break even, and a ratio comfortably above it is worth more than one that scrapes it. This calculator screens at a common threshold so you can see roughly where a property lands. What a particular program requires, and what it does about a ratio that only just clears, is a question for the written response on your actual deal.
Does the ratio use gross or net rent?
Gross rent, against the full payment including taxes, insurance and dues. Vacancy, management and repairs are not in the lender's test, which is exactly why they need to be in yours.
What if the property is vacant?
Then a market rent from the appraisal is used rather than an actual one. That number is the one that matters, so it is worth knowing before you buy.
Do you check my income for a DSCR loan?
No tax returns, no W2s and no employment history. The property's own income carries the coverage test. Credit, reserves after closing, the appraisal and the property type are still reviewed, so clearing the ratio is a screen passed rather than a loan approved.
Method
Where these numbers come from.
DSCR vs. cash flow: why a qualifying rental can still lose money
DSCR tests payment coverage. Rental cash flow includes more expenses. Compare the two with an example before deciding a rental works.
DSCR loan requirements: how the ratio works and what it has to hit
A DSCR loan qualifies the property, not you. Here is how the ratio is calculated, the number it needs to clear, and how to fix a file that misses.
DSCR loan documents: what you hand over instead of tax returns
No tax returns, no W2s, no employment history. Here is the short list that replaces them, and the two items that actually slow a DSCR file down.
BRRRR seasoning: how long before you can refinance at the new value
Seasoning is the rule that decides whether you get your capital back in month four or month twelve. Confirm it before you buy, not after the rehab is done.
Other tools
The rest of them.
Maximum offer calculator, Rental cash-flow calculator, Cash-out refinance calculator, Hard money loan calculator, Fix and flip calculator, ARV calculator, BRRRR calculator, Rehab cost calculator, Construction loan calculator, Rental portfolio calculator, Transactional funding calculator.
This is an estimating tool. It runs arithmetic on the figures you enter using the assumptions stated above, and changing an assumption changes the answer. The result is not a quote, an approval, an appraisal, a valuation, or a prediction of what a property will sell for, and it does not commit anyone to lend. Costs, taxes and market conditions vary by location and change over time. Check the numbers that matter against your own contractor, agent and professional advisers before you commit to a deal.
When the numbers work
Get it underwritten.
A calculator cannot see your property. Estimate only, based on the figures you entered. Not a quote, an approval, an appraisal or a commitment to lend, and subject to underwriting. Send the deal and a person reads it: you get an initial written response in 24 to 48 hours, and a straight answer either way. Terms, if offered, are subject to underwriting and approval. No credit pull to get an answer.