Can you get a DSCR loan for an Airbnb or short-term rental?
Yes — Choice Home Mortgage arranges DSCR financing for short-term rentals, including Airbnb and VRBO properties, through multiple wholesale programs. Instead of a signed 12-month lease, qualifying income can come from the property's actual hosting history, platform or property-manager statements, a third-party short-term-rental market analysis, or the appraiser's market-rent opinion — and on a new purchase with no hosting history yet, some programs accept projected short-term-rental income supported by third-party data.
How income gets verified varies meaningfully by program, and local short-term-rental zoning and permit rules matter as much as the loan itself. We shop the panel to find the lender that treats your property's income most favorably — call owner Esther Buede at (949) 522-7310.
The longer answer.
Income documentation runs deeper than most investors expect. Depending on the program and the transaction, qualifying short-term-rental income may be established from actual historical Airbnb or VRBO results, a trailing-twelve-month operating history, platform or property-management statements, a third-party market-rent and revenue analysis, projected income from comparable short-term rentals, an appraiser-supported short-term-rental analysis, or the traditional long-term market-rent opinion as a fallback. Which method a program uses can change the qualifying number substantially for the same property — an established rental with strong actual history and a first-time purchase with none can both work, through different doors.
As of 2026, most programs also apply an expense haircut to gross short-term-rental revenue before running the ratio — roughly 20% is typical, though the exact figure varies by program. The haircut accounts for vacancy, seasonality, platform fees, and cleaning, so the ratio reflects what the property realistically nets rather than what its best month grossed.
Before the loan, check the local layer: city short-term-rental ordinances, permit requirements, and HOA restrictions can make or break the strategy regardless of financing — no lender can underwrite around a property that isn't allowed to operate. And because guidelines genuinely differ program to program, we shop the panel rather than treating any one lender's read as the market's answer.
A number on a webpage is never a quote for your file. The figures on this page reflect what wholesale lending programs typically offer — and lender guidelines, overlays, and matrices genuinely change all the time. A range that is typical this quarter can move next quarter, and the lender that fits a given scenario best may sit outside every figure here. That churn is not a flaw in the page; it is how wholesale lending works, and it is exactly why a broker who watches the matrices beats any static webpage — including this one. For today's guidelines across the lender panel as they apply to your situation, call owner Esther Buede at (949) 522-7310 — the check costs nothing, and it is the only number that counts.
Related reading: DSCR loans hub · DSCR calculator — run your numbers · DSCR loan requirements in California · DSCR loan vs bank statement loan · Start your application
Want the answer for YOUR file, not the general one?
One call with owner Esther Buede — no queue, no pressure. She'll tell you honestly what fits your situation, or that nothing does yet.