Property with no lease in place
Can I get a DSCR loan on a property that has no signed lease yet?
A property without a signed lease is common — a purchase closing before a tenant is found, a refinance on a unit between tenants — and no lender in this directory publishes a blanket rule on how it is handled, but there is a well-understood alternative.
- DSCR rental loan using appraisal-based rent DSCR loans commonly allow a market-rent appraisal in place of a signed lease specifically because not every acquisition or refinance has one at closing.
- Assuming a signed lease is always required That assumption is not published as a universal rule by any lender in this directory, and a market-rent appraisal is a recognized alternative for exactly this situation.
Lenders in the directory
No lender here publishes a rule for this
This is an underwriting judgment, not a published threshold. None of the 37 lenders in the directory states a policy on it, so there is no honest way to build a shortlist — and a list computed only from which products a lender writes would tell you nothing you could act on.
What matters here is how the file is presented rather than which lender receives it. The sections below cover that. When you are ready to approach lenders, the directory shows what each one does publish, with the date it was verified.
Why "no lease" is common, not exotic
An investor buying a vacant property to rent, or refinancing a unit currently between tenants, does not have a lease to hand a lender at closing. This is a routine part of the DSCR market, not an edge case, which is why an alternative to using the lease as the rent source exists in the first place.
What replaces the lease
A market-rent appraisal — commonly on a Form 1007 rent schedule — estimates what the property would rent for based on comparable properties, and DSCR underwriting commonly uses that figure in place of an actual lease when one does not exist. See the dedicated scenario on Form 1007 versus a lease for more detail on how that appraisal works.
Why this is not published as a lender-by-lender checklist item
Whether a specific lender accepts appraisal-based rent, and under what conditions, is a matter of underwriting policy rather than a figure like a credit score or DSCR floor that gets published as a stored criterion. That is why this page matches on the DSCR product generally rather than filtering a roster on lease status.
What to expect at closing
Some lenders may use the lower of the appraised market rent and any pending or executed lease once available, or apply a vacancy factor to the appraisal figure. Confirming the specific treatment before closing avoids a surprise DSCR recalculation.
What to have ready
- A recent comparable-rent appraisal or willingness to order one
- Any pending lease application or listing activity, if the unit is actively being marketed
- A realistic vacancy assumption if the property has been sitting empty
Questions
Do I need a signed lease to get a DSCR loan?
What is a Form 1007?
Will my DSCR be calculated differently with an appraisal instead of a lease?
Terms used on this page
- Form 1007 (Single-Family Comparable Rent Schedule) — Form 1007 is a one-page appraisal addendum, ordered alongside the standard appraisal on a one-unit property, in which the appraiser identifies comparable rentals and reconciles them to a single opinion of the property’s market rent.
- Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) — DSCR is a property’s gross monthly rent divided by its total monthly mortgage payment. A DSCR of 1.00 means the rent exactly covers the payment; 1.25 means rent exceeds the payment by 25%.
- Market Rent vs. Actual Rent — Market rent is an appraiser’s opinion of what a comparable unit should currently rent for. Actual rent is the contract rent stated in an existing lease. The two frequently differ, and which one a lender uses to qualify a loan depends on the lender’s policy.